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Study of Third-Party Debt Collection Operations

Introduction

In order to better understand the operational costs of debt collection firms, particularly in areas potentially affected by regulatory proposals under consideration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Bureau) conducted a survey of debt collection firms and vendors. The answers to the survey questions provide material for the Bureau’s consideration of what it would cost collectors of different types to comply with potential new rules.

The survey is a qualitative study and by its nature does not produce estimates that are necessarily representative of the debt collection industry as a whole. However, by asking the same questions of a number of collection firms, the Bureau obtained a broad understanding of how a range of different types of debt collectors operate.

The debt collection industry consists of a large and diverse group of firms, ranging in size from one employee to thousands of employees, and often specializing in particular types of debt or particular types of clients. Despite this diversity, the core activity of debt collection firms is the same: to obtain information about delinquent consumer accounts and to attempt to collect on those accounts by convincing consumers to pay or by seeking a court judgment. Therefore, certain activities are common across most or all collection firms:

  • Obtaining data about delinquent accounts and making it available to collection staff, generally using a software platform referred to in this report as a “collection management system”;
  • Calling consumers to ask them to pay;
  • Sending letters to consumers, including validation notices containing mandatory disclosures;
  • Posting payments, reconciling balances, and communicating payment information to collectors and clients;
  • Processing and investigating consumer disputes;
  • Furnishing information to credit bureaus; and
  • Pursuing litigation against consumers.

The written questions and phone interviews in the Bureau’s survey focused on understanding these and other aspects of debt collection firm operations.

Full report below…

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4closureFraud.org

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Study of Third-Party Debt Collection Operations