Venable of counsel Jonathan Pompan was quoted in a July 30, 2012 Law360 article on the potential for tougher regulations on prepaid-cards. On Monday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) urged the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to move forward with a proposal soliciting information about the expense and benefits of enhancing protections related to prepaid-cards. The proposed regulations are expected to mirror those currently in place for checking accounts with an attached debit card.
Commenting on the proposed regulations, Pompan "pointed out that not only do the regulators agree on the approach to policing this space, consumer groups share their view." Pompan noted that the approach by the CFPB is significant because it has tended to favor enforcing existing regulations over enacting new ones in its first year of existence. "It's significant that the CFPB has chosen to go down the regulatory path and not simply the investigation and enforcement path that it appears to be doing in other areas and that has also been the FTC's [strategy]," said Pompan. "This may very well go down as one of its earliest regulatory moves."