Annual Survey of Consumer Financial Services Law: Developments in Truth in Lending 1981

• Published in: The Business lawyer 1982-04, Vol.37 (3), p.1045
• Main Authors: Schellie, Peter D, Wheatley, Katherine H
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Amendments; Consumer credit; Consumer Credit Protection Act 1969-US; Debt; Disclosure; Fees & charges; Finance; Installment purchases; Prepayments; Regulation Z; Security interests; State court decisions; Supreme Court decisions; Truth in Lending Simplification & Reform Act 1980-US
• ISSN: 0007-6899; 2164-1838

Acting on the Truth in Lending Simplification and Reform Act, which will be effective in October 1982, the Federal Reserve Board has published a revised regulation Z and extensive staff commentary thereon. The US Supreme Court held that one could be held to be a creditor without use of the word itself, that an assignment of returned or unearned insurance premiums is not a security interest subject to disclosure, and that a particular American Express card situation was not an extension of consumer credit which would bring the Fair Credit Billing Act into operation. Almost all of the issues which arose in reported litigation this year are addressed in the revised regulation Z, the commentary, or the Simplification Act itself. One such area is the statute of limitations to be applied in the case of a counterclaim, clarified by the Simplification Act by simple reference to state law. Finance charge calculation issues have been largely resolved by the law's disclosure rules, and the complicated details of definition of security interests will also be eased by the statutory definitions contained in the Simplification Act. The question, as to which there had been a split of authority, of whether multiple obligors are each entitled to damages is resolved by the revised regulation to make clear that only one recovery of statutory damages is permitted.