On October 29, 2021, The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued a press release naming Lorelei Salas as Assistant Director for the Office of Supervision Policy and Eric Halperin as Assistant Director for the Office of Enforcement.

“Lorelei Salas and Eric Halperin are both distinguished public servants with deep expertise in consumer protection,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “Together, they will be effective watchdogs over the financial marketplace, especially when it comes to stopping repeat offenders.”

Lorelei Salas will be joining the CFPB as Assistant Director for Supervision Policy and will also serve as the Acting Assistant Director for Supervision Examinations. From 2016 to 2021, Ms. Salas served as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, overseeing hundreds of inspectors, attorneys, and other professionals to protect city residents. Under her leadership, the agency aggressively pursued corporations that employed unlawful, predatory practices to target low-income and immigrant consumers. Previously, Ms. Salas was the legal director at Make the Road New York, supervising immigration, housing, and employment legal services programs designed to increase access to justice for immigrants and refugees. She also led the legal department at Catholic Migration Services, supervising the same areas of legal practice. In 2009, Ms. Salas was nominated by President Obama as the Wage and Hour Administrator at the United States Department of Labor. Ms. Salas also worked at the New York State Attorney General’s Office in the Litigation and Labor Bureaus and held multiple senior management positions at the New York State Department of Labor. Ms. Salas is also the recipient of Open Society Foundations’ Leadership in Government fellowship and has served as a Fulbright Specialist with expertise in U.S. consumer and worker protection laws. Prior to her legal career, Ms. Salas worked as a private sector auditor investigating companies’ compliance with their own codes of conduct and with federal and state workplace laws. Ms. Salas earned an A.A. from La Guardia Community College, a B.A. from Hunter College, and a J.D. from Benjamin N. Cardozo Law School.

Eric Halperin has joined the CFPB as Assistant Director for the Office of Enforcement. Mr. Halperin has served in a number of positions in the non-profit and government sectors. Most recently, Mr. Halperin was CEO of Civil Rights Corps. From 2010 to 2014, Mr. Halperin served in leadership roles in the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, first as Special Counsel for Fair Lending and later as Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General overseeing the Division’s fair housing, fair lending, and employment enforcement programs. While in those roles, he received the Attorney General’s John Marshall Award, the Department’s highest award for excellence in legal performance, and the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award. He also served as a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division from 1998 to 2004. Mr. Halperin has also worked as a senior advisor to Open Society Foundations’ U.S. Program and as the Director of the Center for Responsible Lending’s Litigation Program and its Washington office. Mr. Halperin received his B.A. from Wesleyan University and his J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Its odd to think I’ve been talking about this
for nearly three years.

On December 12, 2018
the FCC first announced the creation of the reassigned number database. The
results of years of advocacy by industry participants who advised the FCC they
were being held strictly liable under the TCPA for efforts to contact their
customers after phone numbers had changed hands without their knowledge, the
database helps to assure that good actors in the ecosystem can safely detect
phone numbers that may no longer be valid.

Here’s a little
background.

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The Problem

Over 30 million cell
phone numbers change hands each year. And the new recipients of those numbers
don’t want phone calls intended for the former owners of those phones. Until
November 1, 2021, however, there was no definitive way for businesses to know whether
their customers’ numbers had changed hands.

Moreover, the TCPA is
considered a strict liability statute by many courts. So if a caller attempted
to reach their customer on a cell phone number that had changed hands, they
could be sued for $500.00 per call—even though the business might have no idea
the number no longer belonged to their customer.

The Solution

A database that tracks
all cell phone reassignments in the United States. The FCC has required
carriers to provide updated information regarding cell phone numbers and their
ownership for nearly three years now. Owing to privacy concerns, however, the
database is extremely limited in terms of the data that is shared.

Containing only cell
phone number and reassignment dates, the database should prove extremely
effective at identifying reassigned numbers—but it will not assist callers
attempting to avoid wrong numbers, or attempting to confirm that the number
they have was properly provided by a consumer.

How it Works

A user of the
database—which has been in a beta test since July of this year—will submit two
pieces of information: a cell phone number and a “last good” date. The Database
Administrator will respond with either a “yes” or a “no.” The “yes” means that a
number has been reassigned since the last good date and cannot be called. A
“no” means that the number has not been reassigned and is presumptively ok to
call.

