LAS VEGAS — When it comes to engaging with consumers on their cell phones via text messages, the conversation begins and ends with consent, said Jeff Simmons, the vice president of technology programs with the CTIA, a trade group representing wireless carriers, during a session at RMAI’s annual conference yesterday. And in case anyone reading this thinks cell phones aren’t important to engaging with consumers, companies in the receivables management industry are estimated to be sending approximately 10 billion text messages annually, and 90% of people living in America have a smartphone.
Overall, there were 2.1 trillion SMS & MMS messages exchanged last year in the United States, which represents about 65,000 messages every second.
The carriers don’t want to judge the kind of messages or the content of messages that are being sent on their networks, Simmons said. “That’s why it boils down to consent,” he added. “Everything flows from there.”
After consent, the next big area of concern for the carriers is making sure that requests from consumers to stop sending text messages are honored, Simmons said.
Jackson Walker, the general counsel at Resurgent Capital Services, who interviewed Simmons for the session, said the industry is trying to help the carriers understand the importance that text messaging has to companies in this industry.
The ‘De-Regulation of Regulation’
Regulation of the receivables management industry is being de-centralized away from the federal government and taken over by state regulators, noted Nicole Strickler of Messer Strickler Burnette and Jonathan Pompan of Venable during a session yesterday. Pompan noted that even with the ongoing events at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, federal law hasn’t changed.
For companies, regulatory risk is more fragmented and less predictable than it’s been in the past, the pair noted. State governments are looking for funding sources and other ways they can create regulations or licensing requirements as a means of helping generate fees.
