Debt collection

The Federal Trade Commission and the New York Attorney General’s office gave presentations on collection issues, existing laws and the enforcement of fair practices.

Equifax Inc. announced Monday that it’s working with Credit Builders Alliance to help Americans who are considered to be “credit invisible.”

Community Bank in Pasadena, Calif., has completed a debt restructuring that will reduce second-quarter profit, but will improve its cost of funds and margins and increase yearly income.

A study of the top five U.S. auto insurers found an average 49% difference in premium costs for someone with an excellent credit score compared with someone with no credit history.

Global Debt Registry announced that its Account Extinguishment Report is available for free to consumers on its consumer website Debt Lookup. The firm calls it "a solution for protecting consumers from attempts to collect on settled, cancelled or closed accounts."

A watchdog group is proposing a ballot measure that would impose a cap on interest rates charged by the lenders.

A city of Los Angeles lawsuit accusing Wells Fargo & Co. of opening bank accounts without customers' permission in order to reach sales quotas should be heard in federal court, according to the bank.

Town officials in Manchester, Conn. have hired a collection agency to pursue people who are delinquent on their motor vehicle taxes.

The Consumer Bankers Association praised banks' discipline on managing credit quality for student loans after a report showed a drop in delinquencies.

An analysis by the National Center for Health Statistics shows that the number of Americans experiencing problems paying their medical bills fell between 2011 and mid-2014.

Big banks and institutional lenders approved small-business loans at record rates in May, according to data from Biz2Credit.

The Federal Trade Commission, in testimony before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, highlighted its approach to protecting consumers from unwanted telemarketing calls and illegal robocalls.

Community banks are facing tough choices when it comes to using outsourced labor or beefing up their own staff to handle risk-management tasks.

The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., the state’s top jobs agency, has written off $7.6 million in taxpayer-funded loans in the four years since it was created.

A California mortgage bank, Guarantee Mortgage Corp., must pay a civil penalty of $228,000 for paying its branch managers based, in part, on the interest rates of the loans they closed.

The FTC has provided its Annual Financial Acts Enforcement Report to the CFPB on enforcement and related activities regarding key industry regulations.

The sheriff of Wall Street is moving on — much to the elation of the financial services sector. Benjamin Lawsky, superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services, is departing from his position this June. But he is likely to leave a lasting impression on the culture and mission of the department.

Debt collector James A. Havassy and his company, Hamilton Law Group, are defendants in a lawsuit alleging they intimidated family members into paying medical bills.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fined RPM Mortgage and CEO Rob Hirt $20 million for illegally paying bonuses and higher commissions to loan agents to lead people into more expensive loans. Hirt said the company did nothing wrong.

A letter sent to several large banks on Friday advised the banks to limit tellers' access to customer data and do more to detect signs of misbehavior.