§5481 Definitions

Summary

Defines key words used in this part of the law so everyone knows what they mean when the rules are applied. It gives short, plain meanings for terms used later, like who counts as a person, what counts as a consumer product or service, who is covered, and what kinds of activities are included or excluded. Affiliate: someone who controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with another person. Bureau: the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. Business of insurance: writing or reinsuring insurance and related acts. Consumer: an individual or someone acting for that individual. Consumer financial product or service: a product or service for personal, family, or household use that fits the listed categories. Covered person: anyone offering consumer financial products or services and their affiliates who act as service providers. Credit: the right to delay payment or buy now and pay later. Deposit-taking activity: accepting or holding deposits or member share accounts, or other fund-receiving activities the Bureau may define. Designated transfer date: the date set under section 5582. Director: the Director of the Bureau. Electronic conduit services: sending, routing, or temporary storing of electronic data, unless the provider changes content, treats financial data differently, or is a party to the payment. Enumerated consumer laws: a list of existing federal consumer finance laws (for example, Truth in Lending, Fair Credit Reporting, Fair Debt Collection Practices, and others). Fair lending: fair and nondiscriminatory access to credit. Federal consumer financial law: this title, the enumerated laws, laws moved to other subtitles, and Bureau rules and orders (but not the Federal Trade Commission Act). Financial product or service: things like making or servicing loans; leases that act like financing (non-operating, at least 90 days, and intended to transfer ownership); real estate settlement services and appraisals; deposit-taking, fund transfers, or custody of funds; stored-value or payment instruments when the seller controls terms; check-cashing; payment processing or storing financial data (with some merchant and hosting exceptions); financial advice to consumers; credit or account information services; debt collection; and other products the Bureau adds by rule. The term does not include the business of insurance or electronic conduit services. Foreign exchange: exchanging one government’s currency for another for pay. Insured credit union: the meaning used in section 1752. Payment instrument: a check, draft, money order, electronic instrument, or other non-cash payment device or value. Person: an individual, partnership, company, corporation, association, trust, estate, cooperative, or other entity. Person regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission: someone registered or required to be registered with the CFTC, to the extent the CFTC has jurisdiction. Person regulated by the Commission: people or firms required to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission (brokers, dealers, investment advisers, investment companies, exchanges, transfer agents, clearing corporations, self-regulatory organizations, rating organizations, securities information processors, municipal securities dealers, and related employees or agents acting in a regulated role). Person regulated by a State insurance regulator: someone in the business of insurance and subject to state insurance regulation, when acting in that role. Person that performs income tax preparation activities for consumers: tax return preparers, persons regulated under section 330 of title 31, and authorized IRS e-file providers, when acting in that role. Prudential regulator: the appropriate federal banking agency for banks and holding companies, and the National Credit Union Administration for insured credit unions. Related person: for covered persons that are not banks, credit unions, or depository institutions, means directors, officers, controlling shareholders, persons who materially participate, and independent contractors who knowingly or recklessly join in violations or fiduciary breaches; such related persons are treated as covered persons. Service provider: someone who gives a material service to a covered person in offering consumer financial products (including designing, operating, maintaining, or processing transactions), but not someone who only offers general business support or ad space; a service provider is treated as a covered person if it offers its own consumer financial product. State: any U.S. state, territory, or possession, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, or any federally recognized Indian tribe. Stored value: funds or monetary value in electronic form that can be stored, retrieved, and transferred electronically (for example, a prepaid debit card); excludes special-purpose cards that are issued by a merchant, usable only with that merchant or its affiliate, sold in a fixed non-reloadable amount (except phone-only cards), purchased prepaid, and accepted only for nonfinancial goods or services. Transmitting or exchanging funds: receiving money or payment instruments from a consumer to send or exchange them by wire, facsimile, electronic transfer, courier, the Internet, bill-payment services, or other businesses that move money within, to, or from the United States.