Colorado Bill Aims to Limit Debt Collections, Boost Price Transparency

April 28, 2022 - The Colorado House has passed a bill that seeks to prohibit hospitals from pursuing debt collections against patients if the health system does not comply with the CMS hospital price transparency rule.

Education Department Approves $238 Million Group Discharge for 28,000 Marinello Schools of Beauty Borrowers Based on Borrower Defense Findings

Today, the Department of Education announced it will deliver relief to tens of thousands of borrowers harmed by pervasive and widespread misconduct at Marinello Schools of Beauty. Borrowers who enrolled in the schools from 2009 through its closure in February 2016 will receive loan discharges based on borrower defense findings.

Community Banks and Overdrafts — Time for Reconsideration?

Bank consumer overdraft fees (together with nonsufficient funds (NSF) fees and returned check fees) have long been a target of attacks by consumer advocacy groups and progressive politicians who claim that such fees are disproportionately levied on the most vulnerable consumers.

Federal Trade Commission Proposes Small Business Protections Against Telemarketing Tricks and Traps

The Federal Trade Commission today proposed extending protections against telemarketing tricks and traps to small businesses and strengthening safeguards against other pernicious telemarking tactics plaguing consumers. The agency is seeking comments on updates to the Telemarketing Sales Rule that would protect small businesses against business-to-business telemarking schemes, address tech-support scams that target seniors, and extend click-to-cancel requirements to telemarketing. 

CFPB Director Testifies Before Congress

This week, CFPB Director, Rohit Chopra, appeared before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services in conjunction with the CFPB’s submission of its Semiannual Report to Congress. In his prepared testimony before both committee, the Director highlighted some of the CFPB’s work over the past six months, which includes:

Congress should push CFPB to focus on bad actors, not credit unions

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has missed many opportunities to leverage credit unions’ mission, CUNA, AACUL, and the Leagues wrote to the House Committee on Financial Services on Tuesday.

Attorney General James Secures Student Debt Relief for Thousands of New Yorkers

NEW YORK – New York Attorney General Letitia James today secured student debt relief for thousands of New York borrowers whose federal loans were allegedly mismanaged by the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA).

Written Testimony of Director Rohit Chopra before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

Chairman Brown, Ranking Member Toomey, and distinguished Members of the Committee, I am pleased to appear before you today in conjunction with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) submission of the Semiannual Report to Congress.

FTC Takes Action to Stop Voice over Internet Provider from Facilitating Illegal Telemarketing Robocalls, Including Scams Relating to the Pandemic

The Federal Trade Commission today took action against Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service provider VoIP Terminator, Inc., a related company, and the firms’ owner for assisting and facilitating the transmission of millions of illegal prerecorded telemarketing robocalls, including those they knew or should have known were scams, to consumers nationwide. Many of the calls originated overseas, and related to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the defendants allegedly failing to act as a gatekeeper to stop them from entering the country.

Comparing states with the highest and lowest personal debt and income levels

Americans collectively owe more than $15.3 trillion in personal debt, accrued by financing homes and cars, taking out loans to attend college, or simply by using credit cards. Debt isn’t necessarily a sign of borrowers living beyond their means or buying irresponsibly, though. It’s often used as a tool to achieve financial goals that can have long-term benefits, such as buying a home to build equity over many years. Debt and income profiles of every state vary significantly when factors such as housing prices, cost of living, and economic opportunities are considered.

OCC Launches Discussion Series on Financial Health

WASHINGTON—The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) today announced the launch of a discussion series to explore issues relating to the financial wellbeing of consumers.

CFPB Makes Move to Widen Supervisory Scope

On April 25, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) announced that it would begin invoking a provision in Dodd-Frank, previously used only infrequently, to conduct supervisory examinations over a greater number of nonbank financial companies that may “pose risks to consumers.”

CFPB criticizes transcript withholding by postsecondary schools

A recent CFPB blog post endorsed part of U.S. Department of Education Secretary Cardona’s keynote address for the 2021 FSA Training Conference that issued a call to end the longstanding institutional practice of transcript withholding in order to promote equity and diversity.  While the CFPB rings alarm bells in its blog post, it offers no data concerning the prevalence of this practice to explain why it finds cause for alarm.

40% of Credit Union Members Are Interested in Real-Time Payments

Forty percent of credit union members are “very” or “extremely” interested in real-time payments, according to the “Credit Union Innovation Playbook,” a PYMNTS and PSCU collaboration based on a survey of 4,832 U.S. consumers, 101 credit union decision-makers and 51 FinTech executives.

