10 reasons you might want to consider debt management

Are you swimming in debt and not sure how to handle it? Mike Sullivan, personal finance consultant at Take Charge America says two of the most popular strategies for people to get out of debt are debt management and debt settlement. While they sound similar, there are key differences.     “Debt management is a process whereby a consumer pays off his or her accumulated debt over a period of years, in conjunction with agreements with the credit card companies,” he says. “It is a long-term process that helps you get out of debt by working with creditors. Debt settlement, on the other hand, is a hugely somewhat shorter process to get out of debt by confronting the creditors and refusing to make payments until they agree to settle for less.”

FTC Announces Agenda for the Seventh Session of its Hearings on Competition and Consumer Protection in the 21st Century; Session at Howard University to Focus on Algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, and Predictive Analytics

The Federal Trade Commission announced the agenda for the seventh session of its Hearings Initiative, with a two-day hearing at the Howard University Law School in Washington, D.C., on November 13-14, 2018. Howard University is a co-sponsor of the event.   The hearing will examine competition and consumer protection issues associated with the use of algorithms, artificial intelligence, and predictive analytics in business decisions and conduct. See detailed agenda.

Grassley-backed IRS Private Debt Collection Program Continues to Produce Results

WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently released data showing that the Private Debt Collection (PDC) program, a public/private partnership that works to bolster the U.S. Treasury, strengthen the effectiveness of the IRS and ensure fairness in the federal tax system, continues to demonstrate that it can more than pay for itself with revenues returned to the Treasury.

Attorney General Becerra Leads a Multistate Coalition to Demand Secretary DeVos Begin Granting Relief for Tens of Thousands of Eligible Borrowers

SACRAMENTO – California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, leading a coalition of 21 attorneys general, today called on the U.S. Department of Education to immediately discharge the student loans of eligible borrowers who attended schools that closed down while they were enrolled mid-program. Many of those schools were predatory, for-profit colleges. In the letter, the coalition urges Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to fulfill her obligation under federal law to provide immediate and automatic loan relief to borrowers who attended a school when it closed on or after November 1, 2013, and who did not subsequently re-enroll in an eligible program within three years from the date the school closed. 

SIMM ASSOCIATES DONATES TO THE RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE ADOPT A FAMILY PROGRAM

Newark, Delaware – October 30, 2018 – SIMM Associates is proud to announce their support to the Ronald McDonald House of Delaware’s Adopt A Family Program. The Adopt A Family program provides donors with an opportunity to fund the expenses associated with a family’s stay. It helps provide all the care and comfort needed for families to focus their energy on their sick child. Donations directly impact the families who call the Ronald McDonald House “home” while their child receives medical treatment. This year’s annual event raised over $220,000 for the Delaware House.  

PRA Group Donates Over $31,000 to Red Cross Disaster Relief

NORFOLK, Va., Oct. 30, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- PRA Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: PRAA), a global leader in acquiring and collecting nonperforming loans, today announced that the company and its employees have donated over $31,000 to the American Red Cross in support of its ongoing disaster relief efforts.

Dynamic Recovery Solutions Implements CallMiner Speech Analytics to Offer Tailored Coaching to Contact Center Staff

WALTHAM, MA – October 30, 2018 – CallMiner, the leading platform provider of award-winning speech and customer engagement analytics, announces that Dynamic Recovery Solutions has selected CallMiner as its speech and engagement analytics solution to bring greater operational efficiency to its contact center through improved agent coaching and performance.

A.G. Underwood Announces Lawsuit Against Harris Jewelry For Targeting Military Servicemembers With Illegal Business Practices

WATERTOWN – Attorney General Barbara D. Underwood today announced a lawsuit against Harris Jewelry – a jewelry retailer headquartered in New York, with dozens of locations across the country including one near Fort Drum in New York – for engaging in false and deceptive acts and illegal lending in the financing of jewelry sales to active-duty servicemembers. This lawsuit is the result of an ongoing multistate investigation co-led by New York and Tennessee. Harris Jewelry is the trade name of Harris Originals of NY, Inc., as well as numerous other eponymous corporations, all named in the complaint.

FTC warns lenders: Do not lie in loan refinancing ads

In the wake of taking action against SoFi for allegedly lying in its ads about how much borrowers can save by refinancing their student loans with the online lender, the Federal Trade Commission is also warning other lenders to not engage in similar activity.  On Monday, the FTC accused SoFi of using its television, print, and online ads to mislead consumers about the effectiveness of the lender’s loan refinancing programs, claiming that SoFi deceptively inflated how much borrowers can save by as much as 200% in some cases.

