From: Financial Regulation News
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a proposal this week to amend Regulation B to provide additional flexibility for mortgage lenders concerning the collection of consumer demographic information.
Regulation B implements the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) — a federal civil rights law that protects applicants from being discriminated against by lenders.
From: The Atlantic
In September 2002, less than a year after Zacarias Moussaoui was indicted by a grand jury for his role in the 9/11 attacks, Moussaoui’s lawyers lodged an official complaint about how the government was handling digital evidence. They questioned the quality of the tools the government had used to extract data from some of the more than 200 hard drives that were submitted as evidence in the case—including one from Moussaoui’s own laptop.
From: International Business Times
By India Ashok
A US government cybersecurity contractor has reportedly fallen victim to scammers who accessed the firm’s W-2 tax data, after an employee became a target of their phishing scam. The cybercriminals allegedly got their hands on sensitive and personal data of employees, including name, social security number, address, compensation and tax withholding amounts, thanks to a targeted spear phishing email.
From: The National Law Journal
ARTICLE BY Joseph Facciponti Ruth Merisier Joseph V. Moreno | Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP
Last year’s proposed comprehensive framework for cybersecurity rules for large financial institutions is suddenly facing an uncertain future.1With the comment period having closed as of February 2017, the framework was facing criticism as unnecessary for an industry already subject to a host of federal, state, and international cybersecurity regimes. That criticism – now coupled with the Trump Administration’s general retreat from regulatory rulemaking across the board – may result in cybersecurity rules that are ultimately more limited in scope than originally envisioned, or lead to the proposed framework being abandoned altogether. In the meantime, large banks and other financial institutions must continue to comply with existing cybersecurity rules under the ever-growing scrutiny of regulators both in the United States and overseas.
From: The National Law Journal
Mike Scarcella and C. Ryan Barber, The National Law Journal
Back in October, Brett Kavanaugh, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, wrote a 101-page majority ruling assailing the “massive, unchecked” power of the single director-led Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
“Indeed, other than the president, the director of the CFPB is the single most powerful official in the entire United States government, at least when measured in terms of unilateral power,” Kavanaugh wrote in PHH v. CFPB, declaring the structure of the Obama-era agency unconstitutional.