On August 7, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced in a policy statement that it will no longer pursue claims based on disparate impact or a theory of “unfair discrimination.” In the press release announcing the statement, the agency said it lacks the statutory authority to bring disparate impact claims under either the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) or Section 5 of the FTC Act, …
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NYDFS Issues Real-Time Alert on Software Exploitation
On August 11, 2026, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) issued an Industry Letter notifying its covered entities about an ongoing cybersecurity campaign targeting a known vulnerability in a monitoring and management software for managed service providers (MSPs) and IT departments. The vendor that provides the software published an update on August 10 informing its customers of the incident and providing further information …
OCC and FDIC Jointly Propose Changes to Community Reinvestment Act Regulations
On July 31, 2026, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) proposed amendments to their regulations implementing the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), a Civil Rights-era anti-redlining law. The agencies’ proposal follows a winding regulatory and litigation history to amend CRA regulations. Most recently, the agencies issued final rules amending the CRA in 2023, which subsequently were …
NYDFS Proposes Rules to Enact Buy Now, Pay Later Statute
On July 15, 2026, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) issued a formal notice of proposed rulemaking to implement the New York Buy-Now-Pay-Later Act (BNPLA), enacted in May 2025. The first-of-its-kind legislation to regulate buy now, pay later (BNPL) products, the BNPLA will go into effect after the adoption of NYDFS regulations. The proposed rulemaking comes on the heels of a July 2025 …
Bank Regulators Push to Roll Back Anti-Redlining Standards
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) are expected to propose sweeping changes to the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 (CRA) in the coming weeks – reportedly without the involvement of the Federal Reserve. While not formally confirmed, the OCC and FDIC are set to release a proposal that would raise the threshold for banks subject to …
Agencies Issue Guidance on Lending to Persons Not Authorized to Work in US
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) recently jointly issued guidance reminding supervised financial institutions of their existing credit risk management obligations to borrowers who are not legally authorized to work in the United States (non-work-authorized borrowers). The guidance follows a recent White House executive order directing financial regulators to address risks “posed …
Key Financial Services Provisions in the ROAD to Housing Act
On July 11, 2026, the bipartisan 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act (act) automatically became law after President Donald Trump neither vetoed nor signed the law into effect. While the act is primarily aimed at increasing the nation’s housing supply, thereby making home ownership more affordable, it contains a number of provisions of direct consequence to financial institutions: a prohibition on large institutional investor purchases …
CFPB Seeks Input on Potential Reforms to Mortgage Disclosure Rules, Rescission Rights
On July 9, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published a request for information (RFI) seeking public comment on proposed changes to the mortgage origination framework to improve credit availability and reduce compliance burdens for financial institutions. The RFI was issued pursuant to Executive Order 14393, “Promoting Access to Mortgage Credit” (March 13, 2026), which states that recent statutory and regulatory changes have limited access …
CFPB Reboots Customer Complaint System
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced several major updates to its consumer complaint portal. These updates build on prior changes to the CFPB portal and aim to address what the CFPB described as a “plague [of] issues that severely limit” the effectiveness and utility of the portal. The changes The CFPB announced seven changes to the system: Clarifying closure definition for consistency As companies’ …
OCC Clarifies NBA Preemption: State Money Transmitter Licenses Not Required for National Banks
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued an interpretive letter confirming that the National Bank Act (NBA) preempts state money transmitter licensing requirements as applied to national banks, regardless of whether the bank satisfies a state law exemption from the licensing requirement. The letter affirms settled doctrine in restating the OCC’s position that states are not permitted to require national banks to …