CFPB releases assessment report on remittance rule

The CFPB has released a “Remittance Rule Assessment Report.”  The report was issued pursuant to Section 1022(d) of the Dodd-Frank Act which requires the CFPB to conduct a review of a significant rule and publish an assessment report within five years of the rule’s effective date.  The remittance report represents the first assessment report issued by the CFPB pursuant to Section 1022(d).  The remittance rule took effect on October 28, 2013, and gives certain protections to consumers that send remittance transfers from the United States to another country.  It imposes three principal requirements on remittance transfer providers.  Such requirements concern:

Convoke Introduces Debt Settlement Feature to its Platform

ARLINGTON, Va., Oct. 29, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Convoke, a leader in SaaS solutions for the debt collection market, today announced the most recent software update to its debt collections compliance and management hub.  Each year, Convoke develops and releases several updates to its platform to support its clients' evolving needs.  This latest major release includes the introduction of Convoke's debt settlement feature, the addition of single sign-on (SSO) capabilities, the use of APIs for auto repossession, as well as new Data Groups.

TrueAccord Named To The 2018 CB Insights Fintech 250 List Of Fastest-Growing Fintech Startups

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- TrueAccord (www.TrueAccord.com), the first-of-its-kind tech platform that transforms the antiquated debt recovery industry, announced today that the company was named to the coveted CB Insights second annual Fintech 250 list of emerging private companies working on groundbreaking financial technology.  This announcement comes on the heels of the company also being recognized as one of Gartner's "Cool Vendors" in Banking.

First Small Business Truth-in-Lending Act Passed in California

If we told you a new law now requires lenders to tell small business loan applicants the annualized rate they’d pay for financing, you might be surprised that it wasn’t already standard practice.  That new law came from a bill known as CA SB 1235 which received overwhelming bipartisan support. Aimed at adding transparency in the small business loan market, the new law will doubtless be followed by lawmakers and small business owners outside California as it is rolled out.  In an email interview, LendingClub’s director of public policy, Louis Caditz-Peck provided Small Business Trends with a summary of the bill’s origins and objectives.

Public Statement Regarding Payday Rule Reconsideration and Delay of Compliance Date

The Bureau expects to issue proposed rules in January 2019 that will reconsider the Bureau's rule regarding Payday, Vehicle Title, and Certain High-Cost Installment Loans and address the rule's compliance date. The Bureau will make final decisions regarding the scope of the proposal closer to the issuance of the proposed rules. However, the Bureau is currently planning to propose revisiting only the ability-to-repay provisions and not the payments provisions, in significant part because the ability-to-repay provisions have much greater consequences for both consumers and industry than the payment provisions. The proposals will be published as quickly as practicable consistent with the Administrative Procedure Act and other applicable law.

Wells Fargo hit with lawsuit over robocalls to wrong numbers

(Reuters) - A proposed class action lawsuit in San Francisco federal court accuses Wells Fargo of making tens of thousands of automatically dialed, or “robo,” calls to cell phones without consumers’ consent.   Filed on Thursday on behalf of a nationwide class, the lawsuit accuses Wells Fargo of calling wrong numbers with auto-dialing equipment and failing to honor requests to stop. The complaint seeks triple damages under the U.S. Telephone Consumer Protection Act, or up to $1,500 for each call.

Owners of Business Coaching and Development Service Scam Are Banned

The owners of four companies that allegedly bilked consumers trying to start online businesses from home have been banned from selling purported business coaching or development services under court-approved settlements with the Federal Trade Commission. The settlements, which resolve an FTC case brought in the District of Utah, also require the corporate defendants to turn over the remaining funds in their bank accounts to the FTC.

Bureau releases its assessment report of the Remittance Rule

The Bureau’s 2013 Remittance Rule was intended to bring new consumer protections to international money transfers. The Remittance Rule requires remittance transfer providers to give consumers disclosures showing costs, fees and other information before they pay for a remittance transfer and to provide cancellation and refund rights. The Remittance Rule also requires remittance transfer providers to investigate disputes and remedy certain errors. 

Ex-student loan official: ‘We dropped a trillion dollars of debt into the market’ with little thought to oversight

We’ve been talking about America’s student-loan problem all wrong, according to the former top student-loan official in the country.   Seth Frotman, who resigned in protest earlier this year from his role as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s student loan ombudsman, made the case Thursday that solving our nation’s student-debt challenges requires acknowledging policy makers’ and company executives’ role in creating it.

Digital Recognition Network Marks Key Milestone: More Than 20,000 Live LPR Recoveries in One Month Facilitated by Its Technology and Data

FORT WORTH, Texas, Oct. 26, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital Recognition Network (DRN), an AI and data analytics company that provides vehicle location data and analytics to auto lenders, insurance carriers and other commercial verticals, today announced the company has reached a key milestone, facilitating the recovery of 20,122 live vehicle pick-ups, enabled by license plate recognition (LPR), in the month of August 2018 – an all-time company high for a given month.

Department of Veterans Affairs Official Pleads Guilty to Bribery, Fraud, and Obstruction in $2 Million Scheme Involving Program for Disabled Military Veterans

A former U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) official pleaded guilty to demanding and receiving bribes from three for-profit schools in exchange for enrolling disabled military veterans in those schools and facilitating over $2 million in payments from the VA using the veterans’ federal benefits. 

