If you are looking for an unbiased and straightforward report that provides a high-level summary of what the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Congress are doing to regulate the debt collection industry, then this is the report for you.
Published last week by the Congressional Research Service, a public policy research institute that is part of Congress, “The Debt Collection Market and Selected Policy Issues” offers an adjective-free and objective overview of the major issues related to debt collection today, such as communication frequency, collecting on time-barred and obsolete debt, validation issues, medical debt and credit reporting, and federal, state, and local government debt.
The report includes an overview of the CFPB’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking as well as a summary of the bills that were marked up by the House Financial Services Committee or passed by the House of Representatives during the current Congressional Session.
In a “know thy enemy” kind of way, the report is helpful because it illustrates the type of information that a member of Congress may review or use when considering a bill or some other attempt at regulating the debt collection industry. Knowing the areas of debt collection that Congress may focus on could be helpful in preparing strategies and responses to mitigate any potential legislation that could be harmful to the process.
Beyond the debt collection rule that is hopefully going to be released imminently by the CFPB, regulating the collection industry may continue “to be an active policy issue” because of the number of individuals who go through the debt collection process, the report concludes.
