Yesterday’s announced settlement by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) with a well-known debt-settlement provider – along with several other recent actions by the CFPB and the FTC against debt-settlement firms – highlights not only the need to continue to protect financially vulnerable consumers, but also to reinforce the importance of consumer financial literacy.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) on June 25 held the first in its evolving symposia series, dealing with the term “abusive” and if the Bureau should use its rulemaking authority to further define the term. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has developed the “unfair” and “deceptive” portions of UDAAP (Unfair, Deceptive, Abusive Acts and Practices), but “abusive” has remained vague.

Federal regulators started pushing large banks to offer small-dollar loans to customers as an alternative to payday loans last year. A Bloomberg BGov article this morning quotes analysts and large banking institutions saying, essentially that while they want to help consumers, the financial institutions aren’t equipped to deal with the costs associated with underwriting, servicing and marketing small-dollar products for smaller amounts of credit.

Complaints about robocalls continue to rise, and occur seemingly anywhere, at any time. Members of Congress say they hear about the robocall problem in town hall events back in their districts. It’s no different at the regulatory agencies – where robocalls are an easy Enemy No. 1. So it’s no surprise that the federal government is determined to do something about them.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Office of Research has released a study on consumer credit card payment behavior. The study examines whether consumer pay off their balances monthly, retain a balance from one month to the next, keep an inactive credit card, or transition between any of the aforementioned states. The study breaks down the information by credit score band and geographically.In reviewing the behavior of consumer with respect to their credit card debt, the study overlooks the benefits that consumers derive from traditional installment loans for debt consolidation. Such loans can help consumer completely pay off credit card or other debt in a stable and predictable manner.

Join us July 25th at 2 p.m. ET for Opportunities in Used Vehicle Financing, presented by TransUnion.

Following up on presentations made at AFSA’s May committee meetings, the AFSA Operations and Regulatory is creating the California Consumer Protection Act Working Group.”The purpose of the group is to give AFSA members focused on compliance issues a chance to share information and approaches to dealing with the CCPA,” said Philip Bohi, VP Compliance Education. “We will focus on understanding the law’s requirements along with any amendments, regulations, or guidance that will come. With that as a foundation, we can talk about how to achieve and maintain compliance.”Group goals include:• Discussing compliance obligations relating to CCPA• Discussing techniques members can use to achieve and maintain compliance• Update on CCPA amendments, rules, guidanceAFSA’s State Government Affairs Committee will continue its work and efforts on legislative and regulatory matters related to the CCPA.If you are interested in participating in the AFSA ORCC CCPA working group, please contact Philip Bohi at pbohi@afsamail.org.

AFSA submitted a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on June 30 in response to the commission’s hearings on competition and consumer protection in the 21st century. The letter lays out the necessity for a “single, federal, risk-based standard” for data security.

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Under existing law, a towing service or repair shop could hold a vehicle for at least 30 days and even claim another lien against the vehicle due to nonpayment for services. During this period, the service provider is required to notify all owners and lienholders of the amount due and may eventually hold a public auction for the sale of the vehicle following publication of a notice of sale. This process has been abused for many years through fraudulent liens on customer’s vehicles, and selling vehicles without properly notifying the lienholder.