Judge Denies MTD, Rules Debt-Sale Notice Was Collection Communication
- The letter never asked for a dime. It didn’t state a balance. It didn’t explain how to dispute. And a federal judge in Pennsylvania just held it was still a communication in connection with the collection of a debt, sending a class action past the pleading stage. Four features of the notice pushed it across the line, and one of them had nothing to do with the letter itself.
- More details here
- A debt buyer attached the wrong document to its collection complaint, then fixed it four years later and won summary judgment on the theory that the problem had been solved. The Court of Appeal disagreed, and drew a sharp distinction between what the Rosenthal Act forgives and what the Debt Buyers Act does not. The bona fide error defense is now headed to a jury, with the court raising pointed questions about outsourcing compliance to outside counsel’s automation.
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Judge Grants MTD in FCRA Suit Where Consumer Never Said What Was Inaccurate
- She disputed the tradeline twice. She wrote to the lender, which came back saying it could not locate the account. She said the reporting cost her a rental. And a judge in the Eastern District of New York dismissed the case anyway, because of the one thing she never actually alleged. The opinion is a useful map of where the threshold inaccuracy requirement sits, and why a “cannot locate” letter is not the smoking gun plaintiffs think it is.
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What Happened Inside the CFPB in 2025? A Federal Watchdog Lays Out the Record
- 463 supervisory events paused. 80 investigations halted. 18 litigation cases dismissed. RIF notices to roughly 87% of staff. A new Inspector General report puts hard numbers on what stopped at the Bureau in early 2025 and what has restarted since, including a 2026 examination calendar and a complaint backlog that is still being routed by hand.
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Agents Still Lose Nearly a Third of the Day to System Switching, CX Study Finds
- Ninety-eight percent of organizations say they use AI somewhere in the customer journey. Five percent can actually say what it did for the business. A new benchmark report finds collectors’ counterparts in the broader CX world stuck between heavy adoption and thin orchestration, with agents burning 28% of the workday moving between systems and re-keying data. Compliance was the single most cited barrier to fixing it.
- More details here
Does Talking to AI and Chatbots Change the Consumer on the Other End?
- A paper published this month argues the influence runs both ways: as consumers spend more time with AI-driven service systems, they may begin reshaping how they speak, decide, and present themselves to fit what the machine can parse. The authors call it robotoid humanness and lay out a three-stage mechanism, along with the service settings where the drift should be strongest. Notably, one of those settings rewards compliance and speed.
- More details here
NRA Group Adds Herman to New Senior Role
- National Recovery Agency created a position specifically for a 20-year industry veteran, and the mandate is squarely on digital: email, SMS, voice, and the payment portal. Here is what NRA says it wants him to build, and what he says convinced him to take the job.
- More details here
Compliance Digest – August 31
- Eight rulings and regulatory developments, eight expert takes, and a new sponsor. This week: a lapsed automatic stay in the Fifth Circuit, FCRA preemption of a Texas medical debt reporting law, the CFPB pulling complaint narratives, an FTC warning shot on personalized pricing that reaches propensity-to-pay models, and a Washington AG privacy report with a data broker chapter.
- More details here
- This series is sponsored by Frost Echols
WORTH NOTING: Thrift shopping is booming. Here are some tips to help you find the best deals and avoid overpaying … WalletHub with a survey on how consumers are looking at and preparing for retirement … There is an epidemic of exploding car sunroofs all across the country and the problem is getting worse … Why the plague of robocalls is only seeming to be getting worse … Where are homeowners today when it comes to loving it or listing it? … Take a quiz to find out what kind of perfectionist you are … Four foods you should never store in the freezer … A lot of employees claim to be “hoarding” expertise because they are afraid of AI taking their jobs.
Music Monday, part I
Music Monday, part II
The Daily Digest is sponsored by TCN. Today, contact centers need to do more with less. TCN’s cloud-based predictive dialing tools and services help clients to leverage the most sophisticated inbound, outbound, and blended calling technologies available. TCN’s award-winning platform offers multiple features to assist in compliance while improving performance with no hardware, no monthly minimums, or maintenance fees. Call 866-745-1900 or visit tcn.com today.
