FTC Issues 2008 Fair Debt Collection Practices Report to Congress

According to the FTC website:

Issuance of Commission report to Congress: The Commission has authorized the staff to release publicly the 30th Annual Report to Congress on the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). This report, which is available now on the FTC’s Web site, summarizes the Commission’s administration and enforcement of the FDCPA during 2007. It presents an overview of the types of consumer complaints received by the Commission, descriptions of the Commission’s debt-collection law enforcement actions, and a summary of the Commission’s consumer and industry education initiatives. The FDCPA prohibits deceptive, unfair, and abusive practices by third-party debt collectors. Section 815 of the FDCPA requires the Commission to submit annual reports to Congress. The Commission vote to issue the report was 5-0. (FTC File No. P084802; the staff contact is Karen Hickey, Bureau of Consumer Protection…

The 16-page report (PDF) can be obtained here. Among many items of note in the report…

These actions are part of the Commission’s ongoing effort to curtail deceptive, unfair, and abusive debt collection practices in the marketplace. Such practices cause substantial consumer injury, including payment of amounts not owed, unintended waivers of rights, invasions of privacy, and emotional distress.

[...]

The Commission staff held a two-day public workshop in October 2007 to examine the industry and a number of current issues. The staff invited consumer advocates, industry representatives, state and federal regulators, and other experts to provide information and their views on the collection industry and related policy issues.

Of course, what the FTC may likely be unaware of is that the debt settlement industry is the perfect “private enforcement” of professional debt collection practices. We see violations of the FDCPA virtually every day at Provanta, and while most are not of the most egregious sort (child answers the phone; debt collector informs child he’s going to put mommy and daddy in jail if they don’t pay up), professional debt settlement companies go a long way towards mitigating the embarrassment and abuse that can result from a sincere financial hardship.

A suggestion concerning the FTC’s workshop: The Association of Settlement Companies (TASC), of which Provanta is a proud member, ought to field representatives from our industry the next time around.

I’ll have more to say about the FTC’s report in subsequent entries.

Technorati Tags: ftc, fdcpa, debt collection, debt settlement, tasc

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