The guidance for employees of licensed collection agencies is now in place through March 31, 2021.
12/16/2020 14:30
The Nevada Financial Institutions Division (NFID) has granted another extension allowing employees of licensed collection agencies to work from home, following data security and other guidance, through March 31, 2021.
It was set to expire Dec. 31, 2020.
ACA International and the Nevada Collectors Association (NCA) have advocated for work-from-home allowances for licensed agencies after the state included them in the “non-essential” business category in March this year. As a result, the NCA, led by President Tim Myers along with Patrick Reilly, Nevada attorney state chair, worked to reverse the decision on behalf of Nevada’s members and other members throughout the country who collect in the state, ACA previously reported.
Given that advocacy, ACA is pleased with the extension of the work-from-home guidance into next year.
The work-from-home procedures 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 March 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].
For more information on how the ACA licensing staff can assist with your licensing application completion needs, please contact us at [email protected] or call (952) 926-6547.