The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) yesterday announced a settlement with Maxitransfers Corp., a company that serves consumers looking to send money overseas. This is the Bureau’s first enforcement action based on violations of the Remittance Transfer Rule, which implements the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA). Maxitransfers provides remittance transfer services from more than 1,600 third-party locations in the U.S., such as grocery stores and pharmacies, to over 19,500 payment locations in Mexico, Central and South America. The company is headquartered in Irving, Texas. From October 2013 until May 2017, Maxitransfers sent approximately 14.5 million remittance transfers for consumers in the U.S. For each transfer, Maxitransfers was required to provide consumer protection disclosures and to comply with other requirements of EFTA and the Remittance Transfer Rule. According to the consent order, the Bureau found that Maxitransfersviolated the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 (CFPA) by stating to consumers that it would not be responsible for errors made by its third-party payment agents when in fact the Remittance Transfer Rule makes Maxitransfers responsible for the acts of the agent when the agent acts for the provider. The CFPB also found that Maxitransfers violated EFTA and the Remittance Transfer Rule by using inaccurate language in disclosures and failing to maintain required policies and procedures to comply with error resolution procedures.
