CFPB, Federal Agencies, State Agencies, and Attorneys General
The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) has published a notice on its website concerning delays that debt collectors and buyers seeking to comply with the new licensing requirement in the state’s Debt Collection Licensing Act are currently experiencing.
The new law, passed in September 2020, requires debt collectors and buyers to apply…
On December 13, 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that, under the terms of a settlement, a group of phantom debt collectors were permanently banned from the debt collection industry. The term “phantom debt” is generally used to refer to debt that doesn’t exist or has already been paid.
In its related complaint…
On November 8, 2021, New York Governor Hochul signed into law the “Consumer Credit Fairness Act” (S.153). The Act contains a series of amendments to the New York Civil Practice Law and Rules that significantly impact debt collection lawsuits filed in New York state courts by creditors or debt collectors.
The key amendments…
On October 29, the New York Department of Financial Services issued proposed amendments to 23 NYCRR 1, its regulation titled “Debt Collection by Third-Party Debt Collectors and Debt Buyers.” The proposed amendments would make significant changes to the sections of the current regulation dealing with initial disclosure requirements, statute of limitations disclosures, substantiation…
On October 29, the CFPB published additional frequently asked questions on Regulation F, its final debt collection rule, as well as a guidance document. The new FAQs address validation notice requirements (including for residential mortgage debts) and the guidance document deals with how to disclose the validation information on the itemization table on the model…
On October 28, 2021, in a 2-1 split panel decision, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals vacated its prior opinion in Hunstein v. Preferred Collection and Management Services, Inc. (published at 994 F.3d 1341 (11th Cir. 2021)), and substituted a new opinion in its place. The new opinion is published, meaning it has immediate…
Last week, the CFPB released a Spanish translation of the model-English language validation notice set forth in Appendix B of Regulation F.
The final debt collection rule allows a debt collector to send a validation that is completely and accurately translated into any language if the debt collector either (1) sends an English-language version in…
The CFPB has released frequently asked questions on the limited-content message and call frequency provisions of its debt collection rule (Regulation F) that becomes effective on November 30, 2021. While many of the FAQs repeat what is stated in the rule, they do provide some clarifying information which we highlight below.
Limited content message (LMC). …
During D.C.’s declared State of Public Health Emergency, several financial protections have been put in place, including some that severely limit, among other things, collection activities relating to consumer contracts, repossession, and legal actions on accounts. On September 1, Mayor Muriel Bowser signed the most recent pair of emergency and temporary legislation to land on…
We discuss a range of practical issues related to the rule’s rapidly-approaching effective date, including: the prospects for further CFPB rulemaking or guidance; the aspects of the rule that should be prioritized by third-party collectors and debt buyers; the rule’s impact on creditors (for internal collections and third-party collector/debt buyer oversight), state law considerations, and…
