Bankruptcy

Who Loses in Cuomo v. Clearing House?

By Bob Lawless

Adam Levitin already posted on this week's decision in Cuomo v. Clearing House Association where the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a regulation from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's (OCC). The regulation preempted state enforcement of consumer protection laws against national banks and grew out of subpoenas issued by the New York attorney general. At first blush, the opinion seems to be a big victory for consumers, and it certainly is a victory. As alluded in the comments to Levitin's post, the opinion might not be as big of a victory as it seems.

The Court struck down the regulation but also refused to enforce the subpoenas issued by the New York AG because of the particular wording of the National Bank Act. I'll leave out the details. The Court seems to be laying down a bright line rule: a state attorney general can file a lawsuit to enforce consumer protection laws but can't issue subpoenas under its own administrative powers. That seems to cut back a lot on what state attorneys general can do. Without the ability to force the turnover of information during their own investigations, the power that Cuomo returns to state attorneys general might not help a whole lot. The only recourse the state attorneys general have is to file a lawsuit.

I wonder whether this bright-line rule might not backfire against the national banks. Might the default position of the state attorneys general not have to be "sue first, subpoena later?" Sure, a subpoena from the state attorney general is a giant pain in the posterior, but it certainly is better than a lawsuit from the state attorney general. If the effect of Cuomo is to compel the state attorneys general to sue in order to enforce state consumer law against the national banks, the banks might come to regret what they asked for.

Full post as published by Credit Slips on June 30, 2009 (boomark / email).