Navigating Federal and State Call Recording Laws for Debt Collectors

Navigating Federal and State Call Recording Laws for Debt Collectors

Each year, the California Association of Collectors (CAC) provides insight to debt collection professionals through a series of educational courses. They touched on topics ranging from responding to disputes to tips for creating compliant collection letters, to best practices for handling call baiting. PDCflow has partnered with the California Association of Collectors (CAC) in the past to cover many operational …

Expert Tips for Creating Debt Collection Letters

Expert Tips for Creating Debt Collection Letters

Debt collection letters are a central part of a collection agency’s compliance management system. However, the California Association of Collectors (CAC) 2017 Collection Boot Camp panel, Courtney Reynaud, Shawn Suhr, Kelly Parsons-O’Brien (agency owners) and June Coleman (attorney), recognize the potential liabilities inherent in drafting collection letters. Their combined expertise and Coleman’s legal know-how as the CAC’s MAP attorney provided …

Consent Management for Electronic Communications: Best Practices for Creditors and Collectors

Consent Management for Electronic Communications: Best Practices for Creditors and Collectors

Regulation F and reaching consumers through electronic communications is now a reality. Debt collection agencies have prepared as best they can and have implemented new compliance policies and procedures. But what about creditors? All creditor clients that use a third-party agency should know about Regulation F. Are you (and more importantly, are your clients) ready for data maintenance and handoff …

Use Root Cause Analysis Methods to Improve Policies and Procedures

Use Root Cause Analysis Methods to Improve Policies and Procedures

Courtney Reynaud, President and CEO of Creditors Bureau USA, has found success in her agency with careful attention to policies, procedures, and work instructions. But, she didn’t always have such a strong compliance management system. Before her office focused on these practices, she noticed blame would often be placed on a single employee or a client. Reynaud explained that blaming …

Steps to Create A Compliance Management System

Steps to Create a Compliance Management System

The CFPB expects all debt collection agencies to have a compliance management system (CMS) in place during operation. Courtney Reynaud, President of Credit Bureau USA, and the other California Association of Collectors Collection Boot Camp panelists, understand how overwhelming creating a compliant collection agency can be. “With everything else we have to do to run a successful business, compliance is …

Digital Engagement Technology in Debt Collection: Consent, Compliance and Risk

Digital Engagement Technology in Debt Collection: Consent, Compliance and Risk

Spam calls and change in communication preferences from younger generations is making it harder than ever for debt collectors to get consumers on the phone. That’s why digital engagement through email, text and electronic methods of payment are now becoming mainstream in accounts receivable. Mike Frost, partner at Malone, Frost, Martin PLLC., has been watching the compliance landscape since Regulation …

Steps to CFPB Compliance Throughout a Period of Shifting Priorities

Steps to CFPB Compliance Through a Period of Shifting Priorities

Implementing systems and workflows in line with Regulation F was a huge project for debt collectors. But recent remarks, social media posts, bulletins, blogs and CFPB press releases suggest that the focus on CFPB compliance isn’t over for AR professionals. Joann Needleman and Leslie Bender, Attorneys at Clark Hill Law, have monitored CFPB rules and actions for many years and …

Compliance Risk Assessment and Preparing for Digital Communication in AR

Compliance Risk Assessment and Preparing for Digital Communication in AR

The long-awaited Regulation F recently outlined how the CFPB expects debt collection agencies to operate. The Bureau’s intentions with the regulation are to standardize debt collection, protect consumers and create a better customer experience. Now that Regulation F has finally been implemented, industry experts like Mike Frost, partner at Malone, Frost, Martin PLLC, are monitoring its impact and encouraging agencies …

Breaking Down Regulation F’s Debt Validation Notice

Breaking Down Regulation F Debt Validation Notice

Legal professionals for the ARM industry, like Leslie Bender and Joann Needleman of Clark Hill Law, have been addressing Regulation F implementation challenges since the rule was proposed. Since then, they have continued to be a guiding voice for debt collectors throughout the debt collection rulemaking process. Recently, they sat down with PDCflow’s Sales & Marketing Manager Dawn Updike to …

Compliance Roadmap: FDCPA Laws & Regulation F

Compliance Roadmap: FDCPA Laws & Regulation F

The implementation date for the CFPB’s Regulation F was November 30, 2021. By now, debt collection agencies should be fully compliant with this long-awaited rule. Despite this, many agencies are still struggling to modernize out of fear of being non-compliant. To help agencies prepare for these compliance challenges, PDCflow and financial services attorneys Joann Needleman and Leslie Bender, presented a …

Hunstein Decision: Collection and Consumer Attorneys Weigh In

Hunstein Decision: Collection and Consumer Attorneys Weigh In

The recent Hunstein decision has been a big talking point for debt collection since the ruling was made. Agencies are scrambling to understand the implications of this case, which found transmitting data from a debt collector to a letter vendor is a violation of third party disclosure, even as new suits are being filed. To get a handle on this …

The CFPB Completes Debt Collection Rulemaking

The CFPB Completes Debt Collection Rulemaking

This article was written by Joann Needleman, Ann E. Lemmo, and Leslie C. Bender. It was originally published by Clark Hill Law and is republished here with permission. On Dec. 18, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB” or “Bureau”) completed its seven-year rulemaking process for debt collection. In 2013, the CFPB embarked on an ambitious journey to write regulations to interpret the 40-year-old Fair Debt …