Debt collection

Columbia Financial International Inc. announced Wednesday it is awarding $50,000 in grants to the collection industry to be used for education in Fair Debt Collection Practices Act regulations.

Connecticut regulators have fined the head of a Native American tribe and the two payday loan companies it owns a total of $1.5 million for allegedly violating a state cap on interest rates.

U.S. bankruptcy filings totaled 910,090 in 2014, a 12% drop from the 1,032,572 filings in 2013, according to data from American Bankruptcy Institute, provided by Epiq Systems Inc.

Utah-based SecurityNational Mortgage Co. has agreed to a monetary settlement of a claim by Bank of America that it sold the Charlotte, N.C.-based lender defective mortgage loans.

The Colorado Attorney General's office reports that more than 165,000 state residents owed $56 million to payday lenders at the end of 2013 and the number of people taking out such loans is rising, according to an annual report.

National Credit Adjusters LLC, a payday loan company recently targeted in a Pennsylvania enforcement action, agreed Monday to pay nearly $1 million in restitution to New York City residents and stop collecting debts in the city.

Small business borrowers owing money to the Boston Redevelopment Authority's small-business lending arm did not receive regular collection letters even as hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer-financed loans went unpaid, an audit by a federal agency revealed.

Many observers agree that one of the most significant rulemakings slated for this year from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will be on debt collection. Depending on how it structures its proposal, the plan could capture a broad range of companies that have a hand in the credit reporting system.

Credit Karma, a credit management website, last week started offering on-demand access to credit reports from Equifax. It's the second credit report Credit Karma users can view as much as they like.

The CFPB made an announcement in October that caused many consumer advocates to cheer and many bankers to scratch their heads. In short, it's ready to address the decades-old consumer complaint of being rejected for a checking account based on information that they believe is irrelevant, inaccurate or inconvenient.

In the U.S., approximately 1.7% of credit card accounts are more than 30 days past due, which includes people who have let their bills go unpaid for more than 60 and 90 days, according to 2014 third quarter data from Experian Intelliview.

Verizon Communications Inc. has paid the state of Massachusetts $1.3 million to settle charges that it overbilled the state for phone service.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau published a notice this week in the Federal Register to collect comments on its request for approval of a consumer response intake form under the Paperwork Reduction Act.

A nonprofit behavioral health provider in New Mexico submitted more than $4 million in overbillings, according to an audit conducted for New Mexico's Human Services Department, which included a case-by-case review of 150 reimbursement claims.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is urging the Department of Defense to finalize its proposal to extend the Military Lending Act to cover more types of credit than the current rule.

More than 1.1 million households in the U.S. used auto title loans in 2013, according to a survey by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. - the first time the agency has included such loans in its annual survey.

Experian announced Monday that it will begin offering FICO credit scores through its direct-to-consumer products.

Fair Debt Collection Practices Act lawsuits dropped to a more typical 713 cases (including 66 class action cases) filed in November after a spike to more than 900 in October. Fair Credit Reporting Act lawsuits decreased to 173 (including 14 class action cases) in November from more than 225 a month earlier.

The financial services company Santander's subprime auto lending business is under investigation by Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley's office over concerns it may have been engaged in predatory lending practices.

A data broker operation sold the sensitive personal information of hundreds of thousands of consumers to scammers who allegedly debited millions from their accounts, the Federal Trade Commission charged in a complaint.