AUSTIN, TX — Equabli, Inc., a leading financial technology company, is pleased to announce the successful completion of its recent round of financing. The funding round secured $3.35M of additional capital and was led by Social Leverage. Additional commitments were received by BankTech Ventures and Cross River Digital Ventures. 

The funding will be instrumental in propelling Equabli toward its strategic objectives, including talent acquisition, market expansion, and enhancing Equabli’s innovative debt recovery products and services, enabling it to continue to deliver exceptional value to its clients and stakeholders. 

“We’re thrilled to partner with Equabli as they innovate in important areas of the credit lifecycle. The team’s knowledge about collections and recovery is world-class, and they’re applying it to a new technology and services stack that our banks can utilize and significantly upgrade their capabilities. This is exactly the kind of strategic company we look for at BankTech Ventures,” said Carey Ransom, Managing Director.

“The Equabli team is transforming the way we think about the credit cycle, specifically debt management, an area ripe for innovation,” said Hillel Olivestone, Head of Corporate Development and Strategy at Cross River. “Cross River Digital Ventures is excited to support industry pioneers and be a part of Equabli’s next stage of growth.”

“We are excited to have successfully concluded this round of funding,” said Cody Owens, Equabli’s CEO. “This investment represents a significant milestone for our company and reaffirms the confidence that our clients and investors have in our team and the solutions we are bringing to the Financial Services industry. We are grateful for the continued support of Social Leverage, and the opportunity to unlock strategic value with BankTech Ventures and Cross River Digital Ventures.”

About Equabli:

Equabli is dedicated to modernizing and optimizing debt recovery for lenders and their borrowers. Equabli’s comprehensive and intelligent Recovery as a Service platform provides clients with an expertly curated value chain of technology, analytics, and integrated recovery providers, all overseen by Equabli’s team with >150 years of domain-rich experience. No more piecemealed solutions and suboptimal results, Equabli is the one-stop solution for optimized, comprehensive, and compliant lifecycle recoveries. Learn more today at www.equabli.com.

MOONACHI, N.J. — Content Critical Solutions, Inc., a leading provider of innovative document management solutions, is pleased to announce the appointment of Linda Woodward as the Senior Vice President of Strategic Solutions. This strategic hiring decision highlights Content Critical Solutions’ commitment to delivering exceptional client value and driving growth.

With over 15 years of experience in the document management industry, Linda Woodward brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her new role. She has a proven track record of developing and implementing strategic solutions that optimize operational efficiency and enhance customer experiences. Linda’s extensive background in document management, coupled with her strong leadership skills, makes her ideal for this role with the team at Content Critical Solutions.

In her new position, Linda will oversee the development and execution of innovative strategies that address the evolving needs of Content Critical Solutions’ clients. She will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to identify market trends, drive business growth, and deliver cutting-edge solutions that empower clients to streamline their document management processes.

“We are thrilled to welcome Linda Woodward to our Content Critical Solutions family,” said Fred Van Alstyne, COO of Content Critical Solutions. “Her broad industry expertise and strategic mindset will be invaluable as we continue to expand our offerings and provide our clients with the most effective and efficient solutions available.”

Content Critical Solutions is known for its commitment to excellence, utilizing advanced technology and data-driven insights to help businesses optimize their document workflows and maximize productivity. Linda’s leadership will further strengthen the company’s position as a trusted partner in the document management industry.

About Content Critical Solutions:

Content Critical Solutions is a leading provider of document management solutions, offering a comprehensive suite of services, including data capture, document imaging, print management, and electronic content management. Focusing on innovation and customer satisfaction, Content Critical Solutions helps businesses across various industries streamline their document processes and achieve operational efficiency.

About Linda Woodward:

Linda Woodward is a seasoned professional with over 15 years of experience in the document management industry. She has successfully led strategic initiatives that drive growth and enhance customer experiences throughout her career. Linda’s expertise lies in developing tailored solutions that meet and exceed business needs by building relationships to understand what is truly needed to make success and then leveraging the best technology to create solutions to optimize workflows to deliver tangible business benefits.

