The Supreme Court yesterday took an important step toward resolving the growing uncertainty over the scope of National Bank Act preemption. In an order issued October 5, the Court invited the Solicitor General to file briefs expressing the views of the United States in three cases involving state laws requiring national banks to pay interest on mortgage escrow accounts: Cantero v.… Continue Reading

On September 29, President Trump brought together many of the leading executives in artificial intelligence for a White House meeting focused on the risks associated with increasingly powerful “frontier” AI systems. The meeting produced a one-page document entitled the “White House Accord on Super Intelligence, Joint Commitment on Frontier Responsibilities.”… Continue Reading

The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) has taken its long-running opposition to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s (OCC) chartering of cryptocurrency companies to the courts.

On October 2, ICBA filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the OCC and Comptroller Jonathan Gould, challenging the OCC’s authority to charter non-depository, non-fiduciary cryptocurrency companies as national trust banks.… Continue Reading

Summary

On October 1, 2026, Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Department of Justice (DOJ) National Fraud Enforcement Division issued Directive 26-12 on corporate enforcement. The directive identifies four priority areas and instructs prosecutors to give “great weight” to a non-exhaustive list of factors in determining whether to bring charges and in negotiating plea or other agreements.… Continue Reading

The SpaceX IPO generated enormous attention for obvious reasons. It was the largest IPO in history, and the company’s stock price initially surged after trading began. But an important legal development associated with the IPO has received considerably less attention: SpaceX adopted an unusually comprehensive shareholder dispute-resolution regime (the “Regime”) in its bylaws.… Continue Reading

Judge Aiken Holds That “Combined Earnings” Means Federal Reserve Revenue, Not Profit

In a September 25, 2026, decision, Judge Ann Aiken of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon became the third federal district judge to reject the Office of Legal Counsel’s interpretation of the statutory mechanism Congress established to fund the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.… Continue Reading

In an important September 22 decision, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois expanded its prior rulings concerning the Illinois Interchange Fee Prohibition Act (“IFPA”) to federal credit unions. The court granted the Illinois Bankers Association’s motion for partial reconsideration and held that the IFPA’s limitation on interchange fees (Interchange Fee Limitation) charged on the tax and gratuities portions of payment card transactions is preempted under the Federal Credit Union Act (FCUA) as applied to federal credit unions.… Continue Reading

When Rohit Chopra left the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau earlier this year, there was considerable speculation about what he would do next. In May, Governor Gavin Newsom provided the answer: Chopra would become the inaugural Secretary of California’s newly created Business & Consumer Services Agency (BCSA).

Chopra was sworn in on July 1.… Continue Reading

The FDIC has proposed a rule interpreting Section 24(j) of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act, enacted as part of The Riegle-Neal Interstate Branching and Banking Efficiency Act of 1994, to provide parity between out-of-State state and national banks insofar as preempting host state laws even when the out-of-state, state bank provides services in a host State without maintaining a physical branch.… Continue Reading

Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming consumer financial services, and consumer debt collection is no exception. AI already is being used in a variety of first-party and third-party consumer debt collection activities, ranging from account scoring and communication strategies to payment-plan optimization and compliance monitoring.

In our Consumer Finance Monitor podcast show being released today, our special guest John McNamara, Chief Growth Officer at Avtal (a fintech and software as a service (SAS) company that provides an AI-powered, white-labeled digital engagement platform to help third-party consumer debt collection agencies automate communication and process self-service payments) and  a former CFPB senior official who played a significant role in developing Regulation F promulgated under the Federal Debt Collection Practices Act explained that the debt collection industry needs to distinguish genuine AI applications from the marketing hype surrounding the technology.… Continue Reading