Debt collection

New York regulators on Wednesday are set to announce new debt collection rules that will require collectors to produce loan documents or a court judgment if requested. Regulators believe the rules will help guide an industry that has gone largely unregulated despite thousands of consumer complaints each year.

An Atlanta-based health billing company and its former CEO settled Federal Trade Commission charges that they misled thousands of consumers who signed up for an online billing portal.

Charity care and community benefit at the Cleveland Clinic jumped to $652 million in 2013, up 7% from $610 million in 2012, according to numbers released by health system.

Lowell Group, a United Kingdom-based provider of credit management services specializing in debt recovery and data analytics, has earned a consulting agency's highest rating awarded for customer service.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will hold a field hearing on medical debt collections at noon, EST on Dec. 11 in Oklahoma City.

Account Control Technology Inc. has been recognized as the No. 1 private collection agency on the U.S. Department of Education's unrestricted contract for the quarter ending September 30.

In South Africa, debt collectors have been dealt a major setback with new legislation requiring that any debt more than three years old cannot be pursued for collections.

The pricing of auto loans through dealerships by Toyota Motor Credit Corp., the lending arm of Toyota Motors Corp., could lead to an enforcement action from U.S. authorities, the company said.

Preventing and managing data breaches are two of the highest priorities facing businesses. To help executives plan ahead, Experian Data Breach Resolution has released its second annual Data Breach Industry Forecast, a white paper outlining key issues and trends to watch for in 2015.

A bipartisan group of 38 state attorneys general submitted comments asking the Federal Trade Commission to crack down on scammers who collect money from telemarketing victims.

A federal lawsuit filed Friday in Cook County, Ill. accuses Wells Fargo of disproportionately targeting minorities with high-cost mortgage loans, spurring a foreclosure crisis in the area.

It is a bold claim: Banks could potentially originate 300,000 more home loans per quarter without taking on too much more risk.

Outstanding household debt rose by $78 billion in the third quarter compared with the previous three months, to $11.71 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s quarterly Household Debt and Credit Report.

New York families victimized by scams such as false promises of loan modifications lose an average of $4,187 per household, 27% higher than the national average of $3,296.

Consumer confidence fell in November, interrupting a steady rise in sentiment, but Americans still indicated plans to spend more, according to the Conference Board. The conflict clouds the trickle down expectations for the collection business.

Account Control Technology Inc. has donated to Susan G. Komen, a nonprofit organization that works to end breast cancer in the U.S. and throughout the world by supporting research, community health outreach, advocacy and programs in more than 30 countries.

Complaints against debt collection companies logged with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rose in October, as did lawsuits citing alleged violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and Fair Credit Reporting Act.

The latest TransUnion Industry Insights Report found that total outstanding credit card balances increased by 4.3% in Q3 2014 from Q3 2013. It signals the second consecutive quarter of significant annual growth and it constitutes the highest growth rate observed since Q4 2008.

The defendants in a federal court action brought by the Federal Trade Commission agreed Thursday to stop running an advance fee recovery scheme for the duration of the ongoing litigation.

The founder of DECA Financial Services, once a fast-growing debt collection agency in Fishers, Ind., is facing federal charges in a $5 million fraud case.