The guidance continues to cover data security procedures and requirements from the original version established last year.
7/1/2021 10:30
More than 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 NFID has said it will not be extending the guidance and will let it expire on July 31, 2021.
ACA International and the Nevada Collectors Association (NCA) will continue to advocate for an extension as the end of the current guidance approaches.
The work-from-home procedures continue to cover the following:
- 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 will not extend this guidance past July 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.
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.