Content Critical Solutions is confident that Linda Woodward’s appointment as Senior Vice President of Strategic Solutions will further strengthen the company’s position as a leader in the document management industry.

Please join us in welcoming Linda Woodward to the Content Critical Solutions team.

For media inquiries or more information, please contact:

Linda Woodward

SVP Strategic Solutions

Email:  linda.woodward@contentcritical.com

Office Phone:  551-966-5015

Mobile Phone:  248-229-0527

Content
Critical – Technology-Based Solutions

KATY, TX — The Universal Fidelity Limited Partnership (UFLP) team contributed to Fort Bend Women’s Center, a local nonprofit, for the second fundraiser of 2023. This nonprofit reaches many in crisis in UFLP’s area. The impact of their service has helped thousands each year as they recover and restart. Knowing that more than 1 in 3 women (35.6%) and more that 1 in 4 men (28.5%) in the U.S. will experience domestic abuse. “There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about.” – Margaret J. Wheatley

Fort Bend Women’s Center has over 40 years of providing healing and hope to survivors of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault in the Greater Houston Area. “Our goal is to help survivors in the Greater Houston area heal from the abuse they have experienced, equip them with the emotional, psychological and practical skills and resources they need to move forward and to restore their hope in a safe future, free of abuse and fear.” find out more at: https://fbwc.org/

About Universal Fidelity LP

Universal Fidelity LP is a family business in every sense of the term. Since opening the company in 1991, it has grown to have a family-owned and operated reputation in the industry. You can find out more about UFLP here: https://uflp.com/

The CFPB announced that on July 11, 2023 at 10 a.m. EST it will host a hearing on medical billing and collections, with a focus on medical payment products, such as medical credit cards and installment loans.  In addition to Director Chopra, the hearing will include agency officials from the White House, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

The CFPB’s announcement states that at the hearing, “[m]embers of the public will have a chance to hear from the CFPB, partner agencies, and organizations on high-cost specialty financial products that are pushed on patients as a way to pay for medical care.”

In May 2023, the CFPB published a report on medical payment products that claimed such products are typically more expensive for patients than other forms of payment, including conventional credit cards.  The report also claimed that the deferred interest plans frequently offered as a feature of such products can prove especially expensive and unaffordable for patients.

In April 2023, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion announced that they removed unpaid medical collections under $500 from consumer credit reports.  The three companies, in July 2022, previously removed paid medical collections from credit reports, and extended the delay in medical collection reporting from sixth months after the first delinquency to one year after the first delinquency.  In a report issued in April  2023, the CFPB reviewed the impact of the removal of medical collection tradelines based on a sampling of credit reports from 2012-2020 and found that removing medical collection tradelines can significantly improve credit scores and credit availability.

We cannot recall a previous occasion on which a White House representative attended and spoke at a CFPB hearing.  Last October, Director Chopra participated in a White House event at which the Administration announced its junk fee initiative.  Part of that initiative is a regulation proposed by the CFPB to reduce the safe harbor for credit card late fees from $30 (first late payment) and $41 (all other late payments) to a flat $8.   By holding a hearing on medical billing and collections, the CFPB is indicating the importance and priority that it attaches to this issue.  And by having a White House representative speak at the event, the CFPB is further underscoring the issue’s significance. 

(insideARM editor’s note: the hearing is hybrid. You can join in person or watch a livestream. Register here.)

On June 16, the Nevada governor signed SB 276 (the “Act”) to revise certain provisions relating to debt collection agencies and make amendments to the state’s collection agency licensing law. While existing law requires collection agencies to be licensed, the amendments expand the type of activities that trigger collection agency licensure. 

