Alert

June 9, 2017

CFPB Makes Announcement on Progress of Debt Collection Rulemaking

In prepared remarks on June 8, 2017, CFPB Director Cordray provided some clarity on the status of the CFPB's debt collector rulemaking by announcing that the CFPB will carve certain "right consumer, right amount" rules out of the debt collector rulemaking, and instead address such rules in a separate rulemaking for first-party creditors. In its July 2016 Outline of Proposals Under Consideration for debt collectors, the CFPB included a number of proposals that would affect the information shared between creditors and debt buyers or third party debt collectors, and would impose specific, ongoing obligations on debt collectors to ensure that they are collecting the right amount from the right consumer. Yesterday, Director Cordray explained that the CFPB has found that these "right consumer, right amount" rules would benefit from input from all market participants (especially creditors, because they create the information about the debt upon which debt collectors rely). Therefore, Cordray said, the CFPB plans to focus its debt collector rulemaking on rules that will affect debt collection practices and require disclosures - and Cordray anticipates the CFPB will be able to "move forward more quickly" on the debt collector rulemaking by carving out rules that could affect creditors, and taking up "right consumer, right amount" rules in a separate rulemaking for first-party creditors.

Prior Alert: CFPB Releases Outline of its Debt Collection Rulemaking Proposals Under Consideration

  Prepared Remarks of Director Cordray
  July 2016 Outline of Proposals