Today, AFSA and the Consumer Credit Industry Association (CCIA) joined together in an amicus brief emphasizing the importance of federalism and the separation of powers enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.
The case, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, et.al. v. Mariner Finance, is in the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The suit, brought by five attorneys general (AGs) argues that the defendants violated the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) and seeks nationwide relief.
The trades’ emphasize that: (1) the CFPA does not authorize states to bring individual or collective nationwide enforcement actions, (2) the AGs lawsuit violates CFPB enforcement provisions established by Congress, and (3) the AGs can’t seek civil penalties under the CFPA because those remedies are only available to the CFPB, not the states.
Krieg DeVault, the trades’ counsel, wrote, “AFSA and CCIA members devote considerable time, energy, and resources to complying with the regulatory structures of the various states as well as federal laws. Allowing one state to impose its policy and enforcement decisions on another state that had previously taken a different approach would leave AFSA or CCIA members and their customers to guess at which state’s edicts they should follow. The result would be ambiguity at best and chaos at worst, resulting in fewer consumer products and services. Overturning the CFPA enforcement structure (as this case would) will have significant and wide-ranging impacts on AFSA and CCIA members and could adversely affect existing and future transactions with their customers.”