Notably, the Act now requires any “debt buyer” to hold a license, which is defined as “a person who is regularly engaged in the business of purchasing claims that have been charged off for the purpose of collecting such claims, including, without limitation, by personally collecting claims, hiring a third party to collect claims or hiring an attorney to engage in litigation for the purpose of collecting claims.” Mortgage servicers, however, are now exempt unless the “mortgage servicer is attempting to collect a claim that was assigned when the relevant loan was in default.” The amendments also repeal provisions governing foreign collection agencies and now require that such agencies be licensed in the same fashion as domestic collection agencies.

In addition to licensed mortgage servicers, the amendments also exclude others from the definition of the term “collection agency,” including an expanded list of certain financial institutions (as well as their employees), persons collecting claims that they originated on their own behalf or originated and sold, and other persons not deemed to be debt collectors under federal law. The term “collection agent” has also been refined to exempt persons who do not act on behalf of a collection agency from requirements governing collection agents.

The Act revises requirements relating to “compliance managers” (formerly referred to as “collection managers”) – including an avenue to request a waiver from the Nevada compliance manager examination requirement if certain experiential requirements are met – and makes changes to certain record retention and application requirements, including amendments to the frequency with which the commissioner reviews a licensee’s required bond amount (annually instead of semiannually). A provision requiring applicants to pursue branch licenses for second or remote locations is also repealed. Instead, collection agencies must simply notify the commissioner of the location of the branch office. Further, collection agencies are now required to display license numbers and certificate identification numbers of compliance managers on any website maintained by the collection agency.

Additionally, the Act now authorizes collection agents to work remotely provided the agents meet certain criteria, including: 

1. signing a written agreement prepared by the collection agency that requires the agent to maintain agency-appropriate security measures to ensure the confidentiality of customer information; 
2. refraining from disclosing details about the remote location to a debtor; 
3. refraining from conducting collection activity-related work with a debtor or customer in person at the remote location; 
4. allowing work conducted from the remote location to be monitored;
5. completing various compliance and privacy training programs. 

Remote collection agents must adhere to certain practices, requirements, and restrictions set forth by both the Act and the FDCPA. Collection agencies must also maintain records of remote collection agents, provide oversight and monitoring of collection agents that work remotely, develop and implement a written security policy governing remote collection agents, and establish procedures to ensure collection agents working remotely are not acting in an illegal, unethical, or unsafe manner.

Finally, the Act imposes new prohibitions against collection agencies and their agents and employees. Among other things, a collection agency (and its compliance manager, agents, or employees) is banned from suing to collect a debt when it knows or should have known that the applicable statute of limitations has expired. The amendments further clarify that the applicable limitation period is not revived upon “payment made on a debt or certain other activity relating to the debt after the time period for filing an action based on a debt has expired.” Certain notice must also be given to a medical debtor notifying that such a payment does not revive the applicable statute of limitations. A collection agency may also not sell “an interest in a resolved claim or any personal or financial information related to the resolved claim.”

The Act becomes effective immediately for the purpose of adopting any regulations and performing any preparatory administrative tasks that are necessary to carry out the provisions of the Act and on October 1, 2023m for all other purposes. “Debt buyers” have until January 1, 2024 to submit a collection agency license application pursuant to the new provisions.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on June 18 signed into law House Bill 4, the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act.  This makes Texas the 10th state to enact a comprehensive consumer data privacy law, following California, Virginia, Colorado, Utah, Connecticut,  Iowa, Indiana, Tennessee, and Montana.

The Act will go into effect July 1, 2024, except for a section related to authorized agents which will go into effect Jan. 1, 2025.

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Applicability

The Act applies to a person that:

1. conducts business in Texas or produces a product or service consumed by residents of Texas;
2. processes or engages in the sale of personal data; and
3. is not a small business as defined by the United States Small Business Administration, except to the extent it sells sensitive data which requires consumer consent.

Exemptions

Exemptions include:

1. financial institutions or data subject to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act;
2. covered entities or business associates governed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act;
3. nonprofit organizations;
4. institutions of higher education;
5. protected health information under HIPAA;
6. personal information to the extent its collection, maintenance, disclosure, sale, communication, or use is regulated and authorized by the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Consumer Rights

Consumers have the right to:

1. confirm processing of their personal data and access such data;
2. correct inaccuracies;
3. delete personal data;
4. obtain personal data provided by the consumer in a portable and readily usable format, if stored digitally;
5. opt out of processing if for the purpose of targeted advertising, sale, or profiling.

