Debt collection

New York Foundling Hospital, a Manhattan-based provider of child foster care services, has reached a $250,000 settlement with New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman's office to resolve allegations the hospital billed Medicaid for the care of children while they were absent from the program.

A class-action lawsuit in Albuquerque, N.M. claims the collection practices surrounding local red light camera and speed camera tickets violate the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

The Federal Trade Commission testified before Congress Tuesday on the agency’s ongoing efforts to promote data security, and reiterated its support for enactment of a strong federal data security and breach notification law.

Debt buyer Portfolio Recovery Associates Inc., based in Norfolk, Va. and operating in the U.S. and U.K., announced Tuesday the acquisition of certain operating assets from Pamplona Capital Management LLP.

Cash Store Financial Group, which operates Cash Stores and Instaloans in British Columbia, Canada, has been ordered to repay more than $1 million to B.C. customers after allegedly charging them exorbitant interest rates on payday loans and charging extra to load the loans onto debit cards.

A U.S. district court judge in Florida has issued a contempt order against Bryon Wolf and Roy Eliasson, two people who operated a deceptive marketing scheme since 2009.

A federal judge has reduced to $1.62 million the amount a jury had awarded an Oregon woman who spent years battling with Equifax.

The number of completed foreclosures in the U.S. dropped 24 percent last year, compared to 2012, according to a report from CoreLogic.

In New Zealand, numbers from the country's Reserve Bank show total credit card balances neared $6 billion in December - a record high and a sign people are returning to poor credit card habits not seen since before the global financial crisis.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine's says his office has collected more than $1.3 billion in debts owed to state government offices.

Fair Debt Collection Practices Act lawsuits decreased for the second consecutive year in 2013, down 10 percent from 2012, which itself was down 7 percent from 2011. Telephone Consumer Protection Act litigation exploded in 2013, up 69 percent from 2012.

New York regulators have reached a settlement with Western Sky Financial LLC, CashCall Inc., WS Funding LLC and their owners, Martin Webb and J. Paul Reddam, for violating the state's usury and licensed lender laws in connection with personal loans they made over the Internet.

California's plan to halt payday loan services owned by Indian tribes was dealt a setback this week after a state appeals court ruled tribal sovereign immunity stands in the way.

The latest Equifax National Consumer Credit Trends Report indicates that the automobile lending sector continues to thrive. The total number of new auto loans originated from January through October 2013 was 20.2 million, totaling $405.2 billion and representing the highest origination total for that time in eight years.

A Michigan woman charged with embezzling $135,000 from collection agency Mid-Michigan Collection Bureau, where she was employed, received a sentence of one year in jail and an order to pay restitution, Clinton County (Mich.) Circuit Court Judge Michelle Rick announced this week.

The British Columbia Supreme Court in Canada has ruled that TransUnion can’t keep consumer credit data such as late payments on its records for more than six years.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine's office received more than 2,400 collection complaints in 2013, with hundreds of those complaints involving potential scams.

TeleCheck Services, Inc., one of the nation’s largest check authorization service companies, along with its associated debt collection firm, TRS Recovery Services Inc., have agreed to pay $3.5 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that they violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

The number of U.S. properties saddled with foreclosures last year dropped 26 percent from 2012, according to RealtyTrac, an online real estate firm.

Terms of a settlement between Apple Inc. and the Federal Trade Commission require Apple to provide full refunds to consumers, paying a minimum of $32.5 million, to settle charges that it billed consumers for millions of dollars of charges incurred by children in kids’ mobile apps without their parents’ consent.