May courts look beyond the face of a loan transaction to identify the “true lender”? In a lawsuit filed by California’s financial regulator, a California state court recently answered yes, finding that a fact-intensive inquiry into the “substance” of a loan transaction was necessary to determine who the “true lender”
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Fintech Lawsuit Highlights True Lender Risk for Bank Partnership Lending Model
In the wake of rulings upholding federal regulators’ “valid when made” rules, a new lawsuit serves as a reminder that state regulators and class-action plaintiffs’ lawyers may continue to challenge the bank partnership lending model under the “true lender” doctrine.
In early March, the fintech OppFi filed suit to stop
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A Closer Look: Federal Court Upholds OCC’s & FDIC’s Valid-When-Made Rules
Delivering a significant win for the financial services industry, a California federal judge upheld “valid when made” rules promulgated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in California v. OCC, No. 4:20-cv-05200 (N.D. Cal. Feb. 8, 2022) and California
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Congress Repeals the OCC’s True Lender Rule
On June 30, President Biden signed into law a joint resolution to repeal the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (OCC) so-called true lender rule. The rule was repealed under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), which allows Congress to repeal new federal regulations by passing a joint resolution of disapproval that must be later signed by the president. Federal regulations repealed under the CRA are treated as if they had never gone into effect.
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