fair debt collection practices act

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The CFPB has issued its fourth annual FDCPA report covering the CFPB’s activities in 2014.  The section of the report that reviews consumer complaints about debt collection received by the CFPB in 2014 recycles information contained in the CFPB’s latest Consumer Response Annual Report.

In the section of the report about the CFPB’s supervision of debt collectors that qualify as “larger participants,” the CFPB describes FDCPA violations found by its examiners including:

  • Excessive or inconveniently timed telephone calls
  • Misleading representations in collection litigation, such as findings by CFPB examiners that one or more entities would dismiss 70% of the lawsuits they filed when the consumer filed an answer because the entities could not locate supporting documentation
  • False threats of litigation
  • Prohibited disclosures to third parties, with CFPB examiners finding that one or more collectors had provided faulty training materials that resulted in their representatives regularly identifying their employers to third parties without being expressly requested to do so
  • False and misleading representations in debt collection communications (which included misrepresentations regarding the benefits of participating in a federal student loan rehabilitation program made by debt collectors collecting defaulted student loans for the Department of Education as previously described in the CFPB’s Winter 2015 Supervisory Highlights.)
… Continue Reading

A new amicus brief filing by the CFPB recently appeared on the CFPB’s amicus program webpage.  On August 14, 2013, the CFPB, jointly with the FTC, filed an amicus brief
in Delgado v. Capital Management Services, LP, et al., a case on appeal to the Seventh Circuit.  The brief urges the Seventh Circuit to affirm the district court’s refusal to dismiss a class action complaint alleging that a debt collector’s letter offering a settlement of the plaintiff’s credit card debt violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) because it did not disclose that the debt was time-barred.  … Continue Reading

The CFPB is poised to further ramp up its oversight of the debt collection industry.  According to a Bloomberg report by Carter Dougherty, Director Cordray said in an interview earlier this week that the CFPB “will be looking to write” new regulations under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and will “continue to pursue a lot of enforcement work we’ve been doing.” … Continue Reading

Jeff Sovern has written an interesting blog post about the CFPB’s recent Bulletin 2013-07 that warns creditors and servicers who are not covered by the FDCPA that their collection practices are subject to the CFPB’s authority under Section 1031 of the Dodd-Frank Act which prohibits “unfair, deceptive, or abusive” acts or practices (UDAAPs). … Continue Reading

At yesterday’s joint FTC-CFPB roundtable on the debt collection industry, industry representatives advocated for a uniform, national standard for the documentation to be provided to debtors in the pre-litigation phase of the process. (Local court rules govern required documentation during litigation, making it unlikely that a national standard could be adopted for the litigation phase).… Continue Reading

At yesterday’s joint FTC-CFPB roundtable on the debt collection industry, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”) was referenced together with the “1970s” a number of times. Commissioner Julie Brill, in an unscripted moment in her opening remarks, smiled at the thought that the FDCPA was enacted the same year she graduated from high school in 1977.… Continue Reading

Debt collection will continue to be a major CFPB focus in 2013.  That’s the clear takeaway from the CFPB’s second annual report to Congress on enforcement of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.  Another takeaway is that the CFPB’s supervisory authority in the debt collection arena continues to expand.  Dodd-Frank gave the CFPB supervisory authority over service providers to large insured depository institutions as well as service providers to mortgage originators, payday lenders, and private student lenders. … Continue Reading

A prevailing defendant in a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act case can recover costs even without a court finding that the plaintiff filed suit in bad faith and for the purpose of harassment, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in Marx v. General Revenue Corp.  The Supreme Court rejected the plaintiff’s argument that a court’s authority to award costs under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(d) was superseded by the FDCPA’s cost provision to only allow a court to award costs if such a finding is made.… Continue Reading