Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Settles with NDG Financial Corp.
Canadian and Maltese-based Payday Lenders Alleged to Have Deceptively and Unfairly Marketed and Collected on Loans, Barred From Lending to U.S. Residents
Washington, D.C. — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Bureau) today filed a proposed settlement with NDG Financial Corp., E-Care Contact Centers, Ltd., Blizzard Interactive Corp., New World Consolidated Lending Corp., New World Lenders Corp., Payroll Loans First Lenders Corp., New World RRSP Lenders Corp., Northway Financial Corp., Ltd., and Northway Broker, Ltd. Also named are corporate officials Kimberly DeThomas, Jeremy Sabourin, and William Wrixon. The entities and individuals are payday lenders and corporate officials based in Canada and Malta.
In its amended complaint, the Bureau alleges that the defendants violated the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 by misrepresenting to consumers in states where loans offered by the defendants violated state licensing or usury laws that they were obligated to repay loan amounts when such an obligation did not exist because state law voided the loan.
Defendants also:
- Misrepresented that the loan agreements were not subject to United States federal or state law;
- Misrepresented that non-payment of debt would result in lawsuits, arrests, imprisonment, or wage garnishment; and
- Conditioned loan agreements upon irrevocable wage assignment clauses, which the Bureau alleges violated the Credit Practices Act.
Under the terms of the proposed consent order, the defendants are permanently barred from advertising, marketing, promoting, offering, originating, servicing, or collecting any consumer loan issued to any consumer residing in the United States, including assisting others and receiving remuneration from providing service to assist others in this conduct. The defendants are also permanently barred from collecting on any of their existing loans to United States consumers, including any efforts to assign, sell or transfer such loans or any other action that would allow anyone to collect on such loans. Additionally, the defendants are permanently barred from disclosing, using, or benefitting from customer information associated with their existing loans to consumers in the United States.
The proposed consent order awaits approval by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, where the action was filed. The proposed consent order is available at: https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_ndg-financial-corp_consent-order_2019-02.pdf
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is a 21st century agency that implements and enforces Federal consumer financial law and ensures that markets for consumer financial products are fair, transparent, and competitive. For more information, visit www.consumerfinance.gov.