By: Anthony L. Nguyen 

The Federal Reserve is seeking public comment on proposed guidelines to regulate financial technology companies’ access to The Fed’s payment systems. The Fed has proposed guidelines to evaluate access requests from these “novel types of banking charters” with a “transparent and consistent process.”

According to Federal Reserve Board Governor Lael Brainard, the proposed guidelines intend to promote “a safe, efficient, inclusive, and innovative payment system, consumer protection, and the safety and soundness of the banking system."

Public comments will be accepted for 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.

By: Anthony L. Nguyen and Jeremy M. Creelan

On April 27, 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), through its acting Chairwoman, testified before the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce to support proposed legislation that would revive FTC’s ability to seek restitution and disgorgement on behalf of consumers harmed by violations of the FTC Act of law.

From the 1980s until recently, the FTC took the position that Section 13(b) of the FTC Act, which permits injunctive relief, also authorized it to seek restitution, disgorgement, and other equitable monetary relief. FTC Testimony at 2. The FTC used Section 13(b) to reclaim and refund billions of dollars on behalf of consumers in various types of cases, including telemarketing, fraud, anticompetitive pharmaceutical practices, data security and privacy, scams that target seniors and veterans, deceptive business practices, and COVID-related scams. Id. at 1.

Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, acting Chairwoman of the FTC, testified that “the Supreme Court ruled that courts can no longer award refunds to consumers in FTC cases brought under 13(b), reversing four decades of case law that the Commission has used to provide billions of dollars of refunds to harmed consumers.” Id. She testified that in AMG Capital Management, LLC v. FTC (as discussed in this blog post), the Supreme Court “held that equitable monetary relief such as restitution or disgorgement is not authorized by the text of Section 13(b).” Id. at 3. She also noted that other appellate courts had reached similar conclusions. For example, she noted that the Seventh Circuit had held that “the word ‘injunction’ in the statute allows only behavioral restrictions and not monetary remedies.” Id. (citing FTC v. Credit Bureau Center, LLC, 937 F.3d 764 (7th Cir. 2019)). And she noted that the Third Circuit had reversed an award of “$448 million meant to repay overcharged consumers” because it found that the order exceeded the authority provided by the FTC Act. Id. (citing FTC v. AbbVie Inc., 976 F.3d 327 (3d Cir. 2020)).