CFPB decides not to delay debt collection rules | Goodwin

On July 30, 2021, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that two final rules issued under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) would take effect as originally planned, on November 30, 2021, thereby rescinding a proposed deadline that had extended the effective dates until January 29, 2022.

As previously reported by the Lenders Act, the first of the CFPB’s new debt collection rules, published in October 2020, was designed “to reaffirm and clarify the prohibitions of harassment and abuse, false representations or deceptive and unfair debt collection agents’ practices when collecting consumer debts. “The rule clarified that a debt collector is presumed to be in breach of the FDCPA’s ban on repeated or continuous phone calls if he calls a person more than seven times in a seven-day period or within seven. days after the phone call conversation with the person.In addition, to respond to modern electronic communication methods such as email and text messaging, the new rule clarifies how consumers can set limits on debt collection communications. claims to reflect their method of communication preferences. Debt collectors who communicate with consumers electronically should provide a simple and reasonable method for the consumer to opt out of such communications to an email address or telephone number. specific phone. The rule also provides that consumers can, if the debt collector es communicates by an electronic means of communication, use that electronic means of communication to file a request for cessation of communication or to notify the debt collector that he refuses to pay the debt.

The Second Debt Collection Rule, released in December 2020, clarified the information that debt collectors must provide to consumers at the start of the collection process. It also prohibits debt collectors from suing or threatening to sue consumers for prescribed debts, and requires debt collectors to take specific steps to disclose the existence of a debt to consumers before disclosing information about the debt. debt to a consumer information agency.

The CFPB first proposed to delay the effective date of the new rules to April 2020 “to give affected parties more time to comply due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.” However, the CFPB ultimately spoke out against the postponement because “[t]he comments publicly [received in response to the notice of the proposed delay] generally not supported an extension. Initially, the CFPB noted that “[m]Most industry commentators have said they will be ready to comply with the final rules by November 30, 2021. “Additionally,”[a]While commentators from consumer advocates have generally supported extending the effective date, they have not considered whether more time is needed to implement the rules. Finally, the CFPB noted that while “many commentators have insisted” that the implementation of the rules be extended as the rules themselves should be reviewed, this basis “went beyond the scope of the [Notice of Proposed Rulemaking] and could raise concerns under the Administrative Procedure Act.