Trending publication

January 9, 2026 | Article

Ian Roffman, a partner and chair of Nutter’s Securities Enforcement and Litigation group, and Dan Hartman and Matt Hanaghan, of counsel in the firm’s Corporate Department, wrote an article examining significant developments in the Massachusetts financial services industry in Law360. In the article “Mass. Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q4,” the authors discussed Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell’s actions to fill a potential federal bank regulatory void. They noted that the fourth quarter of 2025 marked the first full quarter that the AG’s new rules prohibiting so-called junk fees were in effect, requiring covered institutions to clearly and conspicuously disclose the total price of a product.

The authors added that the AG recently reached a settlement based in part on alleged violations of fair lending laws on a disparate impact theory, finding that a violation of ECOA was also a violation of the state's consumer protection law under Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 93A. Given this activity, the authors pointed out that “Campbell may be looking to fill a void left by the banking regulators and the CFPB, and bank and nonbank lenders subject to [Equal Credit Opportunity Act] and the state's consumer protection law should continue to monitor for disparate impact in their fair lending risk and compliance assessments moving forward.”

Additionally, the authors noted that the Massachusetts Division of Banks continued leaning into fintech in the fourth quarter of 2025,  expecting to be a leader in the space. Banks will need to be aware of laws such as the new money transmitter law, which became effective Jan. 1, 2026, as “they may apply to a bank's customers, fintech partners and emerging payment competitors in the money transmission space.”