On September 17, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit granted a national bank’s request for interlocutory appeal in a case brought by the New York attorney general regarding the bank’s response to incidents of online wire transfer fraud. In doing so, the court granted the bank leave to appeal a January opinion by U.S. SDNY which found that “15 U.S.C. § 1693a(7)(B) does not preclude EFTA liability for a fraudulent [p]ayment [o]rder resulting in a debit from a consumer account in connection with a wire transfer.” The bank had argued that wire transfers were excluded from EFTA coverage by statute and were instead governed by the UCC. The bank filed a motion asking the district court to certify the January order and stay the action pending appeal. In April, the district court granted the motion, staying the case, and noted while it did not expect the defendant to prevail, the arguments “merit serious consideration.”

The 2nd Circuit’s order also granted requests from nonparties to file amici curiae briefs and referred the attorney general’s request for cross-appeal treatment to the merits panel.