Debt collection

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.

A court-appointed trustee will operate an Indiana collection agency after it failed Tuesday to get a time extension to devise a refinancing plan to pay off its creditors.

Ontario Systems, a leading receivables management technology and services provider, has announced Chief Compliance Officer Rozanne Andersen will present at the 18th annual National Collections & Operational Risk Conference in Miami next week.

Collectors and compliance officers are listed among the top jobs to have in business in U.S. News and World Report's 2014 list of the 100 Best Jobs in America.

Two federal investigations into General Electric Co.'s credit card business are underway to determine if the unit violated consumer finance laws.

A payday lending bill in Idaho, designed to dictate how much payday lenders can give borrowers, won passage in the state's House of Representatives on Monday by the slimmest of margins.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) is calling on Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray to end the bureau’s closed-door meeting policy for its four advisory councils.

JPMorgan Chase illegally won thousands of default judgments in credit card collection lawsuits by robosigning affidavits, according to a class action lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Credit card debt declined in January but borrowing for student and auto loans increased, leading to an uptick in non-revolving credit, according to data from the Federal Reserve's G.19 report.

Aaron's Inc., a national rent-to-own retailer, settled Federal Trade Commission charges that it played a "direct and vital role" in its franchisees’ installation and use of software on rental computers that secretly monitored consumers, including taking webcam pictures of consumers in their homes.

While the Department of Education has developed tools for overseeing collection agencies that it works with to find borrowers and explain repayment options, key weaknesses have limited its ability to properly monitor agency performance, according to a Government Accountability Office report on federal student loans.