Monday, Aug. 19 was due to be the original deadline for comments related to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s proposed rule, before the deadline was extended by 30 days to Sept. 18.
But at least a small handful of organizations appear to not need any additional time and filed their comments this week, and they are worth mentioning. The two in question are from the Consumer Bankruptcy Committee of the American Bankruptcy Institute and SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union.
They should not be confused with two comments that came in yesterday that both said, “My name is insert name, and Ive worked as a insert job title at a collection company for insert number years.” Talk about wanting to stay anonymous.
The ABI noted in its comment that the proposed validation notice “could be construed as a demand for payment that violates the automatic stay” of a bankruptcy proceeding, and asked “that bankruptcy-specific modifications be included in Regulation F with respect to debt validation notices.”
As well, the ABI recommended, there should be “a bankruptcy-specific exemption from including the Mini-Miranda disclosure on communications to consumers that have filed a bankruptcy case,” in order to not violate the automatic stay or discharge injunction.
In its comment, SchoolsFirst FCU noted that offering the opportunity to include a representative’s name in a limited content message could “incapacitate” its call center because incoming calls are handled by the first available employee to answer the phone. The credit union asked the CFPB to “clarify” in the final rule to allow a collector to leave his or her name but also provide a general number for the call to be returned.
The credit union also noted that “major system programming” would be needed in order to be able to put a timestamp on emails sent to individuals, and that “an expensive investment” would be required to track different “inconvenient” times for individuals who do not wish to be contacted at certain points during the day.
Allowing consumers to restrict which communication channels they are allowed to receive messages would require “significant system intervention” because the credit union does not have a central communication platform.
Integrating all of its communication channels so that it can automatically track opt-out requests from consumers would also be a challenge, the credit union said.