LAWSUITS UP ACROSS THE BOARD: WEBRECON STATS FOR MARCH 2022

Quick analysis: Lawsuits Up Across The Board CFPB complaints (+8.3%) and consumer litigation (FDCPA +10.6%, TCPA +10.1%, FCRA +17.3%) all spiked by double-digit percentages across all three major consumer statutes in March. However, only FCRA (+3.8%) is up YTD. CFPB complaints (-2.8%), FDCPA (-3.6%) and TCPA lawsuits (-39.8%) are all down compared to this time last year.

Debt Collection Attorney Outlook: The Future of the Industry

Debt collection attorneys work as a team with their clients to develop legal strategies to collect debts owed by nonpaying customers. This is also known as debt collection strategies. If your case proceeds to trial, they will often represent you in court. However, most of their job consists of preparing and submitting documents on your behalf.

American Credit Acceptance Improper Car Repossession $98M Class Action Settlement

American Credit Acceptance agreed to forgive over $98 million in deficient account balances to resolve claims of improper car repossession.

RMAI Is Excited to Present FinancialLiteracy.Rocks for Financial Literacy Month

April 26, 2022 (Sacramento, CA) – Receivables Management Association International (RMAI) is excited to provide a resource for financial success: FinancialLiteracy.Rocks (http://financialliteracy.rocks/).  RMAI is committed to protecting consumers and helping them reach their financial goals, manage debt, and create a stronger economy one financial decision at a time.  This website gathers helpful resources together for ease of access and discovery.  FinancialLiteracy.Rocks debuted in 2019 and is updated with new resources on an ongoing basis.

How fraudsters target mortgage lending

Across business and finance, dealing with cyber threats has become a regular part of life. Two years ago, researchers at Cybersecurity Ventures predicted that a new ransomware attack would occur every 11 seconds. Last year, a hack of the Colonial Pipeline’s billing infrastructure illustrated how large an impact cyberattacks could have. And at the end of the year, a security flaw in Apache Log4j framework posed a threat to any company using Java applications, putting banking services particularly at risk to Dridex malware. And in mid-April, five lenders and a title company reported data breaches which, combined, could affect thousands of customers.

TCPA Regulatory Update — FCC Partners with More States, Sends More Cease & Desist Letters, Clarifies Safe Harbors, and Responds to Congressional Queries

As we reported last month, the Federal Communications Commission has been partnering with various states to improve the federal-state collaboration in robocalling investigations. In April, the Commission’s Enforcement Bureau signed memoranda of understanding with Alaska, California, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and the state of Washington. With the addition of these states, a majority of U.S. states have now joined with the Commission in robocalling investigation partnerships. In announcing these new partnerships, Chairwoman Rosenworcel remarked that “[the new partnerships] show[] that we are united when it comes to fighting robocalls—urban, rural, north, south, east, and west.”

Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina M. Khan Announces Senior Agency Leaders

Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina M. Khan announced the appointment of two senior agency leaders: General Counsel Anisha Dasgupta and Office of Policy Planning Director Elizabeth Wilkins.

Broadcasters Urge FCC to Regulate Big Tech

Representatives from ABC Television Affiliates Association, the CBS Television Network Affiliates Association, the FBC Television Association and the NBC Television Affiliates (The Four Affiliates Associations) sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on April 21, claiming that digital platforms do not fairly compensate broadcasters and urging the regulator to modify existing rules to impose stricter requirements on Big Tech. 

CFPB Signals Foray into Protecting Small Businesses from Abusive Debt Collectors

On April 15, the CFPB and FTC announced the release of a joint annual report to Congress administering the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).  The annual report highlights both agencies’ efforts to protect and provide debt collection relief to consumers, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic hardship.

CFPB Invokes Dormant Authority to Examine Nonbank Companies Posing Risks to Consumers

Washington, D.C. – The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it is invoking a largely unused legal provision to examine nonbank financial companies that pose risks to consumers. The CFPB believes that utilizing this dormant authority will help protect consumers and level the playing field between banks and nonbanks. The CFPB is also seeking public comments on a procedural rule to make this process more transparent.

Medical debt is a leading source of consumer credit complaints

Medical debt on a consumer’s credit report can result in reduced access to credit, increased risk of bankruptcy, avoidance of medical care and difficulty securing employment — even if the bill itself is inaccurate or erroneous. Not surprisingly, medical debt is one of the leading categories of complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Director Chopra’s Prepared Remarks on the Lawsuit Against MoneyGram

Millions of individuals from around the world sacrifice proximity to their loved ones to seek a better life and financial stability in our country. But they know that on the other side, when their money transfers are received, they are supporting elderly parents, siblings, spouses, and sometimes their own young children. Each year, American families send more than $100 billion abroad using international money transfers, also known as remittances.

Collection and Recovery Solutions 2022

Resource Management Services, Inc.

RMAi Executive Summit 2022

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DCS2022 – Debt Connection Symposium and Expo 2022