Suddenly, there's a lot going on the in the world of debt collection regulation. On the heels of yesterday's announcement by the FTC of a huge debt-collection settlement (discussed in the post below), the CFPB is announcing today that it will use its UDAAP authority to regulate the collection practices of banks. “It doesn’t matter who is collecting the debt — unfair, deceptive or abusive practices are illegal,” says CFPB director Richard Cordray in a statement. And the OCC, too, is investigating how JP Morgan and other banks collect credit card debt. Jessica Silver-Greenberg and Ed Wyatt have a story in today's TImes that takes a broad look at the developments at all three agencies.
The CFPB published two bulletins on debt collection today. The first makes clear that any entity subject to the Bureau's jurisdiction under the Dodd-Frank Act, whether a third-party collector or a creditor collecting its own debts, can be held accountable for any unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices in collecting a consumer’s debts. The second warns companies to avoid deceptive statements concerning the impact of paying a debt on a consumer’s credit score, credit report, or creditworthiness.
