On August 7, the Texas federal court hearing the lawsuit filed by two trade groups challenging the CFPB’s final payday/auto title/high-rate installment loan rule (Payday Rule) denied the trade groups’ motion for reconsideration.  The motion asked the court to reconsider its June 12 order granting a stay of the lawsuit but denying a stay of the Payday Rule’s August 19, 2019 compliance date.

Last Friday, the trade groups and the CFPB filed a Joint Status Report with the court. The report restates the CFPB’s intention to engage in a rulemaking to reconsider the Payday Rule and indicates that the Bureau “is engaged in ongoing work to prepare a notice of rulemaking to reconsider the Payday Rule and expects to issue that notice of proposed rulemaking by early 2019.”  The trade groups also “represent that Plaintiffs’ members continue to face substantial costs in preparing for compliance with the Payday Rule.”

It is disappointing that the Joint Status Report does not reveal whether the CFPB plans to issue a proposal to delay the Payday Rule’s compliance date pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act’s notice-and-comment procedures.  In light of the court’s denial of the reconsideration motion, we had expressed our hope that the CFPB would move quickly to issue such a proposal to give the Bureau additional time to revisit the Payday Rule and engage in substantive rulemaking.  We remain hopeful that the CFPB will soon issue a proposal to delay the compliance date.