On December 21, an online lending fintech agreed to a stipulated final judgment with the CFPB to resolve a complaint alleging that the company deceived consumers and violated the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (“ECOA”) (we discussed this complaint in an earlier Consumer Finance & FinTech Blog post here). The stipulated final judgment prohibits the company from making new loans, collecting on outstanding loans to harmed consumers, selling consumer information, and making misrepresentations when providing loans or collecting debt or helping others that do so. The company also agreed to a $40,500,000 suspended monetary judgment, and a $100,000 civil penalty based on its limited ability to pay.
The complaint alleged that the company had made misrepresentations to consumers by advertising that borrowers who repaid loans on time and took free online courses would receive lower interest rates on future loans and access to larger loan amounts.