insideARM Weekly Recap- Week of April 8, 2024

Our team at insideARM tries to pick the one piece of news those in the ARM industry need to know each day to keep up to date with the changes in debt collection. Last week we did just that, bringing you an article about the future of medical debt in California, a key 5th Circuit decision for FDCPA cases, and a breakdown of the myriad of activity from the CFPB in the month of March. Here’s our recap of the weekly news and why we felt you needed to see it.

Tuesday’s news highlighted a Troutman Pepper article about a bill working its way through the California legislature regarding medical debt. While Senate Bill 1061 does not include debt charged to a credit card as “medical debt,” it would remove medical debt from credit reports. California would follow Colorado and New York in banning credit reporting on medical debt. The trend of attacking medical debt across the country shows no signs of stopping.

On Wednesday, we brought you an FDCPA update in the 5th Circuit, as an Appeals court reversed a Louisiana court’s judgment and found that a law firm (hired by the State of Louisiana) had violated the FDCPA. The court reasoned that the firm violated the FDCAP by threatening legal action while not disclosing to the consumer that the debt might be time-barred, mischaracterizing the debt, and attempting to recover attorneys’ fees without a lawful basis. Let this serve as a reminder to closely monitor aged accounts and those approaching the statute of limitations.

Thursday, we focused on the CFPB and all its activity in March of 2024 with Hudson Cook’s CFPB Bites. This detailed breakdown included information about the lawsuit against the CFPB over the Late Fee rule, the CFPB’s first time exerting authority over a non-consenting nonbank consumer lender, as well as the CFPB’s thoughts on UDAAP in New York, real estate, and data privacy. It is clear that the CFPB has been very active in the first quarter of 2024 and, when the CFPB is this active, the ARM Industry needs to stay on its toes.

We also brought you insight into technology related to a consumer’s capacity to pay

Recaps like this will be posted every Monday. If you missed the recap from the week of April 1st, you can find it here.

If you would like to talk about these issues and more with other industry professionals, learn more about Research Assistant at insideARM to join our weekly peer group meeting.