The Consumer Finance Podcast

In this crossover episode of The Consumer Finance Podcast and Payments Pros , Jason Cover is joined by colleagues Erin Edwards , Joe DeFazio , and Dave Gettings to discuss litigation trends in earned wage access (EWA). The conversation begins with an overview of the employer-partnered and direct-to-consumer EWA models and the market's rapid growth. It then turns to the Consumer Financial Protectio...

In this episode of The Consumer Finance Podcast , partner and guest host Stefanie Jackman welcomes Corafone co-founders Aman Mender and Adrian Ferrante-Bannera for a candid conversation about the growing role of AI in collections. The discussion covers the division of responsibilities between AI and human collectors, along with the considerations that can shape those boundaries, specifically addre...

In this episode of The Consumer Finance Podcast , host Chris Willis is joined by Stephen Hayes, co-managing partner of Relman Colfax, to discuss targeted digital advertising, an unsettled area of fair lending. They examine where nonmortgage lenders stand today and under a future administration, the drift of ad models into underwriting and pricing, lessons from Fair Housing Act cases and settlement...

In this crossover episode of The Consumer Finance Podcast and Payments Pros , Taylor Gess is joined by colleagues Jason Cover and Carlin McCrory for another installment of the "Point-of-Sale Finance" series. The conversation turns to the payment products that sit alongside credit at the point of sale: deposit accounts, debit cards, prepaid cards, digital wallets, and gift cards. They explain why t...

In this episode of The Consumer Finance Podcast , host Chris Willis is joined by partners Erin Edwards , Jason Manning , and Joe DeFazio , along with special guest Matt Brooks , a partner in Troutman Pepper Locke's Bankruptcy + Restructuring practice, to talk about the resurgence of both residential and commercial foreclosures in 2026 and what it means for financial services companies. Erin kicks...

In this special crossover episode of The Consumer Finance Podcast and Regulatory Oversight , Chris Willis , Stefanie Jackman , and Mike Yaghi discuss California Governor Gavin Newsom's appointment of former CFPB Director Rohit Chopra to lead the state's newly created Business and Consumer Services Agency (BCSA). The group discusses Chopra's oversight of the Department of Financial Protection and I...

In this episode of The Consumer Finance Podcast , host Chris Willis is joined by litigation partners Massie Cooper and Kalama Lui-Kwan to unpack the rapidly evolving world of mass arbitration and the recent developments reshaping how these disputes are filed, administered, and resolved. Massie and Kalama trace mass arbitration's origins as a response to class action waivers, then break down how th...

In this episode of The Consumer Finance Podcast , host Chris Willis is joined by insurance regulatory and transactions partners Brian Casey and John Emmanuel to introduce Troutman Pepper Locke's insurance regulatory practice and explore where insurance law and consumer finance regulation intersect. Brian and John walk through the growing world of "embedded insurance," where insurance or insurance-...

In this episode of the " Point-of-Sale Finance " series, Jason Cover is joined by colleagues Erin Edwards and Simon Fleischmann from Troutman Pepper Locke's Consumer Financial Services practice to shift the lens from regulatory compliance to litigation risk. The conversation broadens the frame beyond Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) to the full point-of-sale credit ecosystem (Pay in 4 products, embedded...

In this episode of The Consumer Finance Podcast , host Chris Willis is joined by colleague Kim Phan to break down the proposed regulations recently released by the Colorado attorney general (AG) under the Automated Decision-Making Technology (ADMT) Act, Colorado's newly amended AI statute, and explain why the financial services industry needs to engage before these rules are finalized. Chris and K...

In this crossover edition of The Consumer Finance Podcast   and Moving the Metal: The Auto Finance Podcast , hosts Chris Willis , Brooke Conkle , and Chris Capurso break down the FTC's policy statement abandoning disparate impact enforcement under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and Section 5 of the FTC Act. The group traces the reversal to two key drivers — a reassessment of the FTC's statu...

In this episode of The Consumer Finance Podcast , host Chris Willis is joined by colleagues Stefanie Jackman and Brian Hays to discuss the Seventh Circuit's landmark July 2026 ruling in Steidinger v. Blackstone Medical Services , a unanimous decision holding that text messages do not qualify as "telephone calls" under § 227(c)(5) of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), eliminating a priva...

