Consumer bureau proposes rule to curb debt collector harassment

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on Tuesday proposed a rule meant to curb harassment by debt collectors with hard limits on how and when debtors can be contacted by collection agencies.   The proposal from the CFPB also bars debt collectors from taking certain actions that could harm debtors’ credit ratings or lead to costly litigation between debtors and collectors.

Republicans move to abolish CFPB

If a handful of Republicans in the Senate have their way, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will not exist for much longer, as for at least the third time in the last few years, Republicans are trying to kill the CFPB. And just like the two previous times it’s been attempted, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is leading the way. Cruz on Tuesday announced that he is reintroducing a bill, titled the “Repeal CFPB Act,” which would do exactly that: eliminate the CFPB. As stated above, this is Cruz’s third time to try to legislatively destroy the CFPB. Back in 2015, Cruz introduced a bill in the Senate that would have eliminated the CFPB, calling the CFPB a “runaway agency.” The bill did not pass, and in 2017, Cruz tried again.

6 takeaways from the Fed’s financial stability assessment

WASHINGTON — A Federal Reserve report released this week shows how financial markets' desire for higher yields creates the potential for losses, although capital and liquidity safeguards are tempering any concerns about a catastrophic crash. The central bank's semiannual Financial Stability Report identified a sharp increase in both leveraged lending and corporate debt, as well as the threat of an economic slowdown at home and abroad, as the leading sources of risk to the financial system. In general, there were few glaring differences between the report released Monday and the Fed’s inaugural assessment of financial stability in November.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Proposes Regulations to Implement the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Bureau) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to implement the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). The proposal would provide consumers with clear protections against harassment by debt collectors and straightforward options to address or dispute debts. Among other things, the NPRM would set clear, bright-line limits on the number of calls debt collectors may place to reach consumers on a weekly basis; clarify how collectors may communicate lawfully using newer technologies, such as voicemails, emails and text messages, that have developed since the FDCPA’s passage in 1977; and require collectors to provide additional information to consumers to help them identify debts and respond to collection attempts.

CFPB Proposes Debt-Collection Rules That Allow Unlimited Texts

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau unveiled new proposed rules for debt collectors on Tuesday that would restrict how often they can call borrowers, while making clear that firms can send unlimited text messages and emails to consumers. The regulations -- the result of a process started under former CFPB director Richard Cordray -- would mark some of the first major rule changes for the industry in four decades if they are adopted.

Convoke Named One of Virginia’s Fastest Growing Companies for 2019

ARLINGTON, Va., May 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Convoke, a leader in SaaS solutions for the debt collection market, has been named one of Virginia's Fantastic 50 Companies by the Virginia Chamber of Commerce for the third year in a row.  Virginia's Fantastic 50 award program is a signature event of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce and is the only annual statewide award recognizing Virginia's fastest growing businesses.

Gillibrand bill would expand CFPB data collection to spot lending discrimination

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) announced Monday that she will introduce a bill to require broader data collection on thousands of loan and credit applications in a bid to crack down on lending discrimination. Gillibrand, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, said that she would sponsor a proposal to drastically expand the amount of data reported to and analyzed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) from banks, lenders and credit card companies. 

DO YOU KNOW OF OLD, UNCOLLECTED JUDGMENTS?

Germantown, MD. –Companies often sit on hundreds, or even thousands, of commercial judgments. After years of collection efforts, many of these judgments are left uncollected with little value remaining to the company. Now, however, there is a new market for generating ‘found money’ from these stale judgments. Kaulkin Ginsberg Company (KGC) represents a widely recognized leader in purchasing bankruptcy remnant assets that is looking to pay immediate cash for portfolios of old, commercial judgments, including those against defunct, dissolved, or illiquid businesses.

Feds’ Consumer Watchdog Agency Is Legal, Ninth Circuit Rules

(CN) – An agency with limited quasi-judicial powers is constitutional, despite having a director – currently President Donald Trump appointee Kathy Kraninger – who can only be removed by the president for inefficiency, neglect of duties or malfeasance, the Ninth Circuit ruled Monday.   At issue is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was created in 2010 through passage of the Consumer Financial Protection Act by Congress. The bureau is housed in the Federal Reserve, but has the authority to investigate and administratively punish financial wrongdoing.

In Senate Testimony, FTC Highlights Work to Protect Consumers, Promote Competition

In testimony before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, the Federal Trade Commission described its work to protect consumers and promote competition through vigorous enforcement, education, advocacy, and policy work, and by anticipating and responding to changes in the marketplace.

This National Small Business Week, the focus is on cybersecurity

It’s National Small Business Week, a time when we celebrate the businesses that make our communities thrive. For the FTC, it’s an opportunity to let business owners know that when it comes to protecting your business from cyber threats, you’re not alone. The federal government has resources to help you address common cyber threats and create a culture of cybersecurity at your company. The materials at FTC.gov/Cybersecurity were introduced last year in cooperation with DHS, NIST, and the SBA. They include videos, interactive quizzes, and fact sheets on these topics:

Berger hits bankers back in new letter to CFPB

In response to a letter from two bank trade associations, NAFCU President and CEO Dan Berger urged CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger to "exercise its statutory exemption authority more effectively to exclude credit unions from burdensome regulations that are meant to target bad actors in the financial services industry."