Sensitive Personal Information

Sensitive personal data may not be processed without the consumer’s consent or, in the case of a known child, pursuant to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.

Sensitive Data includes:

1. personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs, mental or physical health diagnosis, sexual orientation, or citizenship or immigration status;
2. genetic or biometric data that is processed for the purpose of uniquely identifying an individual;
3. personal data collected from a known child; or
4. precise geolocation data.

Contract Requirements

A contract between a controller and processor must include:

1. clear instructions for processing data;
2. the nature and purpose of processing;
3. the type of data subject to processing;
4. the duration of processing;
5. the rights and obligations of both parties;
6. a requirement the processor will ensure the confidentiality of the data;
7. a requirement the processor delete or return all personal data to the controller as requested after the provision of the service is completed;
8. a requirement the processor make available all information in the processor’s possession necessary to demonstrate compliance;
9. a requirement the processor will allow and cooperate with reasonable assessments by the controller; and
10. a requirement subcontractors be engaged pursuant to a written contract mirroring the processor’s requirements.

Data Assessments

Controllers must conduct and document a data protection assessment of each of the following processing activities:

1. the processing of personal data for purposes of targeted advertising;
2. the sale of personal data;
3. the processing of personal data for purposes of certain profiling;
4. the processing of sensitive data; and
5. any processing that presents a heightened risk of harm.

Enforcement

There is no private right of action. Provided a person cannot cure a violation within 30 days, the attorney general may seek injunctive relief and a civil penalty not to exceed $7,500 for each violation.

Maurice Wutscher Impressions

This Act is similar to the non-California data privacy laws recently enacted but is unique in that its scope is not defined by volume thresholds, instead simply exempting small businesses except to the extent they sell sensitive data.

For a chart comparing the state comprehensive data privacy acts, and more information and insight from Maurice Wutscher on data privacy and security laws and legislation, click here.

Collecting debt can sometimes feel like a delicate balancing
act; debt collectors must navigate challenging situations with precision
and care. Getting a consumer on the phone to discuss their account can be
difficult, especially considering the concern of potential Fair Debt Collection
Practices Act (FDCPA) violations for calling too often. While that is true to
an extent, a recent North Carolina case highlights that reasonable calling is still
permitted despite general inconvenience or annoyance to the consumer.

In Brayton v. Alltran Financial, LP, 21-309 (W.D.
N.C. 2023), the consumer alleged that a debt collector violated the FDCPA by calling the consumer 14 times in 22 days. In response, the debt collector asked the court to issue a judgment in its favor because this call volume is reasonable and did not violate the FDCPA. 

The court agreed, and noted the following in its order granting Summary Judgment in favor of the debt collector: 

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•  All  14 calls went unanswered, so at no point did the consumer ask the defendant to stop calling.
  
• Once the consumer answered and asked the collector to stop, the account was put in a “cease” status, and no other attempts were made to contact the consumer.

• The FDCPA was intended to address “abusive, deceptive, and
  unfair debt collection practices,” not eliminate reasonable and legal debt
  collection activity.

• Whether the calls may have inconvenienced or bothered the
  consumer is not material to the analysis; and 

•  [T]he FDCPA does not
  shield consumers from the “inconvenience and embarrassment that are natural
  consequences of debt collection.

Read the full Order here. 

insideARM Perspective:

Although the telephone calls, in this case, preceded Reg F, the case is still a breath of fresh air for the collections
industry. It’s important to remember that the 7-in-7 rule in Reg F is a presumption, so we still need cases to show what might, or might not be, presumed reasonable. This case illustrates that collectors can still make
their calls and be reasonably persistent in contacting consumers. While this
may seem like a minor victory, small wins are big wins in today’s debt
collection landscape, and this is surely a case to keep in your defense files.