Daily Digest - April 1, 2025

🎂🎉 Happy Birthday to: Christopher Schaefer of Emprise Technologies. 🥳🎁

Suit Alleges MVN Payment Option Violates FDCPA

• This is one that could become a thing. A collection operation is facing a class-action complaint alleging that the tear-off portion of the Model Validation Notice, which includes a box allowing the consumer to indicate how much of a payment is being made along with instructions about whom to pay, coerces individuals to make payments and is thus a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and Regulation F.

• More details here.

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Judge Rules Selfies Must Accompany Collection Texts

• A District Court judge has granted a plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment in a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act case, ruling that the defendant violated the statute by not including selfies of the collectors who were sending the plaintiff text message communications attempting to collect on an unpaid debt because the messages were “too impersonal” and “indistinguishable” from messages that could have been generated by artificial intelligence. All text messages sent by the defendant should include “clear and current selfie photographs” of the representative sending the message, the judge ruled.

• More details here.

Regulators to Require Collector Empathy Training

• In a surprising regulatory development, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) and New York’s Department of Financial Services (DFS) yesterday announced a joint rulemaking that will fundamentally change training requirements for debt collection professionals in both states and perhaps the nation.

• More details here.

CFPB Repeals Medical Debt Credit Reporting Rule, Adds Repossession, Mandatory Reporting Requirement

• Having already backtracked on its Payday Lending Rule and the Buy Now, Pay Later rule, nobody should be surprised that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau yesterday announced it was pulling back the medical debt credit reporting rule, although it did introduce a pair of twists that caught everyone in the industry off-guard. Going forward, consumers who don’t pay their medical debts could have their medical devices repossessed and treatments reversed and all medical debts must be reported under the “Financial Obligation Oversight & Liquidation” (FOOL) program.

• More details here.

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Trailer Tuesday, part I

Trailer Tuesday, Part II