Collectors are Watching the CFPB on Time-Barred Debt

As the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau tries its hand at rulemaking and surveying in the debt collection industry, Ronald Canter - founder  of The Law Offices of Ronald S. Canter, LLC and panelist at ARM-U – wrote about five key court cases the industry should look towards as precedent for the Bureau’s proposed reforms. But at the end of the day, it seems as though one major case is getting on everyone else’s…well…case. According to a recent insideARM.com poll, nearly 50 percent of you said you thought time-barred debt would be the first thing the CFPB addresses as it attempts to overhaul the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

Coming in at a distant second, 24 percent of you said you thought the CFPB would first address debt verification as a potential FDCPA reform. Individually, insideARM.com readers said they were also concerned about how the CFPB will address “frequent calls to the wrong person,” “cell phones” and “including creditors as third-party debt collectors.” Debt verification and time-barred debt were two of the key issues covered in the CFPB’s 162-question Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking earlier this year.

VIEW RESULTS-What do you think will be the CFPB’s first move in overhauling FDCPA?

Experts predict that the CFPB will ultimately take the stance that debt collectors should make an affirmative disclosure to consumers when they are seeking to collect debts that cannot be judicially enforced, and that failure to do so may violate the FDCPA. But in an op-ed Tuesday, attorney Tomio Narita argued that “If the CFPB discourages delinquent consumers from paying debts they admittedly owe, this raises the cost of credit for all consumers, and it may eliminate the availability of credit to low and moderate income consumers who need it the most.”

At ARM-U (October 14-15, 2014 in Washington, DC), Canter will join Kim Phan of Ballard Spahr and Anita Tolani of Weinberg, Jacobs & Tolani for a panel discussion about what the regulatory future looks like for debt collectors – including the huge role the CFPB will play – and how agencies can prepare for the future right now. This exclusive event will bring together senior compliance and operations officers, collection attorneys and HR/training experts, and allow them to learn from each other, discuss pitfalls and identify areas of improvement.