Trending: A Principles-Based Approach To US Financial Regs

Law360
10 minute read | March.24.2015

While the United States has traditionally utilized rules-based policies, there has been a recent trend toward integrating principles-based policies and behavioral economics in regulating consumer financial products. For a framework of applying behavioral economics- and principles-based regulations, U.S. regulators, such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, need look no further than across the pond.

Early adopters of principles-based and behavioral economics-guided policies have been the Financial Conduct Authority, which regulates financial products in the United Kingdom, and its jurisdictional predecessor, the Financial Services Authority. Indeed, the FSA’s enforcement actions in the U.K. credit card add-on industry foreshadowed similar actions in the U.S. by the CFPB. The FCA’s recent regulatory proposals governing aftermarket automotive financial products, combined with the CFPB’s recent investigatory focus on similar products, suggest that the U.K. experience may be instrumental in anticipating developments here.

Originally printed in Law360; reprinted with permission.

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Authors

Manley Williams Partner, Financial & Fintech Advisory, Strategic Advisory & Government Enforcement (SAGE)

Washington, D.C.

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D:+1 202 349 8060
E: [email protected]

Practice:

Financial & Fintech Advisory
Strategic Advisory & Government Enforcement (SAGE)
Fintech

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Manley Williams Partner

Washington, D.C.

Manley has extensive experience working with clients to develop credit programs, simplify credit agreements, adapt procedures for online and mobile environments, and implement, improve and amend customer rewards programs. She also helps companies sell their products over time, whether traditional banks with credit cards, online lenders with installment loans, startups with charge cards or merchants with installment plans. She helps companies navigate the federal and state law governing credit, licensing, prohibitions on unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practices (UDAAP) and limitations on lending to the military and compliance with antidiscrimination laws.

She helps institutions evaluate fair lending issues in judgmental underwriting, advises financial institutions where to locate their card issuing banks to benefit from state laws on the exportation of interest rates and assists merchants and emerging companies with implementing their credit programs. Manley assists lenders in revising and refining key operational processes, disclosures and customer agreements necessitated by changing legal standards. She also conducts training for in-house counsel on legal developments in the credit card industry, including compliance with emerging UDAAP standards.

Prior to joining Orrick, Manley was a partner at Buckley LLP. She was also counsel with Wilmer Cutler Pickering, Hale and Dorr LLP, and a staff attorney at the Federal Reserve Board’s (FRB) Legal Division and Division of Consumer and Community Affairs, where she advised financial institutions on compliance with regulations including Regulations Z (Truth in Lending Act (TILA)), B (Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA)), E (Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA)), and CC (Availability of Funds and Collection of Checks).

Manley organizes and hosts card roundtables at which industry leaders discuss emerging issues in a congenial environment. She has a particular interest in financial literacy and is a frequent presenter at public schools in the greater Washington, D.C., area, instructing students and teachers in understanding and using credit and debit cards, mobile phone plans and other common consumer credit vehicles.