A “last good” date is
the last date that the caller is comfortable the phone number belonged to the
called party—generally an “RPC” (right party contact) date.

As I have been saying
for years now, therefore, it is critical that all callers who wish to take
advantage of the database—and that should be everybody—track last good dates
for their entire cell phone database.

The Safeharbor

For folks that make
use of the reassigned number database there is a very big upside: The FCC has
issued a safe harbor shielding such callers from liability in the event that
the database is inaccurate. So if a caller properly sets up a protocol for
scrubbing against the database, the caller should be completely protected
against TCPA liability calls to reassigned numbers— a very important protection
to have.

There are some
limitations here, however:

1.   The safeharbor only protects
callers against errors in the database –errors in identifying
data to transmit, errors in last good date identification, and errors in
operationalizing database results are all outside the scope of the safeharbor.
So if you mess up on implementing the database you will have done yourself more
harm than good;

2.   Again, the database
does not protect against all wrong number calls—it is not designed to detect
dissimilarities between the “called party” and the subscriber to a cell phone
service, for instance. So callers will need to remain on guard against wrong
number calls using other best practices—such as double form fills, multi-factor
authentication, vendor solutions, etc.

3.   Most importantly, the
safeharbor does not protect you if you do not use the database, obviously, and
businesses electing not to use the database may be more likely to be found to
have “willfully” violated the statute—although I don’t think that results
necessarily follows.

In any event, its a
big day TCPA.World. Be sure to take advantage of the database to the fullest
extent you can.

If you have questions,
we’re always here to help.

The database can be
found here: http://www.reassigned.us/

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — DCM Services, LLC
(“DCMS”), the industry leader in data and contact management solutions for the
estate and specialty receivables recovery market, has become the newest business
affiliate member of the Telecommunications Risk Management Association (“TRMA”).
This new partnership will be mutually beneficial, allowing both organizations
to share best practices, benchmarking data, and other relevant information to
elevate the industry.

DCMS brings a wealth of industry and
operational experience in the telecommunications industry and looks forward to
working closely with TRMA to share this expertise. Subsequently, TRMA is able
to provide the networking forums and tools necessary to disseminate relevant
information to its diverse member base.

Senior Vice President of Business
Development, Tiffany Jansen said, “DCMS is ecstatic to become members of the
TRMA community. We look forward to learning even more about best practices in
this industry and are eager to share our in-depth knowledge about the specialty
receivables space, something we feel is very unique that we can bring to the
TRMA table. The benchmarking activity, conferences and networking will be
invaluable to us as we move into 2022.”

TRMA is an industry forum for risk
management professionals from the Telecommunications, Pay TV, Utility, Waste
Management and other industries to collaborate, understand, and share best
practices related to acquisition risk management, customer lifecycle and
uncollectible debt issues among its members. TRMA has served as a professional
resource devoted to industry leaders from member companies. TRMA’s diverse
organization serves as a forum for communication and utility-based risk
management professionals while creating a community for members to share best
practices, access tools and benchmarking data relevant to the dynamic industry,
and balance risk.

Executive Director of TRMA, Jose
Segarra said, “We are very excited to have DCM Services as our Business
Affiliate member. As a Business Affiliate, DCM Services will collaborate with
TRMA throughout the year. As this relationship grows, I look forward to
learning from their expertise and welcoming them to our spring meeting in 2022.”

Learn more about DCM
Services and TRMA online.

About TRMA

TRMA is a professional resource that is
sought by industry leaders. It is a growing, diverse, and global organization
that delivers quality information forums and strategies relevant to our
members’ changing and dynamic industries. The mission of TRMA is to promote
cooperation within the Telecommunications, Pay TV, Utility, Waste Management
and other industries to effectively balance risk while reducing fraud and
uncollectibles for the benefit of our industry and paying customers.

About DCM Services

Minneapolis-based DCM Services is the
industry leader in providing estate and specialty services, including
bankruptcy and probate claim filing solutions. DCMS’ diverse client base
includes 9 of the top 11 financial services institutions, more than half of the
nation’s largest and most prestigious healthcare systems, and organizations
spanning the telecom, retail, and auto industries. Its recovery solutions offer
a full range of services from proprietary web-based solutions to full
outsourcing, maintaining an unmatched spectrum of innovative solutions that
increase recoveries, protect brand value, and enhance survivor relationships –
with respect and sensitivity. For more information on all DCM Services’
offerings, please visit www.dcmservices.com.

