This webinar as part of the ACA Huddle CFPB Rule Series, “Validation Notice Information-You Had Me at Hello” features industry leaders Jan. 7. Editor’s note: This article is available for members only.
1/5/2021 9:00
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released part two of its long-awaited debt collection rule Dec. 18 and ACA International is ready to help members continue to unpack its contents and prepare for compliance by Nov. 30, 2021.
The release of the final rule signals the biggest development in the accounts receivable management (ARM) industry since the passage of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act more than 40 years ago.
ACA’s panel of experts is continuing to review part two of the comprehensive rule to provide detailed analysis and compliance resources for members.
As part of that process, ACA is offering daily ACA Huddle webinars complimentary for members sponsored by Neustar and Ontario Systems.
ACA kicked off the series of webinars Dec. 21 to provide initial compliance insights and an overview of the requirements from the CFPB, including model validation notices, out-of-statute debt and decedent debt.
Registration for the remainder of the webinars, which will be held on weekdays through Jan. 15, is available now. Recordings and slide presentations of each webinar will be available throughout the series.
Here is a look at the fourth webinar in the series and featured speakers:
Validation Notice Information—You Had Me at Hello
On Thursday, Jan. 7, Keith Kettelkamp, president and CEO of Remex Inc., Eileen Bitterman, compliance officer at Weltman, Weinberg & Reis Co., L.P.A., and G. Scott Purcell, ACA president and president of Professional Credit, will review long-awaited guidance on validation notices.
Kettelkamp is a former board member from 2007-2018 and past president of ACA in 2016/17. In addition, Kettelkamp has served on many of the ACA’s committees over the years, including the Unit Study Special Committee, Audit Committee and MAP Committee. He chaired the ACA/Healthcare Financial Management Association Task Force subgroup and Special Committee on Small Agencies. He is a past member of the ACA Education Foundation Board and is currently a member of the ACA Holding Company Board. Kettelkamp has also earned ACA’s Fellow and Scholar designations. Additionally, he is past president of the New Jersey Association of Collection Agencies where he has also served in all officer positions as well as Education Chair and is a current board member. In 2016, Kettelkamp was a representative on the CFPB Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act panel providing industry input regarding the prospective effect of proposed debt collection rules.
Bitterman is currently serving as chair of the MAP Committee and serves as an elected representative on the Council of Delegates for the Ohio State Bar Association and has previously served in that role for MAP. She is also a member of the Cleveland State University Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Board of Visitors and serves on the Joint Bar Admissions Committee and Appeals Subcommittee of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association. She is a member of ACA’s new Education Council representing the MAP Committee.
Bitterman spoke on this topic during a webinar and episode of ACA Cast after the proposed rule was released last year and attended the May 2019 debt collection town hall.
Purcell, ACA’s 2020/21 president, has presented at several ACA events, volunteered with multiple ACA committees—chairing ACA’s Budget and Audit Committee—and earned the Fellow, Scholar, Healthcare Collection Management and Professional Collection Specialist designations. He was elected to the ACA Board of Directors in 2017 and served as 2018/19 treasurer and 2019/20 president-elect.
Purcell believes all agencies can engage with their legislators, especially at the state level. He played an integral role in the Institute for Collection Leadership’s development of the “Collect the Truth” campaign (www.collectthetruth.org), and believes agencies of all sizes can use this resource in telling the story of the significant impact the collection industry has, especially to legislators. He believes strongly if we don’t educate our legislators on the important role we play in our credit-based economy, no one else will, and then we’re at risk of rules that will hurt our businesses, consumers and the clients we serve.
Here is an overview of some of the guidance on model validation notices in the final rule:
- It provides a safe harbor for debt collectors who use the model form in the final rule, which contains “validation information” and optional disclosures. Those who use the model validation notice or a “substantially similar form,” as permitted by the rule, will fall within the protections of this safe harbor.
- In response to ACA’s comments that the model form would not work for certain types of debt, the final rule clarifies that the bureau has “modified the model-form-safe-harbor framework . . . to afford debt collectors more flexibility to customize validation information to accommodate their business practices and the types of debts they collect.”
Register for ACA’s webinars on the CFPB debt collection rule, available only for members, now. Session presentations from part one of the webinars are available here and the website will be updated with materials from part two.
The third webinar in the series on Jan. 6, “Credit Reporting: No Introduction Needed—See You There,” will focus on credit reporting as it relates to part two of the rule. Kim Phan, partner at Ballard Spahr, Leslie Bender, IFCCE, CCCO, senior counsel at Clark Hill PLC, and Jeff DiMatteo, president of American Profit Recovery, will lead the discussion.
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