In this crossover episode of The Consumer Finance Podcast and Moving the Metal , Jason Cover is joined by colleagues Brooke Conkle and Chris Capurso from Troutman Pepper Locke's Consumer Financial Services practice to tackle a topic that has been notably absent from the point-of-sale finance series until now — auto finance. As the largest point-of-sale purchase most consumers will ever make, auto...

In this episode of The Consumer Finance Podcast , host Chris Willis sits down with Partners Joseph DeFazio and Joseph Froehlich to discuss the New Jersey Supreme Court's ruling in Diana , a unanimous ruling and long-awaited victory for debt buyers operating in New Jersey. At the center of the conversation is a high-volume litigation campaign waged by the Kim Law Firm, which targeted the chain of t...

In this special crossover episode of The Consumer Finance Podcast and Hiring to Firing , hosts Taylor Gess , Tracey Diamond , and Emily Schifter map out obligations hiding in plain sight for multistate financial services employers. The conversation covers crafting a legally defensible employee handbook, pay transparency complexities, and wage and hour classification risks. Together, they deliver g...

In this solo episode of The Consumer Finance Podcast , Chris Willis , co-leader of Troutman Pepper Locke's Consumer Financial Services Regulatory practice, walks through the recent wave of federal regulatory guidance addressing the role of immigration status in consumer lending and explains why the practical impact on lenders may be far more limited than the public discourse suggests. Chris breaks...

In this crossover episode of The Consumer Finance Podcast and Payments Pros , Taylor Gess is joined by colleagues James Stevens and Sarah Hanna from Troutman Pepper Locke's Corporate and Consumer Financial Services practices to discuss the surge of interest among fintech and point-of-sale finance companies in obtaining bank charters, acquiring existing banks, and forming bank partnerships. With th...

In this crossover episode of The Consumer Finance Podcast and Regulatory Oversight , Taylor Gess is joined by colleagues Michael Yaghi and Lane Page from Troutman Pepper Locke's State AG and Regulatory Investigations, Strategy + Enforcement practice groups to discuss the hottest areas of state regulatory activity in the point-of-sale space. With federal consumer protection enforcement pulling back...

In this third installment of the special series on servicemember protections, Chris Willis is joined by colleagues Taylor Gess and Jeremy Sairsingh to explore the non-pricing protections under the Military Lending Act (MLA) and the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA). The discussion covers the MLA's disclosure and delivery requirements, including the written and oral disclosure obligations that...

In this episode of The Consumer Finance Podcast , Chris Willis is joined by Erin Edwards and Simon Fleischmann to break down the most significant trends reshaping the consumer finance class action landscape. With a 25% year-over-year increase in federal class action filings and consumer protection claims leading the charge, the stakes are getting higher for financial services companies. The trio c...

In this second installment of the special series on servicemember protections, Chris Willis is joined again by colleagues Taylor Gess and Jeremy Sairsingh to explore how the Military Lending Act (MLA) and the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) impose pricing restrictions that are far more complex than a standard state usury cap, and why that complexity must be accounted for at the product desi...

In this episode of The Consumer Finance Podcast , Chris Willis sits down with Jason Cover and Colin Wilson to discuss the evolving world of auto-renewal and subscription compliance, including the FTC's click-to-cancel rule, its Eighth Circuit setback, and the states racing to fill the gap. They also spotlight a first-of-its-kind municipal rule proposed by New York City and explain why, even in a d...

In this kickoff episode of a special series on servicemember protections for The Consumer Finance Podcast , Chris Willis is joined by colleagues Taylor Gess and Jeremy Sairsingh to unpack the fundamentals of the Military Lending Act (MLA) and the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) — two laws that remain top enforcement priorities for federal regulators. They explain how these laws are rooted i...

In this special crossover episode of The Consumer Finance and Payments Pros podcasts, Carlin McCrory , Keith Barnett , and Chris Willis explore the federal government's increasing attention to "debanking" and what it means for payment processors, money transmitters, banks, and other financial services providers. They discuss recent federal initiatives and agency activity that have heightened scrut...

In this episode of The Consumer Finance Podcast , Chris Willis and Kim Phan unpack Colorado's brand-new Automated Decision-Making Technology (ADMT) Act, which repeals and replaces the state's much-criticized 2024 AI law. They explain the shift from "high-risk AI systems" to the broader ADMT framework, what it means for consequential decisions in lending and financial services, and how the statute'...