CFPB Metrics Report Shows Increased Scrutiny of Borrower Access to Servicers, Information, and Loss Mitigation Opportunities

Tonya M. Esposito focuses her practice on a variety of consumer issues, including financial services, antitrust, and marketing and advertising. She has considerable experience representing clients in private litigation, as well as in government investigations brought by state attorneys general, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). With deep experience representing a variety of financial institutions in both litigation and compliance matters, Tonya represents clients in litigation involving claims brought under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), the state deceptive acts and practices laws (UDAAP), and many types of internal and government investigations. She regularly handles matters involving credit cards, student loans, residential and commercial mortgages, as well as privacy and FinTech issues. Tonya also represents clients in complex domestic and multinational antitrust investigations and litigation across a wide range of industries, including health care, air passenger and air cargo, higher education, TFT-LCD and CRT products, automotive parts, and rubber chemicals, as well as in complex commercial matters including class action litigation. She regularly helps clients develop and implement compliance programs, including training and policy drafting, addressing virtually all aspects of state and federal competition laws. Tonya also has deep experience representing clients in merger investigations brought by both the FTC and DOJ, as well as formulating strategies for negotiating and responding to Second Requests for information . Tonya also represents a variety of consumer products companies in investigations, substantiation proceedings, and litigation brought by the FTC, FDA, the state Attorneys General, as well as private litigants. She works with clients to develop and implement compliant marketing and advertising campaigns and also helps them defend the full scope of consumer claims brought by individual and class counsel, including the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the privacy laws, the autorenewal laws, and beyond. Tonya has considerable experience representing clients in the personal care products, cosmetics, luxury brands, weight loss and wellness companies, dietary supplements, and food manufacturer markets. As a Washington lawyer, Tonya represents companies and individuals in all phases of government and internal investigations as well as in enforcement proceedings.

Benjamin Saul is a shareholder in the firm’s Financial Regulatory and Compliance Practice. For two decades, Ben has been a trusted advisor to corporate and individual clients in the FinTech, consumer finance, specialty finance, payments, and banking sectors on high-stakes regulatory, enforcement, litigation and transactional matters. In his enforcement practice, Ben has helped clients navigate dozens of contentious supervisory, enforcement, and litigation matters involving the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and has been a leader in the private bar on CFPB matters since the Bureau’s inception in 2011. He also routinely assists clients in matters involving the FTC, DOJ, HUD, OCC, FRB, FDIC, state financial services authorities, state attorneys general, and state civil rights commissions. Ben’s enforcement matters have concerned fair lending and servicing, unfair deceptive or abusive trade practices, other federal and state consumer finance laws, payments and card network issues, AML/BSA, troubled or failed banks, fiduciary duties, financial institution fraud, leveraged lending, supervisory ratings, and other safety and soundness issues. These matters often have involved parallel proceedings by multiple enforcement agencies and private parties. In his regulatory practice, Ben has advised lenders, servicers, specialty finance companies, money services businesses, digital banks, SaaS companies, e-commerce companies and retailers, personal finance companies, and crypto and DeFi companies on product and service development, licensing and chartering, structuring and negotiating joint venture, outsourcing and bank partnership agreements, compliance program enhancement, and the applicability of federal and state financial services laws. He frequently helps clients understand how such laws map onto new technologies and innovative products. In his transactional practice, Ben has advised private equity funds, venture capital funds, hedge funds, and strategic investors on risk identification and mitigation and obtaining necessary regulatory approvals for financial services and FinTech mergers and acquisitions and other investments. He has also provided financial services and FinTech regulatory advice to issuers and underwriters of public and private securities offerings.

Anne V. Dunne focuses her practice on commercial litigation, concentrating on financial services, class action defense, government investigations, and whistleblower litigation. She handles claims in both state and federal courts on behalf of a wide range of clients, including consumer banks, financial services companies, national banks, mortgage lenders and servicers, credit card issuers, short-term lenders, student lenders, manufacturers, and large national retailers. Anne counsels clients on compliance with state and federal statutes and regulations, including TILA, FDCPA, TCPA, RESPA, ECOA, FCRA, Dodd-Frank, SOX, Chapter 93A, CUTPA, RFDCPA, and CCPA. Additionally, Anne litigates claims of trade secret misappropriation, unfair competition, and breach of restrictive covenant agreements. She also represents corporations, officers, and directors on securities litigation matters, shareholder derivative actions, and other complex commercial disputes.

Michael E. Jusczyk represents national financial institutions in escalated defensive litigation, including foreclosure-related and bankruptcy matters, and defends complaints alleging violations of state and federal financial regulation and consumer protection statutes. He appears on clients’ behalf in state and federal trial and appellate courts for proceedings at all states of litigation and guides them through the mediation and arbitration processes when appropriate. Michael advises national banks on compliance with federal and state regulations related to loan servicing, mortgage foreclosure, and loss mitigation. He also defends companies and educational institutions in FTC investigations and employment matters, including class-action suits and business-to-business contractual disputes and product liability claims, and advises clients regarding insurance coverage questions and product and food labeling requirements. Michael also maintains an active pro bono practice, working with unaccompanied minors and defending their interests in immigration court and related state proceedings in partnership with K.I.N.D. (Kids in Need of Defense).