SFA, SIFMA Submit Amicus Brief to U.S. Supreme Court on CFPB Trust Ruling

On Thursday, September 19, the Structured Finance Association (“SFA”) and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (“SIFMA”) submitted an Amicus Brief to the Supreme Court of the United States in support of the petition for Writ of Certiorari filed by National Collegiate Master Student Loan Trust,?et al., (the “Trusts”) in the long running enforcement action commonly referred to in the industry as?CFPB v. NCSLT. In their petition, the Trusts have asked the Supreme Court to review the March 2024 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit that the Trusts are ”covered persons” under the Consumer Financial Protection Act (the “CFPA”), and thus subject to the enforcement powers of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the “CFPB”).

In their Amicus Brief, SFA and SIFMA argue that the question whether the Trusts are “covered persons” under the CFPA is extraordinarily important to the functioning of the securities and credit markets, and that the decision of the Third Circuit is wrong because it (i) misconstrues the role of passive securitization trusts, (ii) frustrates Congress’ limit of CFPB enforcement authority to active conduct, and (iii) is inconsistent with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s regulatory approach to passive securitization vehicles.

For a timely review and more information about the Amicus Brief, see this Law360 article, as well as SFA’s previous advocacy and engagement on this topic.

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