Photo of Benjamin M. Saul

Benjamin Saul is a shareholder in the firm’s Financial Regulatory and Compliance Practice. For two decades, Ben has handled high-stakes regulatory, enforcement, and litigation matters for corporate and individual clients in the consumer finance, specialty finance, fintech, and banking sectors.

Ben has helped clients navigate dozens of contentious supervisory, enforcement, and litigation matters involving the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and has been a leader in the private bar on CFPB matters since the Bureau’s inception in 2011. He also routinely assists clients in matters involving the FTC, DOJ, HUD, OCC, FRB, FDIC, state financial services authorities, state attorneys general, and state civil rights commissions. Ben’s enforcement matters have concerned fair lending and servicing, unfair deceptive and/or abusive trade practices, other federal and state consumer finance laws, AML/BSA, troubled or failed banks, fiduciary duties, financial institution fraud, supervisory ratings, and other safety and soundness issues.  These matters often have involved parallel proceedings by multiple enforcement agencies and/or private parties.

Ben also advises lenders, servicers, alternative financial service providers, and money service businesses on product and service development, licensing, compliance program enhancement, and the applicability of federal and state consumer credit and other financial services laws. He frequently helps clients understand how financial services law maps onto new technologies and innovative products, having worked on matters involving big data, artificial intelligence, marketplace and online lending, blockchain, digital assets and cryptocurrencies, digital banking, and payment systems.  In addition, Ben provides financial services regulatory support for corporate and capital markets transactions.

On Oct. 19, 2023, the CFPB released a proposed rule that, if finalized in its present form, would require covered financial institutions to provide consumers and authorized third parties with access and portability options for their financial data. The CFPB’s proposed rule, called the “Personal Financial Data Rights” rule, would implement Section 1033 of Title

On Aug. 11, 2022, the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued guidance indicating that financial institutions and service providers that fail to adopt sufficient data security measures to protect consumer financial data may violate the Consumer Financial Protection Act provision prohibiting unfair acts and practices.

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