The American Financial Services Association is pleased to welcome Sarah Bloom Raskin to the 2019 AFSA Annual Meeting in Nashville, Tenn. Attendees will enjoy an exclusive interactive question and answer session with insights on the current economic climate, her outlook on the future, and her unique perspective on a variety of other important issues.

This week, AFSA’s State Government Affairs team submitted a letter to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo urging him to veto SB 4019, which would remove liability for the early termination of a lease in the event of a lessee’s death.

A U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit by state regulators challenging the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's (OCC) fintech charter. The Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS) contends the OCC lacks the authority to grant the tailored charter. Federal Judge Dabney Friedrich's decision echoes her May 2018 ruling in the same matter.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released on Tuesday, September 3rd the results of a pilot study called Planning for Tax-time Savings. Conducted in conjunction with H&R Block, the study found that simple messages encouraging customers to use the saving feature on their prepaid tax- refund credit card that is provided by tax-preparation firms, increases the likelihood that consumers would actually use the savings option.

With 25% of aftermarket products cancelled before loan terms end, and 46 states mandating lenders process refunds in a timely and accurate manner, what are you doing to stay compliant?Join us on September 12 at 2 p.m. ET for Mitigating Risks with F&I Aftermarket Products & Cancellations presented by Dealertrack Lending Solutions.Federal and state regulators have intensified their examination of auto lending practices relating to F&I products. Several public cases have shown the reputational risk faced by lenders when F&I product cancellation refunds to consumers are not handled properly.REGISTER

AFSA this week submitted a comment letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on its Third Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on methods to eliminate illegal robocalls. The association’s comment letter reinforced an earlier multi-trade comment letter that encouraged the FCC to not implement policies that could block legitimate, time-sensitive phone calls.

With 25% of aftermarket products cancelled before loan terms end, and 46 states mandating lenders process refunds in a timely and accurate manner, what are you doing to stay compliant?

AFSA’s State Government Affairs team sent a letter to the Commissioner of the Nevada Financial Institutions Division on SB 311 as a follow up to an in-person meeting with the division on August 22nd. Effective October 1, SB 311 would require creditors to deem an applicant with no credit history to have identical credit history to a spouse’s or former spouse’s credit established during a marriage. While AFSA supports measures that responsibly expand consumers’ ability to access appropriate credit, AFSA expressed concern that provisions of SB 311 appear to be legally unworkable as both the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) preempt state law. In the letter, AFSA requested that the commissioner issue a notice of non-enforcement and seek an opinion from the Attorney General on the preemption issues raised by the law.

AFSA will be making important IT infrastructure upgrades beginning at 6:00 a.m. ET on Wednesday, August 28. The AFSA website and social media accounts will not be impacted. However, AFSA staff will have intermittent access to their workstations and email accounts while the upgrades take place. We expect to complete the process by Noon on the 28th.

The AFSA Annual Meeting is right around the corner, and we are pleased to announce that The Wall Street Journal‘s Jason Riley will be a keynote speaker to our attendees.