insideARM Weekly Recap – Week of July 15th, 2024

The ARM industry moves fast. Staying informed and sorting through what’s relevant and what’s just noise can be a challenge, but that’s where insideARM steps in. We not only provide you with information but also narrow it down to only the stories that are most important. Last week included a medical debt legislative update, the CFPB’s Semi-Annual agenda, and a breakdown of the CFPB’s activity over the past month. Keep reading below for highlights from these stories and why we felt we should bring you these stories.

Tuesday’s news concerned a New Jersey medical debt bill. The Bill, which now awaits the NJ’s governor’s signature, will prohibit credit reporting on medical debt, void any debt that is credit reported in violation of this bill, impose a 120-day waiting period before collection action can commence, cap interest on medical debt (including judgments), and prohibit garnishments. Those collecting medical debt should be aware of this, and continue to pay attention to these trends.

On Wednesday, we looked at the CFPB’s upcoming agenda. The CFPB will be looking and potentially acting on the non-bank registry, contract terms and conditions, and rules to restrict overdraft programs. The CFPB is not showing any signs of slowing down and those in the industry should be following these developments as they come.

We finished the week with a breakdown of the CFPB’s activity over the past month including the Supreme Court validating the CFPBs funding; actions against a telemarketer, a lending platform, and a student loan servicer; updates to the Late Fee Rule lawsuit in Texas; Final rules on the Repeat Offender Registry and Data Sharing standards; a proposed rule banning credit reporting medical debt; an interpretive rule that BNPLs are credit card providers; and comments on deceptive fine print, junks fees, and data protection. As we have often said, the CFPB is not subtle. When the Bureau issues documents or  Director Chopra addresses perceived problems in consumer finance, there are large clues as to where regulation is likely and what issues the Bureau is going to attempt to tackle. In a year of nearly unprecedented CFPB activity, now is not the time to ignore these signs.

Thanks again for choosing insideARM for your collection industry news! We have weekly recaps as far back as March of this year and you can find the recap for the week of July 8th here.

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