insideARM Weekly Recap- Week of May 6th, 2024

We at insideARM know how difficult it is to sift through every piece of news in the ARM industry to make sure you don’t miss anything significant. That is why we do it every week, so you don’t have to! The news from last week included another state passing a data privacy bill, an overview of the CFPB’s activity for the month of April, and the CFPB’s involvement in state legislatures regarding medical debt. Make your job a little easier, and keep reading for a synopsis of the articles you need to see and why.

On Tuesday, we highlighted an article from Maurice Wutscher that discussed the signing of LB 1074 which makes Nebraska the 16th state to enact a data privacy law. The Nebraska Data Privacy Act, which will go into effect on January 1, 2025, applies to persons that process or sell personal data but, notably, does not apply to small businesses. Overall, the law pulls from both the Texas and California data privacy laws and strikes a nice balance between being reasonable for businesses while protecting consumers. With this being the 9th state to enact a data privacy law in the last year, this is a trend that has no sign of slowing down and those in the ARM indsutry should pay attention to this growing trend.

Wednesday’s news was a breakdown by Hudson Cook of every major action taken by the CFPB in the month of April. Director Rohit Chopra featured heavily last month as he spoke about data protection at a White House event, touched on credit cards at CBA Live, and expressed his support for a proposed bill in California that would prohibit the credit reporting of medical debt (more on that below.) The Bureau also filed several amicus briefs (one we wrote about in greater detail here), continued to fight “junk fees,” and, most notably, updated its procedural rules regarding its supervisory role over non-consenting nonbank entities. The CFPB under this administration is a great barometer for the ARM industry to watch. The more active the CFPB, the more prepared you need to be for regulatory updates and legislation.

Thursday, we brought you an in-depth article from Troutman Pepper about the CFPB showing support for bills in both Connecticut and California. Both Connecticut’s Senate Bill 395 and California’s Senate Bill 1061 look to prohibit the furnishing of medical debt to the CRAs for credit reporting purposes. In the Bureau’s letter to Connecticut Senator Matt Lesser, the CFPB mentioned both a 2022 interpretation that allows states to enact laws like this, and a 2023 CFPB rulemaking process that prohibits the use of medical debt in underwriting decisions. It is important to note both that the CFPB is taking more interest in state legislation (see also New York) and that banning credit reporting medical debt seems to be a, if not the, top priority.

Thanks again for joining us for another weekly recap. If you missed the recap for the week of April 29th it can be found here.

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