AG Jeff Landry Continues Bipartisan, Multi-State Push Against Illegal Robocalls

BATON ROUGE, LA – Today, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and 41 of his fellow state attorneys general called on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to take further action to stop the growing proliferation of illegal robocalls and spoofing.   In legal comments delivered to the FCC, General Landry and his colleagues urged the federal government to adopt proposed rules on enforcement against caller ID spoofing on calls into the United States from overseas, as well as spoofing in text messaging and alternative voice services. These provisions are included in the FCC appropriations authorization bill (the RAY BAUM’S Act of 2018). 

PayThink New ‘unknown’ data breach shows the danger of multicloud

Data breaches are an ongoing problem that's getting worse given the recent news that a massive unprotected database of unclear ownership was found online, potentially exposing personal data for 80 million U.S. households.

CBA discusses banking regulations with Senate leaders

The Consumer Bankers Association (CBA) reached out to leaders of the Senate Banking Committee to discuss a variety of concerns related to banking regulations.   In a letter to committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Ranking Member Sherrod Brown (D-OH), CBA President and CEO discussed the use of proper regulatory guidance, the need for experienced bank examiners, and the importance of regulatory coordination among supervisory agencies.

CFPB: 5 ways you can guard against identity theft

Protecting your sensitive personal information from misuse is a way to safeguard your credit. Unfortunately, hacking and data breaches have exposed the personal information of a majority of Americans. These events are difficult to predict, but there are steps you can take to protect your information both before and after a breach. So how do you decide what options are best for you? 

Banks have eased lending terms for business clients this year, Fed survey finds

The numbers: Banks eased lending terms for large and midsized commercial borrowers in the first three months of the year, according to a Federal Reserve survey of senior loan officers released Monday. Standards on most business loans remained unchanged.

Compromise TCPA FCC Proposal Gathers Steam: Recent FCC Submission Fleshes out Potential ATDS and Revocation Paradigms

The Baron and I are working hard to break the logjam and assist the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) to reach a ruling on the TCPA Public Notice proceeding following the ACA Int’l. Last week we met the Chief and staff of the FCC’s Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau—the folks responsible for putting pen to paper on the TCPA Omnibus II— and walked through how the compromise proposal would work, brick by brick. As to a compromise formulation for automated telephone dialing system, we explained that a definition for “automatic” dialing was needed. Although both the Ninth Circuit’s Marks case, and the FCC’s own rulings from 2003 focusing on “human intervention,” have looked at the idea of “automatic” dialing, neither ruling gave a definition for the term.  The compromise ATDS proposal would interpret the phrase ATDS to include dialers that randomly or sequentially generate numbers and dial them OR any system that dials automatically from a list without human intervention in that the system, as used, fails to achieve an abandonment rate of 3% or less of answered calls.

Soaring bankruptcies in Farm Belt force banks to boost defenses

Banks that serve U.S. farmers are increasingly restructuring existing loans and boosting the collateral needed for new ones as the numbers of late and missed payments have risen. While regional banks are healthy, they're clearly boosting their defenses against the risks they face. In March, a report by First Midwest Bank in Chicago showed past-due agricultural loans up 287% in 2018 over the previous year. Meanwhile, cases handled by the Iowa Mediation Service involving farmers unable to make payments rose 20%. Farmer bankruptcies in six Midwest states rose 30% to 103 in 2018, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. To hold back the tide, Farmers National Bank in Prophetstown, Illinois, is restructuring more and more loans to keep growers solvent while trimming the bank's own risk.

The OCC Jumps into the Sandbox

On April 30, 2018, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) opened a 45-day public comment period on a proposed Innovation Pilot Program (the Program). The OCC, like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), is opening its doors in an effort to partner with financial institutions in order to “foster constructive innovative ideas to improve the industry.” In a public statement, the OCC outlined the Program’s goals to (1) support innovation in the banking system; (2) foster communication between the OCC and entities regarding expectations and requirements; (3) further understand innovative activities and how to properly maintain them; and (4) promote the OCC's objectives. Ideally, these goals would be achieved by creating a transparent framework for entities to engage with the OCC to test potential innovative products on a small scale and short term period. The Program is open only to OCC-supervised financial institutions. However, third parties working with a financial institution may become eligible to participate in the Program.

Fintechs want to become nationwide lenders, but they just hit a major roadblock

New York’s banking regulators can proceed with their case to prevent fintech companies from acting like banks, a judge ruled Thursday. The regulators want to block the federal government from giving fintech companies national licenses that would allow them to pay consumers’ checks and lend them money. Online lending from the “fintech” sector is booming — prompting a legal duel between state and federal banking regulators on whose rules the budding industry must follow. Manhattan Federal Judge Victor Marrero ruled that the New York State Department of Financial Services could proceed with two of its three claims against the Office of Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), an independent bureau within the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

Nuance Voice Biometrics to Improve Customer Experience and Boost Security at Santander

BURLINGTON, Mass. and LONDON, May 02, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nuance Communications, Inc. (NUAN) today announced Santander is making phone banking more seamless and secure through Voice ID, a system that leverages Nuance’s market-leading, fraud-preventing biometrics technology.