The Consumer Bankers Association has released
a new white paper, “The Case For Regulation Through Rulemaking & Guidance,”
that advocates for the CFPB to use rulemaking and informal written guidance in
lieu of attempting to create new industry regulatory standards through
enforcement.  Attorneys from Ballard Spahr’s Consumer Financial Services
Group assisted CBA in preparing the white paper.

The white paper
forcefully makes the case for why rulemaking and informal written guidance are
more effective tools than enforcement for the Bureau to use to create new
standards and expectations for industry.  Key arguments made by CBA
include:

• Consent orders do not clearly communicate the Bureau’s regulatory expectations to industry for reasons that include uncertainty as to whether a consent order’s provisions are specific to the facts of an enforcement target’s conduct and that they are heavily negotiated.  As a result, consent orders often create industry confusion because industry members are forced to guess which parts have general applicability and which are target-specific.

• By attempting to change long-standing regulatory interpretations through litigating enforcement actions, the Bureau runs the risk that it will lose control of the message absorbed by industry or will fail to establish a standard.  As an example, the CFPB ultimately failed to modify HUD’s controlling interpretation of a RESPA issue through its enforcement action against PHH Corporation and the litigation caused unnecessary disruption to industry practice.

• The Bureau’s attempt to establish a new regulatory standard for the automobile finance industry through enforcement actions challenging dealer participation practices created an uneven playing field among competitors and also ultimately failed to change industry practice.

• Rulemaking and informal written guidance can address general industry practices and variations and make clear how the Bureau will apply the law to those practices.  As a result, they can lead to quicker and wider change than enforcement because industry participants have less room for uncertainty about the Bureau’s expectations.  Also, rulemaking allows the Bureau to begin shaping industry behavior very early in the rulemaking process through an advance notice of proposed rulemaking, a notice of proposed rulemaking, a SBREFA outline, and other tools such as requests for information.

• Informal written guidance can be used to provide transparency to the entire market regarding best practices, even it does not carry the force of law.  Notice and comment rulemaking, however, should be the preferred course of action when new standards are being set, or industry-wide conduct is at issue, because it provides the greatest amount of information to the Bureau and the greatest opportunity for all stakeholders—including consumers—to provide input.

• Many examples exist of clear and effective Bureau rulemaking and written informal guidance, namely the Qualified Mortgage Rule, the TILA/RESPA Integrated Disclosure Rule, the Remittance Rule, Supervisory Highlights, and the statement on providing financial products and services to LEP consumers.

RESTON, Va — Radius Global Solutions LLC, a
leading provider of digitally integrated customer engagement and Neustar Inc., a global information
services and technology company and leader in identity resolution, announced
today that Radius will be deploying Neustar Phone Behavior Intelligence across
its platform. Neustar’s data, consumer behavior insights, and customer contact
efficiency strategies will allow Radius to more effectively contact consumers,
which in turn will improve the consumer experience and enhance its compliance
with consumer protection regulations.

Consumers today
use multiple devices and constantly change their contact preferences. This
dynamic environment can create challenges as call centers strive to
successfully connect with consumers while minimizing the risk of violating the
TCPA or the CFPB’s Regulation F. Neustar Phone Behavior Intelligence affords
companies like Radius the opportunity to enhance existing consumer information
with additional verified phone numbers, including information on the phone
type, the best time of day, best day of the week and best phone number to use
when reaching out to each individual. 

“Our current
collections strategy utilizes internal data and attributes to optimize our
results while assuring that we create the best possible consumer experience,”
said Steve Leckerman, chief operating officer of Radius. “Incorporating
Neustar’s solution will allow us to communicate more effectively with consumers
by enabling us to launch fewer targeted phone calls to consumers while
maintaining financial results and the high level of regulatory compliance that
our clients demand. Improving our customer contact strategy is a critical piece
of our upcoming implementation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s new
Regulation F.”

