On February 4, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) released an Invitation for Comments on a proposed rulemaking to implement the California Consumer Financial Protection law (CCFPL). As previously covered by InfoBytes, in September 2020, the governor signed AB 1864, which enacts the CCFPL and established the DFPI name change from the Department of Business Oversight. The CCFPL authorizes the DFPI to establish rules relating to the covered persons, service providers, and consumer financial products or services outlined in the law. The invitation for comments describes specific topics for stakeholder consideration when providing comments, but the DFPI notes that commenters may provide feedback on “any potential area for rulemaking.”
Highlights of the topics for comment include:
- Exemptions. Whether or not the DFPI should clarify the scope of the entities exempt from CCFPL.
- Registration Requirements. What industries should be required to first register with the DFPI and what rules should be established to facilitate industry oversight, including records and reporting requirements.
- Complaint Handling. What requirements the DFPI should establish with regard to timely responses to consumer complaints and inquiries, including timelines and substance of response.
- Consumer UUDAAP. Description of acts or practices that stakeholders believe qualify as “unlawful, unfair, deceptive, or abusive” in consumer transactions, including suggested “requirements the DFPI should adopt to prevent the act or practice.”
- Commercial UDAAP and Data Collection. Description of acts or practices that stakeholders believe qualify as unfair, deceptive, and abusive in the commercial space, and whether or not the DFPI should define specific acts or practices as unfair, deceptive, or abusive. Additionally, whether or not the DFPI should require the collection and reporting of commercial financing data.
- Disclosures. Whether or not the DFPI should prescribe rules covering the features of consumer financing disclosures and if so, what the requirements should cover.
- California Credit Cost Limitations. Whether or not the DFPI should clarify the applicability of state credit cost limitations, including rate and fee caps, to consumer financial products and services.
Comments must be submitted by March 8.
This content originally appeared in the InfoBytes blog, a collection of news and alerts covering legal and regulatory developments for the financial services industry. To read more or have the InfoBytes weekly newsletter delivered to your inbox, please visit infobytesblog.com.