The guidance continues to cover data security procedures and requirements from the original version established last year.
3/8/2021 14:00
Almost a year after it was originally established, the Nevada Financial Institutions Division (NFID) has extended its temporary guidance allowing employees of licensed collection agencies to work from home.
The guidance was set to expire at the end of March. It is now in place through May 31, 2021.
ACA International and the Nevada Collectors Association (NCA) advocated for work-from-home allowances for licensed agencies after the state included them in the “non-essential” business category in March last year and will continue to advocate as the end of the current guidance approaches.
The work-from-home procedures continue to cover:
- Data security requirements include provisions for the employee to access the company’s secured system from any out-of-office device the licensee or registrant uses through the use of a VPN or other system that requires passwords or an identification authentication. The company is responsible to maintain any updates or other requirements to keep information and devices secure;
- Neither the employee nor the company is to do any act that would indicate or tend to indicate that the employee is conducting business from an unlicensed location. Such acts include but are not limited to:
– Advertising in any form, including business cards and social media, the unlicensed residence address or landline telephone or facsimile number associated to the unlicensed residence;
– Meeting consumers at,or having consumers come to an employee’s unlicensed residence;
– Holding out in any manner, directly or indirectly, by the employee or company licensee, the residence address that would suggest or convey to a consumer that the residence is a licensed location for conducting licensable activities. - Employees and companies must exercise due diligence in the safeguarding of company and customer data, information and records, whether in paper or electronic format, and to protect them against unauthorized or accidental access, use, modification, duplication, destruction or disclosure.
According to the NFID, it may not extend this guidance past May 2021; therefore, it is imperative that collection agencies continue making plans to ensure they can both comply with Nevada law and the laws of the other jurisdictions they do business in.
ACA and the NCA will continue to work with the NFID on this guidance and will provide ongoing updates for members.
Questions regarding the temporary guidance may be directed to [email protected].
In other related news, Connecticut’s Department of Banking extended its no-action memo to address branch licensing issues, this time through June 30, 2021.
The Connecticut memo includes temporary mitigation actions licensees need to take to continue business due to COVID-19, ACA previously reported.
Washington state has finalized its remote work rule, which took effect Feb. 17, and Maryland issued a six-month temporary rule allowing remote work for state-regulated entities, including collection agencies. It was published in the Maryland Register Jan. 29, 2021.
ACA members can hear more state updates on the weekly ACA Huddle. The next Huddle, at 11 a.m. CST March 10, will feature a discussion on work-from-home strategies. Learn more and sign up here.