Debt collection

The Federal Trade Commission has sued a group of affiliated collection agencies and their owners for using the words "Federal," "American," "U.S.," or "State" in their names and for collection tactics such as threatening to arrest customers.

Lowell Group, a purchaser of non-performing consumer debt portfolios in the United Kingdom, is working on a deal aimed at slashing its cost of borrowing.

Louisiana's efforts to create a central collections office to pursue more than $1 billion in debts owed to the state government could take several years to complete, officials said.

Banks at risk of failure fell for the 11th straight quarter to nearly half the high mark of March 2011, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The Federal Trade Commission is closing a case against debt buyer Security Credit Services and Jacob Law Group that involved violations of both the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and FTC Act.

A payday lending reform bill in Utah passed a vote in the state's House, by a 69-4 vote, and moves to the full Senate after the Senate Business and Labor Committee unanimously endorsed it Thursday.

The CFPB sued an Indiana-based college for predatory lending, the agency's first action in the for-profit college industry. Some students did not realize they had a private loan until they began getting collection calls, the lawsuit states.

A bill aimed at altering the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's structure and limiting its powers to regulate the consumer finance industry gained approval from the House of Representatives on Thursday but is unlikely to pass muster in the Senate.

Debt collection ranks second in the Federal Trade Commission's annual list of consumer complaints, according to the report released Thursday.

An estimated 782 different collection agencies and creditors were sued in January under consumer statutes, including the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

Indiana University notified the Indiana attorney general’s office Tuesday of the potential exposure of personal data for approximately 146,00 students and recent graduates.

Debt buyer Encore Capital Group Inc. announced Tuesday the acquisitions of two companies in separate transactions in the United Kingdom and Latin America.

Auto loan debt per borrower increased for the 11th straight quarter, rising 4.4 percent from $16,060 in Q4 2012 to $16,769 in Q4 2013.

In West Virginia this week, state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey's office reports a new scam involves callers pretending to be FBI agents attempting to collect debts.

Complaints filed with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau about collectors totaled 2,975 in January, more than double the 1,254 in December. In 2013, starting in July when the CFPB began tracking the data, 11,043 complaints were filed against collectors.

A federal court has entered a temporary restraining order halting a deceptive work-from-home scheme that conned millions of dollars from consumers by falsely telling them they could easily earn thousands of dollars a month by purchasing bogus business coaching services and establishing their own Internet businesses.

A federal judge ordered the arrest and incarceration of Paul Navestad, known legally as Paul Richard Jones, for violating an April 2012 court order requiring him to pay more than $20 million for his role in a phony government grant scheme.

An industry leader discusses advances in collections methodologies - including the creation of effective collections infrastructure, innovations in the field and the major factors driving change in collections strategies.

Experian Automotive announced Thursday that consumers continued to make their loan payments on time in Q4 2013. Automotive loan 30-day delinquencies were down 3.5 percent (going from 2.72 percent in Q4 2012 to 2.63 percent in Q4 2013), and 60-day delinquencies remained flat at 0.74 percent.

Several companies and individuals have agreed to settlements with the Federal Trade Commission that ban them from selling business or work-at-home opportunities and require them to surrender assets to the FTC.