Daily Digest - July 2, 2026

🎂 Happy birthday to: Crystal Barajas of Westerra Credit Union and Lucas Brown of Saige Analytics.

🎉Congratulations for starting new positions: Steve Tindall as Mortgage Consultant at Capital City Home Loans, LLC, and Josh Shirey as Principal Solutions Consultant at ACI Worldwide.

NEW AI SURVEY

Have 90 seconds to help me out? Take this quick survey, sponsored by TCN, on how you are using AI, what you like about it, and what frustrates you.

New AI Event!

I am thrilled to announce a new live conference I am hosting. It’s an AI conference for the credit and collection industry. It will be held in Denver this September. Check out getbrainstorming.com for more information. And watch the video below to see me showcasing my outdoor skills.

If you are interested in being a speaker at the event, click here.

Getting to Know Matt DiPoalo of Velocity

• If you are having a conversation with Matt DiPoalo and he isn’t responding to you, it’s likely because of one of two reasons. Either he’s making a conscious effort to apply some sage wisdom and make sure he is listening to you and hearing what you are saying, or it’s because he has significant hearing loss in one ear and just didn’t hear you. Both have helped him hone his ability to ask good questions. Read on to learn more about Matt, what food he is rarely ever able to turn down, and how being a pitcher taught him to be adaptable.

• More details here.

• This series is sponsored by TEC Services Group

A MESSAGE FROM TCN

TODAY’S WEBINAR

UPCOMING WEBINARS

Judge Tosses ‘Sovereign Citizen’ FCRA, FDCPA Suit Against Lender

• A District Court judge in Arizona has granted a defendant’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit accusing a lender of breach of contract and violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Fair Credit Reporting Act after the plaintiffs’ vehicle was repossessed, rejecting arguments built on a legal theory “commonly used by those associated with the sovereign citizen movement.”

• More details here.

Judge Denies FDCPA Plaintiff’s Bid to Recover Fees From Dismissed Federal Case

• In a case that was defended by Martin Golden Lyons Watts Morgan and Kaufman Dolowich, a state court judge in New Jersey has largely denied a fee petition in a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act case, ruling that the plaintiff cannot recover attorney’s fees for work performed in an earlier federal lawsuit that was dismissed for lack of standing.

• More details here.

FTC Proposes Policy Statement Targeting ‘Ideological Steering’ of AI Systems

• The Federal Trade Commission is seeking public comment on a proposed policy statement warning that AI companies could violate federal consumer protection law if they steer their systems’ outputs toward undisclosed ideological objectives, even when doing so to comply with state laws.

• More details here.

Survey of Debt Relief Recipients Finds Insurance No Shield Against Medical Debt

• A new survey from Undue Medical Debt offers a look at how medical debt accumulates, even among the insured, and what it does to consumers before their accounts are resolved.

• More details here.

Borrowers Who Bet on Student Loan Forgiveness Are Now More Likely to Be Delinquent, Researchers Find

• Borrowers who believed the student loan payment pause would keep getting extended were 7.5 percentage points more likely to be 90 days past due by May 2025, according to a new National Bureau of Economic Research working paper that offers the clearest picture yet of how policy uncertainty reshaped repayment behavior, and why so many accounts are now landing in collections.

• More details here.

Verizon Study Puts a Price Tag on Data Breaches, and Small Businesses Are Paying the Most

• The team behind the closely watched Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report has released its first Breach Impact Study, and the findings should get the attention of anyone running a collection operation. The median cost of a cyber incident nearly doubled between 2019 and 2024, and small businesses are absorbing losses that hit far harder relative to their size than those suffered by large enterprises.

• More details here

Frost Echols Names Cooper Walker as Partner

• Frost Echols, LLC announced today that Cooper Walker is now a Partner at the firm.

• More details here

WORTH NOTING: Some warning signs that your summer spending is getting out out control ... The CDIA and Metro 2 have approved a new comment code for debt settlement ... Many parents are going into debt in order to prevent their kids from missing out ... Restaurants can now accept orders placed directly through ChatGPT or Claude ... A lot of Americans support banning social media until kids are 16 years old ... A lot of people are judging you just by your first name alone ... How to stay safe if you insist on going outside when it's hot out ... Medical experts weigh in on the most influential innovations in American history.

Top 10 Thursday, part I

Top 10 Thursday, Part II

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The Daily Digest is sponsored by TCN