Maybe it says something about the state of the accounts receivable management industry that not a single debt collection topic is on the list of the Top 20 actions that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau took in 2022 to make the marketplace safe for consumers, according to a report releases by U.S. PIRG.
A copy of the report can be accessed by clicking here.
To be fair, there were some items on the list that tie back to debt collecting, such as paving the way for changes to medical debt reporting (number 3), processing record numbers of consumer complaints (number 5), protecting servicemembers and military families (number 9), and bolstering state enforcement of consumer protections (number 19), but nothing specifically to do with how debts are collected.
Ordering Wells Fargo to pay a record $3.7 billion was at the top of the list, followed by launching an initiative to save Americans billions of dollars in junk fees. Since Rohit Chopra took over as Director of the CFPB, the Bureau “has been protecting consumers better than ever before,” according to the report.
The report cites the CFPB with instigating the three major credit reporting agencies into making changes to how medical debts are being reported on consumers’ credit reports. While applauding the changes and the CFPB’s efforts in this area, the report said that medically necessary debt should not be reported or considered at all.
In its concluding remarks, the report pulls no punches about the potential impact of the upcoming Supreme Court hearing on the constitutionality of the CFPB’s funding structure. “If the CFPB has to rely on Congressional funding, the banking industry could try to influence members of Congress to withhold funding from regulators unless they do their bidding,” the report concludes. “Efforts to make the CFPB the only banking regulator subject to Congressional appropriations would put the most pro-consumer federal agency at risk of being starved of the funding it needs to protect consumers and, therefore, must be resisted.”
