The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit is expected to hear arguments for an appeal in early 2023 in the Kirschner, v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. court case. The 2020 case held that syndicated term loans are not securities, and therefore are not subject to securities laws.

On November 7, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau filed their brief in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in the ongoing case against the National Collegiate Student Loan Trusts (NCSLT). In the brief, the CFPB defends their position that the Trusts are “covered persons” under the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) and thereby under the enforcement authority of the CFPB.

On October 19, A federal appeals court ruled that the funding structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is unconstitutional. A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the design of the CFPB violated the Constitution because it receives funding through the Federal Reserve, rather than appropriations legislation passed by Congress.

On May 3, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals granted an appeal in Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) v. The National Collegiate Master Student Loan Trusts filed by the Trust and two intervenors – Ambac, an insurer on certain Trust securities, and Transworld Systems, Inc., a servicer to the Trust who successfully intervened in the case – to review two legal findings regarding whether the Trusts are “covered persons” for the purposes of this action, and whether the CFPB failed to ratify the enforcement action before reaching the three-year statute of limitations

A new report from Moody’s Investor Service discusses the drastic effects of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. National Collegiate Master Student Loan Trust lawsuit on the securitization industry.

On February 11, the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware certified the Defendant’s motion for interlocutory appeal in Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) v. The National Collegiate Master Student Loan Trusts (NCSLT). The court certified both issues raised on appeal and stayed the case pending the decision of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals on these two questions (1) whether, under the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA), the Trusts are “covered persons” subject to the CFPB enforcement authority; and (2) whether, after Collins v. Yellen, the CFPB was required to ratify the enforcement action before the three-year statute of limitations ran out.

On February 8, judicial rulings came out on two separate cases in the Northern District of California involving rulemakings issued in 2020 by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The plaintiffs – California, Illinois, and New York – alleged the FDIC and OCC rulemakings violated the Administrative Procedure Act.

Minutes released from the Federal Reserve’s July 27-28 meeting indicate officials are nearing agreement to begin scaling back the central bank’s bond buying program before the end of this year. The Fed announced back in December 2020 that it planned to keep buying at least $120 billion in treasury and mortgage-backed securities each month to help stimulate the economy.

The Federal Reserve told a federal judge to not terminate LIBOR as requested by plaintiffs in a lawsuit, reinforcing that the ruling would pose a risk to financial stability and undermine years of global planning for a transition to alternative benchmark rates. In the federal lawsuit filed in San Francisco, plaintiffs assert the LIBOR benchmark is the work of a “price-fixing cartel.”

On August 3, the Biden Administration announced a new 60-day moratorium on home evictions. The order, issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), applies to areas with high COVID-19 cases, covers about 90% of the nation's population, and expires on October 3.