Debt Collection
CBA responded to the CFPB’s Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) on debt collections. In its notice, the Bureau cites it is the first agency with the authority to issue substantive rules under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), a law governing the practices of third-party collectors and debt buyers. The Bureau may address first-party debt collection activities under its unfair, deceptive and abusive practices (UDAAP) authority. The ANPR is the Bureau’s initial step towards issuing new rules regulating the relationship between creditors, third-party debt collectors and consumers.
January 30, 2017On Monday, January 30, 2017, the CFPB announced its lawsuit against a variety of debt collection law firms including Howard Law, P.C., the Williamson Law Firm, LLC, and Williamson & Howard, LLP, as well as attorneys Vincent Howard and Lawrence Williamson. The individuals ran their firms along with Morgan Drexen, Inc., which the CFPB sued in 2015 and subsequently went out of business. In the...
January 24, 2017On Tuesday, January 24, 2017, the OCC, Federal Reserve, and FDIC entered into consent order with Servicelink to resolve certain outstanding requirements placed on Lending Processing Services (LPS) under a pre-existing consent order. In April of 2011, LPS entered into a consent order with the prudential regulators following allegations of unsafe or unsound practices in providing default management...
January 12, 2017On Thursday, January 12, 2017, the CFPB issued a study presenting the findings of its consumer debt collection survey, carried out between December of 2014 and March of 2015. This survey was sent to over 10,000 consumers and responses were gathered from 2,000. Some of the findings presented in this report include: About one-third of consumers were contacted by a creditor or debt collector about a...
January 9, 2017On Monday, January 9, 2017, the CFPB took action against two medical debt collection law firms for allegedly misrepresenting letters and calls were from attorneys attempting to collect on a debt when no attorney had yet reviewed the account. The firms also allegedly did not ensure the accuracy of the consumer information they furnished to credit reporting companies and used improperly notarized...
December 27, 2016On Tuesday, December 27, 2016, the CFPB released its Monthly Complaint Snapshot highlighting consumer complaints about debt collection, most commonly about attempts to collect debt the consumer claims is not owed. December’s report also highlighted complaint trends in Arizona, where debt collection complaints were most frequent, followed by mortgage-related complaints. Nationally, again, the “...
November 2, 2016On Wednesday, November 2, 2016, the CFPB, in partnership with the New York Attorney General, filed a lawsuit in a federal district court against the leaders of an alleged debt collection scheme based out of Buffalo, N.Y. The lawsuit alleges Douglas MacKinnon and Mark Gray operate a network of companies that harass, threaten, and deceive millions of consumers across the nation into paying inflated...
October 27, 2016On Thursday, October 27, 2016, the CFPB Consumer Advisory Board (CAB) met in Washington, D.C. to discuss debt collection and student loan serving. In his prepared remarks , CFPB Director Richard Cordray asserted one in three consumers (70 million) were contacted by a debt collector in the past year and discussed the two-pronged approach to the debt collection proposal – one for third party debt...
August 9, 2016As Maine gripes, so gripes the nation. That twist on an old saying means the top consumer complaint heard by the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, deals with bill collection. Of the roughly 400 complaints filed yearly with Maine’s Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection, or BCCP, about 100 concern debt collectors. In late July, the CFPB made public a proposal to strengthen the...
August 8, 2016Aug. 2 — Banks may have dodged the brunt of new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposals on debt collection, but they won't escape compliance costs for documentation requirements third-party collectors face under the agency's regulatory framework. The bureau announced a regulatory outline July 28 that would overhaul the debt collection market by capping collector contact attempts and by...Pages
CBA & ABA Comment Letter to FCC re TCPA Student Loan Servicers Petition for Reconsidration