Alan Kaplinsky’s “Fireside Chat” with Matthew J. Platkin, New Jersey Attorney General
02/11/25 • 29 min
Today’s podcast show is a repurposing of Alan Kaplinsky’s “fireside chat” with Matthew J. Platkin, the New Jersey Attorney General, which was the first half of a webinar we produced on January 17, 2025. That webinar was Part 3 of our webinar series entitled “The Impact of the Election on the CFPB and Others.” In Part 3, we focus on the role of state attorneys general in a rapidly shifting CFPB environment.
The importance of Part 3 is underscored by the recent actions taken by President Trump to fire Rohit Chopra as Director of the CFPB and to appoint new Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, and then new Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director, Russell Vought, as Acting Directors. Messrs, Bessent, and Vought have essentially temporarily stopped all activities of the CFPB for the time being.
During our “fireside chat” with General Platkin, we discussed the following topics, among others:
1. What is General Platkin’s background, including his stint as Chief Counsel to the New Jersey Governor?
2. Since General Platkin has been New Jersey Attorney General, what are some examples of the consent orders or lawsuits he has initiated related to consumer financial services?
3. Has the New Jersey Attorney General previously collaborated with the CFPB and/or FTC in investigating certain companies or segments of the consumer financial services industry, and is that likely to change?
4. What effect will there be on consumers in New Jersey if President Trump appoints (as he did) an Acting Director of the CFPB whose interpretation and enforcement of federal consumer protection laws differs markedly from Rohit Chopra?
5. What will the New Jersey Attorney General’s office do in response to this anticipated shifting CFPB environment?
6. Elon Musk has called for the deletion of the CFPB and Project 2025 has also called for the elimination of the CFPB. If that were to happen, what would the New Jersey Attorney General’s office do to fill this anticipated void?
7. We then looked beyond New Jersey to other state attorney general’s offices similarly situated to the New Jersey Attorney General office – who will have the need to initiate more cases when resources are limited. We discussed how state Attorney General’s (including the New Jersey Attorney General) have networked with each other to investigate and sue companies that are violating consumers’ rights in multiple states. We then discussed why it is anticipated that the networking process is likely to increase.
8. The areas of consumer financial protection law and segments of the consumer financial services industry that will be areas of focus for the New Jersey Attorney General during 2025?
Our next episode will be the second half of our January 17 webinar in which several of our colleagues will explore in depth why we expect state Attorney General’s offices to significantly ramp up their investigations involving and lawsuits filed against banks and other consumer financial services providers.
Parts 1, 2 and 3 of our webinar series appear here, here, and here. Our podcast shows (repurposing Parts 1 and 2 of our webinar series) appear here, here, here, and here. The title of Part 1 is: “The Impact of the election on the CFPB: Regulations and other written guidance, which featured Alan Kaplinsky’s “fireside chat” with David Silberman who held senior positions at the CFPB for almost 10 years during the Directorships of Cordray, Mulvaney, and Kraninger. Part 2 is: “The Impact of the Election on the CFPB: Supervision and Enforcement, which featured Alan Kaplinsky’s “fireside chat” with former Director Kathy Kraninger during Trump‘s first term in office.
Today’s podcast show is a repurposing of Alan Kaplinsky’s “fireside chat” with Matthew J. Platkin, the New Jersey Attorney General, which was the first half of a webinar we produced on January 17, 2025. That webinar was Part 3 of our webinar series entitled “The Impact of the Election on the CFPB and Others.” In Part 3, we focus on the role of state attorneys general in a rapidly shifting CFPB environment.
The importance of Part 3 is underscored by the recent actions taken by President Trump to fire Rohit Chopra as Director of the CFPB and to appoint new Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, and then new Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director, Russell Vought, as Acting Directors. Messrs, Bessent, and Vought have essentially temporarily stopped all activities of the CFPB for the time being.
During our “fireside chat” with General Platkin, we discussed the following topics, among others:
1. What is General Platkin’s background, including his stint as Chief Counsel to the New Jersey Governor?
2. Since General Platkin has been New Jersey Attorney General, what are some examples of the consent orders or lawsuits he has initiated related to consumer financial services?
3. Has the New Jersey Attorney General previously collaborated with the CFPB and/or FTC in investigating certain companies or segments of the consumer financial services industry, and is that likely to change?
4. What effect will there be on consumers in New Jersey if President Trump appoints (as he did) an Acting Director of the CFPB whose interpretation and enforcement of federal consumer protection laws differs markedly from Rohit Chopra?
5. What will the New Jersey Attorney General’s office do in response to this anticipated shifting CFPB environment?
6. Elon Musk has called for the deletion of the CFPB and Project 2025 has also called for the elimination of the CFPB. If that were to happen, what would the New Jersey Attorney General’s office do to fill this anticipated void?
7. We then looked beyond New Jersey to other state attorney general’s offices similarly situated to the New Jersey Attorney General office – who will have the need to initiate more cases when resources are limited. We discussed how state Attorney General’s (including the New Jersey Attorney General) have networked with each other to investigate and sue companies that are violating consumers’ rights in multiple states. We then discussed why it is anticipated that the networking process is likely to increase.
8. The areas of consumer financial protection law and segments of the consumer financial services industry that will be areas of focus for the New Jersey Attorney General during 2025?
Our next episode will be the second half of our January 17 webinar in which several of our colleagues will explore in depth why we expect state Attorney General’s offices to significantly ramp up their investigations involving and lawsuits filed against banks and other consumer financial services providers.
