Comerica asked a Texas judge Wednesday to deny the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s request for a stay in its lawsuit against the bank, alleging that the stay would “prolong the reputational harm the Bank has been forced to endure” due to the “meritless” lawsuit.
The financial watchdog requested a stay Monday to give new agency leadership time to review the case, in particular its position on Comerica’s motion to dismiss.
In December, the Rohit Chopra-led CFPB sued Comerica for allegedly “systematically failing” 3.4 million federal benefits recipients who held Comerica’s Direct Express prepaid cards with intentionally poor customer service and illegally harvested junk fees.
The “false and politicized narrative” put forth in the CFPB’s lawsuit, including claims that the bank deliberately disconnected millions of calls from recipients of federal benefits like Social Security, continues to harm Comerica’s reputation every day the lawsuit proceeds, according to the bank.
“While Comerica welcomes the CFPB’s stated intention to ‘review’ this lawsuit with clear and fresh eyes, the CFPB should not be permitted to stay further briefing on Comerica’s Motion to Dismiss,” Comerica asserted in the filing Wednesday. “If the CFPB needs time ‘to review’ this lawsuit in light of the pending Motion to Dismiss, the CFPB can, and should, simply dismiss the lawsuit without prejudice.
“Once dismissed, the new leadership can have as much time as it deems necessary to evaluate the case, without inflicting further harm on Comerica with a lawsuit pending against it,” Comerica asserted.
A stay would also give the CFPB an unfair advantage, the bank alleged, in part because it would give the watchdog approximately four months to craft its opposition brief to Comerica’s motion to dismiss, “to the prejudice of Comerica.”
Comerica declined to comment, and the CFPB didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Under new leadership, the CFPB has dropped several lawsuits in the last couple of weeks, including a lawsuit regarding Zelle fraud against JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Zelle parent Early Warning Services and a lawsuit accusing Capital One of misleading customers regarding a savings account product.
The CFPB also dropped a lawsuit against peer-to-peer lending fintech SoLo Funds, which it sued last May for allegedly deceiving borrowers about the true cost of loans on its platform.
