Darren M. Welch

Mr. Welch’s practice focuses on fair lending; laws governing unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practices; models used by financial institutions; sales practices risk; credit reporting; and a wide variety of other consumer financial protection issues. His practice also includes transactional diligence; class action and general litigation; statistical model review and governance; compliance examinations and enforcement; and bank receivership director and officer litigation and enforcement.

Mr. Welch represents clients before the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Department of Justice, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Federal Trade Commission, federal banking regulators and state attorneys general and financial regulators. Among his notable recent representations are:

• Wells Fargo Bank in connection with an inquiry by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau regarding sales practices, and other banks in sales practices examinations by the Office of Comptroller of the Currency and other regulators
• Capital One in connection with a federal lawsuit regarding branch closures in Texas
• Credit Acceptance Corp. lawsuits by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, New York attorney general and Mississippi attorney general regarding the origination and servicing of automobile finance contracts
• mortgage loan investors in connection with fair lending testing of their portfolios and models
• a model developer and insurance companies regarding model governance processes and reviews
• several national banks regarding the development of special purpose credit programs
• investors and financial advisors in connection with debt and equity transactions related to emerging fintech participants
• bank officers and directors in investigations and litigation commenced by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

Mr. Welch has lectured and published on various topics, including consumer financial services litigation and enforcement, consumer compliance risk management, fintech developments and the Dodd-Frank Act. A list of lectures and presentations is below.