“Knowing when
consumers are most likely to answer their phones, and which numbers are best to
call, not only increases right-party contact rates but also allows call centers
to boost their efficiency, achieving improved performance with fewer
resources,” said Robert McKay, senior vice president of Risk Solutions at
Neustar. “Neustar Phone Behavior Intelligence provides these insights by
drawing on the power of our identity resolution platform, OneID, which connects
the links between people, location and device data to provide a single,
authoritative view of each consumer.”

For
more information about Neustar and its full TRUSTID Contact Center Solutions
suite, visit https://www.home.neustar/trustid-contact-center-solutions.

About
Radius Global Solutions
Founded in 2013, Radius Global Solutions is a leading provider of
digitally integrated customer engagement.  Radius uses
next-generation technologies to create customized accounts receivable
management and call center solutions that efficiently meet clients’ unique
customer lifecycle needs. For more information on Radius and its digitally
integrated customer engagement platform, visit https://www.radiusgs.com

About
Neustar
Neustar is an information services and technology company and a leader in
identity resolution providing the data and technology that enable trusted
connections between companies and people at the moments that matter most.
Neustar offers industry-leading solutions in marketing, risk, communications
and security that responsibly connect data on people, devices and locations,
continuously corroborated through billions of transactions. Neustar serves more
than 8,000 clients worldwide, including 60 of the Fortune 100. Learn how your
company can benefit from the power of trusted connections here: home.neustar.

On Oct. 8, S.737A was signed into New York law, “requiring debt
collectors to inform debtors that written communications are available in large
print format.”  The legislation becomes effective Nov. 7, 2021.

The
problem with the law is the disconnect between what it says and what it tells
debt collectors to say.

What It Says

“Each and every principal creditor or debt collector shall, in
each initial communication, clearly and conspicuously disclose to the debtor
that each communication can be provided in an alternative, reasonably
accommodatable, format.”

“Communication”
is defined as “the conveying of information regarding a debt directly or
indirectly to any person through any medium.”

“Principal
creditor” is already defined as “any person, firm, corporation or organization
to whom a consumer claim is owed, due or asserted to be due or owed, or any
assignee for value of said person, firm, corporation or organization.”  NY
CLS Gen Bus § 600(3).

What It Tells Debt Collectors to Say

Unfortunately,
the law proceeds to state:

“Such disclosure shall substantively contain the following:

(a) A statement that the consumer may request the letter in an
alternative, reasonably accommodatable format selected by the principal
creditor or debt collector such as large print, braille, audio compact disc, or
other means; and

(b) A business phone number that the consumer may call to make
such a request.”

Out of Focus

The
legislation was, simply, poorly drafted and creates questions that are
difficult to answer, a few of which are:

1.   
What does “reasonably
accommodatable format selected by the principal creditor or debt collector”
actually mean?  Does it mean a debt collector can choose to exclusively
offer large print regardless of circumstances, or does it mean the alternative
format must be “reasonably accommodatable” based on the actual circumstances?
For example, if the consumer is completely blind, can the debt collector still
choose to provide large print or is the debt collector’s selection limited to
formats such as braille or CD?

2.   
Does this apply to all
written communications, including emails and text messages? The law states it
applies to each communication through any medium, but the sample language
refers to the consumer requesting “the letter” in an alternative format. 

3.   
What is the standard
for “large print,” which is undefined in this section? Can we rely on the
definition found elsewhere in New York law as “a font size of sixteen or
larger” for utility bills (N.Y. Pub. Serv. Law § 44), cable bills (N.Y. Pub.
Serv. Law § 224-b) and telephone bills (N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 399-zz)?

4.   
Does the alternative
format option extend to documents provided for substantiation of the debts
pursuant to 23 NYCRR § 1.4(c), some of which may be account-level documentation
provided by the creditor?

Previous Legislation

The
large print notice legislation was originally introduced in 2011 and
reintroduced in virtually the same form every session through the 2019-2020
session.  The 2019 Assembly bill, A.711, is a good example of the previous versions and includes
a memo explaining the legislation. 

The
legislation defined “large print” to mean “a font size of sixteen or larger”
and limited the disclosure to informing the consumer “that written
communications . . . may be received in a large print format.”  The memo
explained that the large print option did not apply to the initial
communication; only to “any further communications that the debtor may
receive.”  Neither that bill nor the previous versions included the
confounding sample language in the current law.

