Daily Digest - July 18, 2025

Brought to you by: TCN | By Mike Gibb

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Mike Gibb
July 18, 2025

🥳 🎂 Happy Birthday to Becca Martin of Wells Fargo, Brittany Campos of Enova International, Cayla-Simone Riggs of Kredit, and Jim Howard of Matrix Imaging.

🎉 🙌 Congratulations to Kristin Werner, who was promoted to Senior Supervisor of Credit and Collections at UGI Utilities.

📆 Going to ACA next week in Louisville? Want to sit down and chat? Let me know!

More than 35 speakers have confirmed for ComplianceCon. Check out who will be speaking and more at Compliance-Con.com.

New Training Bytes Video Published

Check out the newest Training Bytes video! Each week, an expert from the accounts receivable management industry will share how he or she would handle different scenarios that collectors often face. This week, Kristi Loyer from Wilber discusses how to ask for a consumer’s feedback or to ask them to leave a Google review? Thanks to Peak Revenue Learning for sponsoring this series! Click on the image below to view this week’s episode!

Collector Accused of Third-Party Disclosure by Sending Email about Debt to Plaintiff’s Son

  • A plaintiff is suing a collection operation for allegedly disclosing the existence of a debt because it sent an email to her son. The subject line and the first line of the email do reference the plaintiff’s name and the email address is redacted from the exhibit attached to the complaint, so it’s impossible to know what address was used.

  • More details here.

  • This series is sponsored by WebRecon

A MESSAGE FROM TCN

TODAY‘S WEBINAR

UPCOMING WEBINARS

Court Halves Statutory Award in FDCPA Case Over Text Sent to Third Party

  • A District Court judge in New York has halved the statutory award available under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to an individual who sued after the defendant sent a text message attempting to collect on a debt to a client of the plaintiff, ruling that doing it only once made it less egregious than it could have been.

  • More details here.

Trump Administration Pushes to Limit Public Input in Rulemaking: Report

  • A newly released report by the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards accuses the Trump administration of attempting to sidestep the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) to fast-track deregulation and limit public participation in the federal rulemaking process.

  • More details here.

Senators Demand Answers After CFPB Drops Consent Order Against CU

  • The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s July 1 decision to terminate a $95 million consent order against Navy Federal Credit Union has ignited sharp criticism from lawmakers and drawn support from credit union trade groups. The original order, issued in November 2024, alleged Navy Federal charged members improper overdraft fees and required $80.6 million in restitution and a $15 million civil penalty.

  • More details here.

WORTH NOTING: Consumers are less confident about their financial outlook ... The three P's (and one T) of improving customer experience ... Employers are likely to reduce healthcare benefits offered to employees to cut costs ... Economic activity ticked up slightly, according to data released by the Federal Reserve Board this week ... Going to a 36-hour workweek in Iceland has reduced stress and improved job satisfaction ... Which fast food chains have the most unhealthy meals ... Dogs are more sophisticated TV viewers than people thought ... The most surprising workplace trends of 2025.

Funny Friday, part I

Funny Friday, Part II

Webinar Recap: How to Foster a Culture of Innovation in Your Operation

Companies that thrive in the credit and collection industry don’t wait for change — they build it from within. That was the central theme of this webinar, sponsored by Abstract, which brought together operations and technology leaders to discuss how innovation can (and should) be a team-wide effort rooted in company culture, not just technology.

Why it matters:
In a space defined by regulation and legacy systems, fostering innovation may sound risky. But panelists argued that not innovating is the bigger risk. From process tweaks to tech upgrades, the industry must adopt a mindset that values experimentation, collaboration, and incremental wins.

Key takeaways:

  1. Innovation isn’t just about big leaps.

    • Alec Tilley (Goal Solutions) and Pete Thompson (BuoyFi) emphasized that process improvements and small, compounding changes — like refining call scripts or optimizing text message content — often yield significant results over time.

  2. Company culture is the biggest barrier — not cost or legacy tech.

    • Greg Reffner (Abstrakt) stressed that reluctance to change is what really holds companies back. “AI isn’t expensive anymore. The problem is risk tolerance and resistance to new ideas,” he said.

  3. Celebrate ideas, tolerate failure, and reward contribution.

    • Panelists urged companies to remove shame from the innovation equation. Create feedback loops, collaborative spaces for employees to share ideas, and reward participation — even when those ideas don’t always pan out.

Action items for leaders:

  • Evaluate where your company sits on the innovation adoption curve (recommended reading: Crossing the Chasm).

  • Launch a structured internal program to collect and prioritize employee ideas.

  • Consider low-risk, high-impact changes — like launching text-based outreach or leveraging real-time agent assist tools.

Sponsor spotlight:
Abstrakt.ai provides real-time agent assistance and automated QA tools that help improve compliance and revenue collection outcomes — often increasing revenue by 60% and reducing ramp time by 50%.

The Daily Digest is sponsored by TCN