Debt collection

A U.S. district court has halted an operation that the Federal Trade Commission alleges collected phantom payday loan “debts” that consumers did not owe.

A U.S. District Court in Ohio has given preliminary approval to a class-action settlement for unlawful collection practices against law firm Kaufman & Florence, based in Lebanon, Ohio.

The overall success of the small to mid-sized business (SMB) market remains pivotal to the full economic recovery.

Good customers are good customers right up until they’re not. This is the fundamental paradox of credit risk analysis. The most profitable customers are often the ones that are closest to being unprofitable.

It's that time of the year again. We find ourselves making our lists and checking them twice. As December draws to an end and we look forward to what's coming in 2012, it's time to spread some holiday cheer by sharing what's on the wish list of the nation's more than 150,000 collectors.

This month the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau held an invitation-only teleconference and issued a press release announcing its "Early Warning Notice," which would allow banks the opportunity to respond to findings by the CFPB before commencing enforcement actions.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is open for business, of course, but it still promises to be awhile before the collection industry gets a clear idea of how the regulatory agency intends to oversee it.

Profitability is under attack in the banking world today. Economic realities and the regulatory environment have forced banks to change how they do business.

Consumers filed an estimated 400 Fair Debt Collection Practices Act lawsuits in the Aug. 16-31 period, down from 441 filed in the first half of August, according to data from U.S. district courts.

LVNV Funding LLC, a Greenville, S.C.-based debt buyer, has settled a lawsuit in Maryland's federal court that involved the firm's license status in the state. The company agreed to erase an estimated $10 million in consumer debt for some 3,500 plaintiffs.

Consumer borrowing increased by the largest amount in more than three years in July, led by a gain in non-revolving credit that includes student loans.

A quarterly analysis of credit trends in Canada found that the average total debt for consumers ticked up in the second quarter ended June 30 to $25,603, a $6 increase from the first quarter total, which had marked the first decrease in nearly seven years. The total does not include mortgage debt.

Consumers have filed 7,923 lawsuits against collection agencies and creditors this year through August 15, a record-setting pace that easily tops the 7,169 lawsuits filed through the year-ago period.

It really is a great time to be a credit risk officer, but many people might think that is an absurd statement.

Credit card delinquencies fell to their lowest mark in 17 years in the second quarter, the sixth consecutive quarterly decline, as consumers remained cautious about taking on more debt and issuers held on to their conservative approach to lending, according to TransUnion.

U.S. consumers sued an estimated 563 different collection agencies in the July 16-31 period, according to data pulled from U.S. District Courts. The half-month total is up from 539 in the July 1-15 period but down from 634 in June's second half.

Vehicle repossession is a costly, arduous and unpleasant task for financial institutions. But retaking possession of the vehicle is only part of the process.

Last month, our article focused on the Durbin amendment and what banks can control when faced with legislative mandates with which they must comply.

Much has been made on Capitol Hill of the “unchecked” powers of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the lack of oversight of its work. Actually, the agency’s powers are quite circumscribed by the provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act that created it.

A federal court has halted an online operation that allegedly debited consumers’ bank accounts without their consent when consumers visited the defendants’ Web sites seeking payday loans.