Boston Fed Weighs Up Regulatory Blockchain Nodes

The Boston Federal Reserve released a white paper on Wednesday that hopes to tackle some of the problems regulators will face if blockchain technology is widely adopted.   Noting, in kinder words, that the nascent technology was once thought of as being something particular to anarchist kooks, the regulator said that the growing adoption of blockchain means it has to deal with it.

CFPB Sues Credit Repair Firms Over Upfront Fees

The CFPB filed a complaint against PGX Holdings Inc. and subsidiaries Progrexion Marketing Inc., Progrexion Teleservices Inc., eFolks LLC and CreditRepair.com Inc.; and against John C. Heath, Attorney at Law PLLC, who does business as Lexington Law. The lawsuit was filed in Utah and alleges “the defendants violated the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) by requesting and receiving payment of prohibited upfront fees for their credit repair services.” The rule states that companies can only charge fees for telemarketed credit repair help after they’ve given customers documentation that shows the promised results have been achieved.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Files Suit Against Lexington Law, PGX Holdings, and Related Entities

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Bureau) today filed a complaint against PGX Holdings Inc. and subsidiaries Progrexion Marketing Inc., Progrexion Teleservices Inc., eFolks LLC, and CreditRepair.com Inc.; and against John C. Heath, Attorney at Law PLLC, which does business as Lexington Law.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Proposes Changes to HMDA Rules

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Bureau) today issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM), which proposes to raise the coverage thresholds for collecting and reporting data about closed-end mortgage loans and open-end lines of credit under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) rules. The NPRM would provide relief to smaller lenders from HMDA’s data reporting requirements, and would clarify partial exemptions from certain HMDA requirements that Congress added in the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (EGRRCPA). The Bureau today also issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) seeking information on the costs and benefits of reporting certain data points under HMDA.

Coming Together of Traditional Lenders and Fintech Players, Creating Better Opportunities

The banking and the lending segment have been under the constant current of reformation and innovation, lately. Thanks to the technological revolution over the years, the fintech ecosystem in India has caught up fast with its global peers in terms of adoption and is expected to reach USD 2.4 billion by 2020. Fintech firms are undoubtedly having a moment.Given the significant interest in fintech globally, and its ongoing evolution - the word “fintech” is now officially in the Oxford dictionary. Fintech driven alternative lending is the second most funded and one of the fastest growing segments in the Indian fintech space. At last count, there were over 20 plus digital, alternative lending companies, each with their version of the truth, and probably another twenty in the stealth mode.

Bank short-term credit options explored

The Consumer Bankers Association (CBA) is touting the potential of financial institutions to aid Americans in need of emergency funds. “Millions of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, leaving consumers with less cushion for emergencies, strained credit scores, and fewer credit option,” CBA president and CEO Richard Hunt wrote in correspondence to House Financial Services Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions Subcommittee Chair Gregory Meeks (D-NY) and Ranking Member Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO). “The need for access to affordable, short-term liquidity products has become more important than ever. CBA is encouraged by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s recent actions related to DAP and the CFPB’s decision to revise the small dollar rule as these actions will help to foster a vibrant small-dollar loan market for consumers in need.”

Tell Us What You Know About the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. We’re Investigating.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was created by Congress in the aftermath of the financial crisis to police companies and protect people from unfair, deceptive or abusive practices. Since the start of the Trump administration, there has been a slowdown in enforcement actions and efforts to roll back regulations. It has also gone through three different leaders. “Trump, Inc.,” a joint investigation by ProPublica and WNYC, wants to understand whether the CFPB is still enforcing federal consumer financial laws and holding companies accountable.

Fintech Based Debt Collection Startups Help In Increasing Recovery Rate

This might be the first time ever when you are hearing about the term Fin tech debt collection startups. These forms of startup companies are actually transforming the entire dated industry, which was actually relying on the archaic methods of the practice over here. There are some of the industrial based disruptors, which have seen some of the dramatically increased form of recovery rates while just trying to offer one of the most pleasant experiences for not only the debtor but even for the creditors, at the same time.

CUs continue to be responsible credit card lenders during growth

Despite credit union’s continued growth in the credit card market, credit unions remain responsible credit card providers, CUNA wrote to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Wednesday. The CFPB seeks input on several aspects of the consumer credit card market, the fourth such review as required by the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act of 2009.

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May 2019 Open Commission Meeting

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Collection & Recovery Solutions 2019

Resource Management Services, Inc.

National Creditors Bar Association 2019 Spring Conference

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PrivacyCon 2019

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NACTT 54th Annual Seminar Registration Open

NACTT

ACA International 2019 Annual Convention & Expo

ACA International

Debt Connection Symposium & Expo 2019

Resource Management Services, Inc.

National Creditors Bar Association 2019 Fall Conference

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