News By Edition

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s recent report examining federal and state-level privacy protections for consumer financial data noted in many states, privacy protections for financial information lag behind safeguards in other sectors of the economy.

The bureau urged state policymakers to assess the gaps in their data privacy laws and consider amending their laws.

Two Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) commissioners issued a dissenting opinion related to the SEC’s decision to charge four current and former public companies for making misleading disclosures regarding cybersecurity risks and intrusions on their company following the 2019-2020 SolarWinds Orion hack.

Two real estate developers each signed an agreement to buy the same property from the same seller. Through a series of circumstances, one developer ended up with the title. The second developer sued the first developer and the seller. The district court dismissed all claims by the plaintiff, who then appealed.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued a 60-day notice in the Federal Register giving the public the opportunity to comment on the form that will be used to report information under the final residential real estate rule.

The Texas Land Title Association requested the Texas Department of Insurance commissioner hold a public hearing to consider title insurance premium rates.

A new insurance product launched in Sacramento, Calif., is being made available to help homebuyers using VA loans.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury issued a final rule significantly expanding its ability to review certain real estate transactions by foreign persons near more than 60 military bases and installations across 30 states.

Of the 10 elections for state attorneys general (AG) on Nov. 5, six of them resulted in a new AG.

Voters in Montana and Washington elected new state insurance commissioners on Nov. 5, and voters in Delaware, North Carolina and North Dakota reelected incumbents.

October Research will attend the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) Fall 2024 National Meeting next week. Submit your questions for NAIC to The Legal Description by Friday.

The acting commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance was sworn in as the department’s commissioner by Gov. Phil Murphy.

A Rhode Island mortgage broker admitted to a federal judge that he misappropriated more than $1.5 million of investors’ funds by using the money to repay earlier investors, support his own investment opportunities, and to cover personal expenses.

The purchaser of a Montana subdivision lot had high hopes for building on the land, but an unrecorded easement – and questions about whether it should have been disclosed in the purchase agreement – sank the project. 

The Pennsylvania General Assembly passed a bill amending the Insurance Department Act of 1921 regarding the powers and duties of the department and insurance producer licensing.

Doug Duncan, senior vice president and former chief economist at Fannie Mae, provided a look into the latest trends and projections for the housing market in October Research’s final installment of its “2024 Economic Forecast Series” webinar series.

The Ohio Department of Insurance is accepting comments on proposed changes to the procedures and requirements related to the licensing and appointment of insurance agents in the state and the identification of lines of authority eligible for limited lines licenses.

A Nigerian man was sentenced to more than 26 years in prison for conning prospective homeowners out of down payments using an email phishing and spoofing attack on title and real estate companies to then intercept wire payment instructions, change the information, and resend the emails via spoofed email addresses that mimicked the original senders’ addresses. 

A Texas federal court delivered mixed rulings to parties accused of engaging in unlawful conduct surrounding the departure of former employees of a title company to join a competitor.

The White House released a national security memorandum offering direction to government agencies on “appropriately harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) models and AI-enabled technology,” while protecting human rights, privacy, and safety.

A federal court in the eastern district of Pennsylvania considered a consumer’s plea to invalidate a fraudulent loan taken out under her name by a scammer posing as a credit union employee.

The credit union, while sympathetic toward her plight, moved to dismiss the action, stating her claim lies with the scammer, not the lender.

Fannie Mae’s Mortgage Lender Sentiment Survey asked lenders about opportunities to simplify and standardize closing costs and where they believed costs could be reduced.

The Federal Communication Commission’s Privacy and Data Protection Task Force signed a memorandum of understanding with the California Privacy Protection Agency establishing a federal-state partnership on privacy, data protection, and cybersecurity enforcement.

The Louisiana Department of Insurance updated the standards used by the insurance commissioner to identify insurers in such condition as to render the continuance of their business hazardous to their policyholders, creditors or the general public.