Debt collection

The tighter lending climate in the post-recession world has created new challenges for debt collectors. But those challenges can come with opportunities as the way business is done evolves.

An appeals court Wednesday upheld a lower court decision in a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act case against a collection agency.

U.S. residential properties sold at an estimated annual pace of 5,083,241 in February, a slight decrease from the previous month but an improvement from a year ago, according to a new report. February marked the fourth consecutive month that saw sales activity fall.

FICO has announced the availability of FICO Custom Credit Education, a new credit education service designed to give consumers better access to their FICO Score and help lenders be more informative about credit scoring.

A closely watched barometer of consumer confidence surged in March to its highest mark in more than six years.

RealtyTrac, a company that provides housing and foreclosure data, announced Tuesday that it has entered the tax, deed and mortgage data licensing business, making it the first new entrant in the business in more than a decade.

The problem with data-driven decisions is that we don’t always like the result. Credit scores are recently falling into that trap.

Delinquent first mortgages totaled 5.65 percent of outstanding balances, down more than 22 percent year-over-year in February, according to a new report.

The CFPB says it is in the late stages of formulating new regulations for the payday lending business.

Convergys has acquired rival call center giant Stream Global Services for $820 million.

U.S. News & World Report published a commentary piece on debt collection practices on Monday. Perhaps not surprisingly, the article does not cast the industry in a favorable light.

Complaints against debt collectors filed with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau dropped in February compared to January, a decline that mirrors the drop for complaint filings across all categories.

But the analysis of housing markets in 410 counties found that only 8 percent are better off than they were eight years ago.

The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department is mounting a campaign to shut off service to as many as 3,000 delinquent customers each week after reporting that more than half of the city's customers are 60 days-plus late on payments.

ACA International late Thursday said the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s report on debt collection complaints misses several key points.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a report Thursday on collection enforcement actions it took in 2013 and discussing the 30,000 consumer complaints it has received about collections since it began accepting them last July.

LoanPoint USA has agreed to forgive hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt in a Montana class-action lawsuit settlement.

Cabot Credit Management, a United Kingdom and Ireland-based debt buyer, posted a 13 percent jump in revenue for 2013, attributing much of the growth to purchasing semi-performing portfolios that tend to have a "longer annuity stream" for collections.

A U.S. district judge ruled that the Federal Trade Commission has the authority under the FTC Act to regulate the arms of American Indian tribes, their employees and their contractors.

More borrowers are paying off their mortgage loans before their credit card debts, reversing a trend first seen in September 2008, according to a TransUnion study.