Reading Between the Lines

The
shift from the 2019 language appears to reflect an intentional broadening of
scope.  Unfortunately, determining the intent of the law, and simply how
to draft the notice correctly, is difficult to decipher because of the poor
drafting.  Without further clarification, the best that can be done is to
consult with legal counsel of your choice and find a practical, workable
balance between what the statute says and what it says debt collectors should
say.  

On October 29, 2021, the CFPB added a new section to the Reg F Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) guidance documents.  The new FAQs address the model validation notice, validation information, and the special rule for certain residential mortgage debts. 

The CFPB also released a document entitled, “Debt Collection Rule: Disclosing the Model Validation Notice Itemization Table.” This guidance document reviews the required validation information and provides illustrations to show how a debt collector might comply with the requirement to disclose that information. 

This guidance follows the FAQs published by the CFPB on October 5, 2021, and the release of the Spanish translation model validation notice on October 18, 2021. 

—-

Behind on Reg F implementation? Join us on November 2, 2021 for “Reg (WT)F: An Extremely Practical Guide to Last Minute Reg F Prep” where we’ll be discussing the practical guidance you need to implement Reg F. This will not be a standard webinar where people talk at you; the majority of this webinar will be Q&A to help you implement Reg F in just a few weeks. 

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — State
Collection Service (State), a leading healthcare revenue cycle outsourcer, partnered
with Prodigal Technologies, Inc., to substantially increase operational efficiencies
with artificial intelligence and automation.

“Prodigal has an impressive
automation platform that offers a positive ROI instantly. We are excited to increase
our AI capabilities at State with Prodigal,” said Tim Haag, president of
State. 

The collections industry is heavily regulated,
and the healthcare revenue cycle process is highly complex with multiple layers
of operations. Standard processes are very labor-intensive which results in costly
and ineffective operations.

One example of inefficiency is the
after-call wrap-up process. On average, representatives spend approximately 25%
of their day in wrap-up, which is the time spent summarizing one call and
getting ready for the next. Over a year, this translates to a staggering cost
of $10,000 per representative.

State recognized the need to
challenge these operational inefficiencies and implemented Prodigal’s ProNotes,
its first note automation AI system. State immediately saw a decline in the time
spent on after-call workflows as well as a corresponding increase in agents’ in-call
time by 10-15%. ProNotes helped State save significant hours of manual
note-taking as well as improved calls with the help of structured notes and
conversational insights. As a result of fewer manual and repetitive tasks, State
observed deeper engagement between representatives and patients.

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Sameer Maini, chief information
officer of State says, “We’re excited to onboard Prodigal as part of our
modern tech stack. Prodigal’s real-time AI has increased the in-call time for
our representatives. This enables our knowledgeable and empathetic
representatives to provide even better customer service to healthcare providers
and their patients.”

Without the use of proper technology,
it’s difficult to achieve optimal productivity, efficient and cost-effective revenue
cycle operations. Prodigal is bringing artificial intelligence and machine
learning capabilities to the industry with its new suite of intelligent tools.
Prodigal’s tools enable lenders, debt buyers, healthcare revenue cycle
outsourcers and ARM agencies to resolve accounts receivables quickly and
efficiently.

“State is a technology-forward agency
and we are excited to deliver a measurable boost to their operational
efficiency with our cutting-edge business intelligence platform,” said Shantanu
Gangal, chief executive officer of Prodigal Technologies Inc.

Prodigal is disrupting the loan
servicing and receivables management industry with its stack of technologies
that delivers up to 30% improvements in productivity and operational
efficiency. By leveraging Prodigal’s artificial intelligence and machine learning,
the receivables management industry uncovers actionable insights for maximizing
revenue, optimizing operations, and minimizing compliance risk. To learn more
visit: www.prodigaltech.com

About State

State improves
the financial picture for healthcare providers by delivering increased
financial results while ensuring a positive patient experience. Rooted in a
tradition of ethics, integrity and innovation since 1949, State uses data
analytics to drive performance and speech analytics with ongoing training to
ensure patient satisfaction. A family-owned company now in its third generation
of leadership, State assists healthcare organizations with services spanning
the complete revenue cycle including Pre-Service Financial Clearance, Early Out
Self-Pay Resolution, Insurance Follow-Up and Bad Debt Collection. To learn more
visit: www.statecollectionservice.com.