In a consent order that was announced on Monday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced it had levied a $1.5 million fine against New Century Financial Services, a debt buyer based in New Jersey. The CFPB also fined a law firm, Pressler & Pressler, $1 million for “churning out unfair and deceptive debt collection lawsuits based on flimsy or nonexistent evidence.” Those lawsuits were filed by Pressler & Pressler on behalf of New Century, which buys debt and then files lawsuits to collect on those debts.
Today, New Century released the following statement:
“New Century Financial Services does not believe that it has engaged in any unlawful activities. It was time to end this drawn out process and eliminate the threat of litigation so that NCFS can get back to doing business. Our business model allowed us to offer assurances that others could not and which were not actually demanded by the Bureau. NCFS has simply agreed to adhere to the high standards that it already set for itself – standards that go beyond what the law requires.
We take pride in the fact that after a lengthy investigation the Bureau has not made findings that New Century violated any state procedural rules or that it engaged in any improper affidavit practices. It made good economic sense to settle, but the Bureau’s findings are essentially that New Century did not follow rules that they have yet to publish and that NCFS conducted itself in litigation as federal and state appellate courts said it could.
It is important to note that, unlike in some other consent decrees handed down by the CFPB, New Century Financial Services did not have to refund money to consumers, vacate judgments, or invalidate any of its current inventory.”
