ACA members help navigate if, when and how to send email and text messages to consumers in compliance with the CFPB’s final debt collection rule. The ACA Huddle series on part two of the rule continues through Jan. 15. Editor’s note: This article is available for members only.
1/11/2021 15:30
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s final debt collection rule provides clarity for debt collectors sending electronic communications to a consumer. ACA International members Mike Etmund, attorney at Moss & Barnett, Lauren Valenzuela, corporate counsel at Performant Recovery Inc., and John Bedard Jr., owner of Bedard Law Group, discussed this clarity during Monday’s ACA Huddle on electronic communication requirements from a legal perspective.
During the ACA Huddle, which is part of the series on part two of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s final debt collection rule, the speakers reviewed contact frequency, the bona fide error defense, monitoring electronic communication metrics and how email and text messaging regulations compare to calls.
Remember, the final rule does not require electronic communications by debt collectors, but it provides clarity for a debt collector who elects to send electronic communications to a consumer, Bedard explained during the webinar.
Members must be careful when responding to consumers’ opt-out requests for electronic communications to avoid third-party disclosures and should follow three methods of obtaining a consumers’ email address:
- From the consumer if they reached out first;
- From the creditor on the account;
- From a prior collection agency only if it is the most recent agency to hold the account and communicate with the consumer.
The CFPB’s final rule restates that a debt collector must not communicate or attempt to communicate with a consumer at any time or place the collector knows or should know is inconvenient to the consumer and this applies to electronic communications. For electronic communications (e.g., emails or text messages), the timing of a communication means the time that the debt collector sends the message, not the time that the consumer receives or views it.
When it comes to social media, which many agencies are just beginning to explore as a communication method—if they are using it at all—the CFPB’s rule allows using sites like Facebook or Twitter as long as the messages are not posted in a public place on the site and the consumer has opted-in.
Overall, Bedard, Etmund and Valenzuela stressed that now is the time to be thinking about how to incorporate electronic communications at your company and to do your research with vendors and about what other companies and industries are doing.
ACA Huddle CFPB Rule Series Webinars Continue
ACA’s panel of experts continues to review the comprehensive rule and will be providing detailed analysis and compliance resources throughout this series of complimentary webinars, which continue through Jan. 15. Log on to acainternational.org and select My ACA to subscribe to Member Alerts under email subscriptions.
On Tuesday, Jan. 12, Jessica Klander, shareholder at Bassford Remele, Rob Augg, vice president of business development and marketing at Renkim Corp., and Paul Daniels, chief revenue officer of Intelligent Contacts Inc., will review delivery requirements and electronic communication requirements in the rule from a vendor’s perspective.
On Wednesday, Jan. 13, James R. Bedell, general counsel at AscensionPoint Recovery Services LLC, Jack Brown III, president of Gulf Coast Collection Bureau, Inc., and Heath Morgan, partner at Malone Frost Martin, will weigh in on the topic of decedent debt.
Read more on all the upcoming webinars and register here.
ACA members can also download the ACA Mobile app for reminders on the upcoming ACA Huddle webinars and listen to the presentations, live or recorded, on the go.
Thank you to the sponsors of the ACA Huddle CFPB Rule Series, Neustar and Ontario Systems.
Related Content from ACA International
Member Alert: Reviewing the CFPB’s Latest Amendments to Regulation F
Communicate and Create: Tips to Operationalize the CFPB’s Debt Collection Rule