Debt collection

Scammers in Ohio are posing as government and law enforcement officials demanding that consumers pay money immediately, according to state regulators.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last week sent letters to 10 of the country’s largest universities urging them to publish the terms of prepaid cards, debit cards and checking accounts that banks are promoting on their campuses.

Frederick J. Hanna & Associates, P.C., an Atlanta-based creditors’ rights and collection law firm, has expanded its legal collection footprint by opening an office in Greenville, S.C., that will service the entire state.

Local officials in Daly City, Calif. will review Monday whether to approve legislation that will prohibit new payday lending businesses from opening within 2,000 feet of existing payday lenders.

Fair Isaac Co. revealed Thursday that its revamped credit score model will not weigh medical debt as heavily as previous versions, a key change given that medical debt accounts for nearly half of all unpaid collections on consumers' credit reports.

More than 1,300 consumers victimized by two related mortgage relief scams will be getting approximately $800,000 as a result of a settlement announced Friday by the federal government.

The deal is for approximately $70 million in cash with Encore Capital making additional payments totaling $126 million to retire some of Atlantic Credit & Finance's debts and obligations.

Two separate cases involving collection agencies that allegedly violated federal debt collection laws were closed Thursday in settlements announced by the Federal Trade Commission.

FICO has launched a credit risk prognosis tool financial institutions can use to stress-test their consumer loan portfolios.

A federal court has halted, pending litigation, an operation that allegedly stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from small businesses, doctors’ offices, retirement homes and religious schools by charging them for unwanted listings in an online directory.

PRA Group, an accounts receivable management firm formerly known as Portfolio Recovery Associates, reported second quarter financial results.

Columbia Ultimate, an expert in technology and integrated solutions for the collection industry, has announced the addition of a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau session to its upcoming 2014 Art of Success conference.

Community Health Systems, a for-profit hospital operator, will pay the federal government to resolve allegations that it submitted false claims for short-stay admissions.

Municipal Collections of America will recover outstanding parking ticket fines and unpaid civil penalties for red-light violations in Tuscaloosa, Ala. under a contract city council members approved this week.

Third-party debt collectors recovered $55.2 billion last year for creditor and government clients, returning to them an estimated $45 billion.

The operator of a massive mobile cramming scheme agreed to surrender more than $1.2 million in assets to settle FTC charges. The assets include several bank accounts, two luxury cars, shares in a number of startup companies and multiple luxury watches.

New OCC guidelines for the sale of consumer debt detail the steps banks must take before selling charged-off consumer loans, including making banks responsible for performing due diligence on debt buyers before a sale.

Nearly one in four U.S. banks reported they eased mortgage-lending standards for borrowers with strong credit during the second quarter.

The Dallas Women’s Foundation has awarded $3.1 million in grants to 98 nonprofits, including Consumer Credit Counseling Services of Greater Dallas, which received $120,000 a year for three years.

Several hundred thousand dollars in loans have gone uncollected by the small-business lending arm of the Boston Redevelopment Authority, with more than half of its loans seriously delinquent, according to an internal audit.