Primary Sources

This is a February 2024 brief before the Ninth Circuit where a homeowner is appealing a federal district court decision concerning the homeowner’s legal claims against a home equity “investment” lender, and whether the transaction is a reverse mortgage loan under Washington law covered by statutes applicable to reverse mortgage loans.  The brief was submitted by Beth Terrell, Blythe Chandler, and Elizabeth Adams of the Seattle firm of Terrell Marshall Law Group PLLC and by Matthew Wessler and Thomas Scott-Railton of the Washington DC firm of Gupta Wessler LLP, and Josep

This is a January 2025 CFPB Amicus Brief in Roberts v. Unlock Partnership Solutions, filed in the federal district court in New Jersey on behalf of neither party.  The court directed the parties to brief whether the plaintiff ‘s Truth in Lending Act (TILA) claim is time barred.

This January 2025 CFPB Consumer Advisory highlights issues with consumer understanding of Home Equity Investment Loans, including that the companies may not provide standard disclosures or comply with laws protecting consumers when taking out a mortgage.  It also describes pitfalls—the loans are expensive, the homeowner may have to sell the home if unable to repay the loan all at once, and a lien will be placed on the home.  The advisory also lists where homeowners can get help.

This January 2025 CFPB press release announces three different actions that the CFPB took on January 15, 2025 regarding home equity investment loans, with links to those actions—a consumer advisory highlighting problems with these loans, a market overview describing the loans, and an amicus brief arguing that these “investments” are mortgage loans within the scope of the Truth in Lending Act.

This January 2025 CFPB market overview examines home equity contracts—often called home equity “investments” (HEIs), a relatively new financial product in which homeowners get an upfront payment and, in exchange, must repay a single lump-sum repayment in the future that is based, in part, on the home’s value. Key findings include: 

Guidance about using TANF funds to support families facing an economic crisis as a result of EBT theft.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) issues this Compliance Bulletin to provide guidance to covered persons and service providers regarding fee assessments for pay-by-phone services (phone pay fees) and the potential for violations of sections 1031 and 1036 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act’s (Dodd-Frank Act) prohibition on engaging in unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices (collectively, UDAAPs) when assessing phone pay fees. 

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) published ‘‘Debt Collection Practices (Regulation F)’’ on January 19, 2021, to revise Regulation F, which implements the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Omissions in that document resulted in certain paragraphs in the Official Interpretations (Commentary) not being incorporated into the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). This document corrects the Official Interpretations to Regulation F by adding the missing paragraphs to the CFR.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is seeking comments on proposed amendments to its regulation governing parent companies of industrial banks and industrial loan companies. This regulation, which was adopted in December 2020, requires certain conditions and written commitments in situations that would result in an industrial bank or industrial loan company becoming a subsidiary of a company that is not subject to consolidated supervision by the Federal Reserve Board.