CFPB Extends Time-Barred Debt SNPRM Comment Deadline

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Due to COVID-19, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau decided to extend the comment period to their Supplemental Notice of Rulemaking (SNPRM) for time-barred debts by one month. The comments, originally due on May 4, 2020, are now due on June 5, 2020.

The CFPB's Federal Register notice, scheduled to be published on March 27, states:

Given the challenges posed by the COVID-19 (coronavirus infection) pandemic, we have received requests from stakeholders to give interested parties more time to conduct outreach to relevant constituencies and to properly address the many questions presented in the SNPRM.

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The SNPRM—which was predicted due to the CFPB's placeholder in the time-barred debt section of the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and the disclosure survey conducted by the CFPB in 2019—lays out requirements for debt collectors who are collecting on accounts that are barred by the applicable statute of limitations. In other words, these proposed rules would control accounts for which the creditor's time period to sue the consumer to collect the debt has passed.

The requirements include prohibitions on filing suit on time-barred debt accounts and certain disclosures that a debt collector must make depending on the laws of the applicable jurisdiction.