Parts 1, 2 and 3 of our webinar series appear here, here, and here. Our podcast shows (repurposing Parts 1 and 2 of our webinar series) appear here, here, here, and here. The title of Part 1 is: “The Impact of the election on the CFPB: Regulations and other written guidance, which featured Alan Kaplinsky’s “fireside chat” with David Silberman who held senior positions at the CFPB for almost 10 years during the Directorships of Cordray, Mulvaney, and Kraninger. Part 2 is: “The Impact of the Election on the CFPB: Supervision and Enforcement, which featured Alan Kaplinsky’s “fireside chat” with former Director Kathy Kraninger during Trump‘s first term in office.
Previous Episode
Regulating Bank Reputation Risk
Today’s podcast show features a discussion with Julie Andersen Hill about her law review article titled “Regulating Bank Reputation Risk”, 54 GA. L. Rev. 523 (2023). Professor Hill is the Dean and Wyoming Excellence Chair of the University of Wyoming College of Law.
The abstract to Professor Hill’s article does an excellent job of summarizing her thesis:
This Article surveys reputation risk guidance and enforcement efforts. It shows that reputation risk regulation is usually an ancillary consideration to credit risk, operational risk, or other primary risk. In these instances, reputation risk adds little because regulators have strong tools to address the root problems. Sometimes, however, regulators justify guidance or enforcement primarily in terms of controlling reputation risk. Regulators use reputation risk to weigh in on hot-button political topics afield from safety and soundness like gun rights, payday lending and fossil fuels. Because regulators believe that reputation risk is present in every facet of banking, little prevents them from using it to address other controversies.
This Article argues that expansive regulation of reputation risk is harmful. There is little evidence that can accurately predict and prevent bank reputational losses. Moreover, because reputation risk is largely subjective, regulators can use it to further political agendas apart from bank safety and soundness. Unnecessary politicization of banking regulation undermines faith in the regulatory system and correspondently erodes trust in banks.
During our discussion, Professor Hill addressed the following issues:
- What is reputation risk?
- What legal authority do bank supervisors have to regulate reputation risk?
- Why do you believe that the regulation of reputation risk is unnecessary and harmful?
- What is Operation Choke Point all about and how did it turn out?
- What was the outcome in the U.S. Supreme Court in NRA v. Vullo of the New York State bank regulator urging state banks to manage the reputation risk posed by doing business with the National Rifle Association?
- Has concern over the regulation of reputation risk subsided in light of the termination of Operation Chokepoint and the unanimous Supreme Court opinion in NRA v. Vullo?
- Why does there appear to be renewed worry that regulators are using reputation risk and other justifications to force banks to cut services to people, businesses or industries that they don’t like?
- Is there any credence to the claims of Elon Musk and others that crypto and tech startups are being debanked or denied fair access to banking services?
- In light of the fact that President Trump himself and many members of Congress are troubled by debanking claims, what sort of policy changes are likely to be considered? What is the likelihood of the OCC promulgating a regulation prohibiting debanking in Trump 2.0 similar to the one it almost finalized in Trump 1.0?
The importance of this podcast is underscored by the fact that yesterday, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs held a hearing entitled “Investigating the Real Impacts of Debanking in America.”
Alan Kaplinsky, Senior Counsel and former chair for 25 years of the Consumer Financial Services Group, hosts the discussion.
Next Episode
Will the State Attorneys General and Other State Agencies Fill the Void Left by the CFPB?
Today’s podcast show is a repurposing of the second half of a webinar we produced on January 17, 2025. That webinar was Part 3 of our webinar series entitled “The Impact of the Election on the CFPB and Others.” In Part 3, we focus on the role of state attorneys general in a rapidly shifting CFPB environment. Our previous podcast show, released on Tuesday February 11th, was a repurposing of the first half of our January 17th webinar in which Alan Kaplinsky had a “fireside chat” with Matthew J. Platkin, the New Jersey Attorney General. See here.
The importance of Part 3 is underscored by the recent actions taken by President Trump to fire Rohit Chopra as Director of the CFPB and to appoint new Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, and then new Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director, Russell Vought, as Acting Directors, Messrs. Bessent, and Vought have essentially stopped all activities of the CFPB for the time being.
During today’s podcast show, Mike Kilgarriff, Joseph Schuster, Adrian King and Jenny Perkins of Ballard Spahr’s Consumer Financial Services Group discussed in detail the following issues, among others:
• CFPB post-election messaging to state attorneys general providing a roadmap to them on powers they may exercise under federal law, including the use of the UDAAP provision of Dodd-Frank (particularly the “abusive” prong)
• The probable decline in collaboration with the CFPB following the change in administration
• More networking of state attorneys general
• What can we expect from state legislatures in enacting new consumer financial services protection laws?
• What can we expect from state attorneys general and other state agencies in promulgating new consumer financial services protection laws?
• The continuing need for companies to maintain a robust compliance management system
Parts 1, 2 and 3 of our webinar series appear here, here, and here. Our podcast shows (repurposing Parts 1 and 2 of our webinar series) appear here, here, here, and here. The title of Part 1 is: “The Impact of the election on the CFPB: Regulations and other written guidance, which featured Alan Kaplinsky’s “fireside chat” with David Silberman who held senior positions at the CFPB for almost 10 years during the Directorships of Cordray, Mulvaney, and Kraninger. Part 2 is: “The Impact of the Election on the CFPB: Supervision and Enforcement, which featured Alan Kaplinsky’s “fireside chat” with former Director Kathy Kraninger during Trump‘s first term in office.
Alan Kaplinsky, Senior Counsel and former chair for 25 years of the Consumer Financial Services Group, hosts the discussion.
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