The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (
DFPI) announced in its
January 2021 monthly bulletin that it will begin exercising its enhanced powers under the California Consumer Financial Protection Law (CCFPL) that came into effect January 1.
As we reported in
September and covered in a webinar in
December, the CCFPL, in addition to renaming the former California Department of Business Oversight (DBO) as the DFPI, expanded the scope of the renamed agency’s powers by (1) giving the DFPI the option of regulating nonbank small business lenders, many of which are fintech companies; (2) authorizing the DFPI to bring enforcement actions for unlawful, unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices (UDAAPs) by any person offering or providing consumer financial products or services in the state; and (3) giving the DFPI rulemaking and enforcement authority relating to UDAAP by “covered persons,” which is defined broadly to include entities not subject to