Online lending company Oportun Financial Corp. said Tuesday that it is setting aside nearly $3 million for an expected Consumer Financial Protection Bureau settlement related to Digit, the company's recently acquired automated banking platform.
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By Shane Shifflett and Justin Scheck When Covid-19 hit the economy, most debt collectors gave borrowers a break, cutting back on lawsuits amid lockdowns, closed courts and loan-forbearance initiatives. One of the biggest and least-known companies in the industry did the opposite. Sherman Financial Group filed more lawsuits to squeeze cash from people behind on their credit-card bills. A Wall Street Journal analysis, based on the five state-court districts with searchable online records, showed Sherman had the largest year-over-year increase of any firm identified between last March 15 and Dec. 31 up 52% from the year-earlier period, compared with a 24% decline in those districts for the industry as a whole.
A unit of Oportun Financial Corp was under investigation by the U.S. consumer watchdog regarding its legal collection practices from 2019 until 2021, the financial services firm said in a regulatory filing late Thursday.
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A lender sued thousands of lower-income Latinos during the pandemic. Now it wants to be a national bank.
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This article is co-published with ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. to receive stories like this one in your inbox as soon as they are published.
Dozens of consumer advocacy organizations and Latino civil rights groups are contesting an effort by Oportun Financial Corp. to become a national bank, citing an investigation published last year by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune.
The monthslong probe showed the loan company had sued thousands of lower-income Latinos in Texas during the coronavirus pandemic while depicting itself as a benefactor of that community. It also revealed that Oportun had become the most litigious personal loan company in the state and routinely charged high interest rates while keeping customers on the hook with repeated refinancing.