FCC RECEIVES FINAL APPROVALS FOR NEW OFFICE OF ECONOMICS AND ANALYTICS

WASHINGTON, October 25, 2018—The Federal Communications Commission has received all approvals required to launch its new Office of Economics and Analytics (OEA).   The FCC earlier this year voted to create OEA to better integrate the use of economics and data into its rulemakings and other proceedings. This reorganization of the agency required approval from the House and Senate Appropriations Committees and the Office of Management and Budget. It also required the FCC to reach an agreement with the National
Treasury Employees Union. All of these steps have now been completed.

MBA members urge CFPB to update LO Comp rule

Member companies of the Mortgage Bankers Association have asked the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to make changes to the Loan Originator Compensation (LO Comp) rule, saying updating it should be the agency’s top priority.

Data: Fraud’s toll on consumer trust

The hacks keep coming — most recently to Facebook and the federal government’s health insurance sites — and consumer trust in online security systems disintegrates along with them, according to a number of recent surveys. During the first half of this year, 3.2 billion consumer files were compromised worldwide, up 72 percent over last year, according to Gemalto. The effect on consumers is a growing sense of mistrust, casting shadows on the payments industry.

The State of Personal Loans in 2018

This past decade has seen the personal loan industry grow from a fledgling, high-risk business to a booming space occupied by numerous lenders and prime borrowers.   According to the most recent consumer data from TransUnion, the national personal loan debt stood at $107 billion in Q2 of 2017. This represents a 10.80 percent increase from the same quarter in 2016 and a 132 percent increase from 2012. 

Latest State Action: Washington AG Sues Debt Collectors

Demonstrating heightened enforcement efforts by some state regulators, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed suit against a pair of debt collection companies and their owner, asserting the defendants were operating without a license in violation of state law.  The lawsuit is only the latest example of state attorneys general (AGs) stepping in to fill the void as the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (CFPB) has slowed down its enforcement efforts.

State bank regulators sue feds over bank charter for ‘fintech’ firms

State bank regulators are suing a federal counterpart over a provision aimed at defining banking in the Internet age.  The Conference of State Bank Supervisors filed a lawsuit against the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Thursday over the latest version of its financial technology charter. The charter would allow financial technology companies that don’t take deposits to circumvent state-by-state registration and some state-level regulations, as banks do.  “Common sense and the law tell us that a nonbank is not a bank,” said CSBS President and CEO John Ryan in a release. “Thus, CSBS is calling on the courts to stop the unlawful, unwarranted expansion of powers by the OCC.”

NAFCU urges FCC to clarify ‘autodialer’ by end of year

After meeting with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) earlier this week to discuss credit unions' concerns related to the definition of an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS), NAFCU's Ann Kossachev urged the agency to issue an order to clarify the definition by the end of 2018.   Kossachev, NAFCU's senior regulatory affairs counsel, was responding to the FCC's request for additional comments on the issue in light of mixed court decisions on the matter:

CallMiner Updates Real-Time Speech Analytics Platform – Improving Scalability, Speed to Insight, and Integration with Existing Agent Desktops and Workflows

Clearwater, FL – October 25, 2018 – CallMiner, a leading platform provider of award-winning speech and customer engagement analytics, demonstrated its updated real-time speech analytics module, Eureka Alert, at the 10^th annual LISTEN customer conference.  Eureka Alert combines AI-driven automated transcription, redaction, and alerting to provide real-time direction to contact center agents and supervisors to drive specific outcomes within a call as it is occurring, or alerting management of critical risk or customer experience issues.

PDCflow Celebrates 15 Years Serving Customers

Ogden, Utah — On October 16th, 2018, Accounts Receivable payment hub PDCflow reached a landmark anniversary, celebrating 15 years in business.  The company was created in 2003 specifically to provide payment processing services to the debt collection industry. The first goal of PDCflow was to provide fast, efficient payment methods to our client’s consumers. Since then, the cloud-based payment software has added online payments, eSignature, document delivery, recurring schedules, IVR and more to serve the payment and compliance needs of accounts receivable professionals.

Attorney General Becerra: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Acting Director Mulvaney’s Failure to Protect Service Members is a Disgrace

SACRAMENTO –  Today, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra joined a bipartisan multistate coalition criticizing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) under Acting Director Mick Mulvaney for its failure to protect military service members. In a multistate letter, the 33 attorneys general condemned CFPB Acting Director Mulvaney for the decision to strip the agency’s oversight of lenders under the Military Lending Act (MLA). This oversight is a vital component of safeguarding service members and their families from unscrupulous lenders and the burden of unaffordable debt. The MLA caps interest rates, bans arbitration, and limits finance charges for consumer loans to individuals in the military and their families. By eliminating oversight of lender compliance, the CFPB puts military service members and their families at risk.

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