Daily Digest - October 13, 2025

 🎉🎂 Happy Birthday to: Xavier Carrillo of UNIFY Financial Credit Union. Happy belated Birthday to: Thomas Nusspickel of American First Finance (Oct. 12), Jim Doscher of TransUnion (Oct. 12), Maryann McBrinn of Vertican Technologies (Oct. 12), Debbi Roberts of Integrity Resource Group (Oct. 11), Alex Frey of TSC Accounts Receivable Solutions (Oct. 11), Jessica Hearn of Universal Fidelity (Oct. 11), Brittany Harbolic of Municipal Credit Union (Oct. 11), and Sam Melby of ACA International (Oct. 11).

🎉 Congratulations for starting new positions: Nick Cherry as Divisional CEO at Phillips Cohen Associates and Ardent Credit Services.

📆 Going to NCBA This Week? Me Too!

I will be in San Antonio for NCBA Connect this week. If you have a few minutes and want to catch up, shoot me an email - mike@accountsrecovery,net, reply to this message, or text me at 646-642-1536.

🔔 October Meeting Schedule

Monday, October 20 @3pm ET: Women in Collections

Wednesday, October 22 @3pm ET: ARMTech Innovation Lab

Thursday, October 23 @3pm ET: Platform Pulse

Monday, October 27 @3pm ET: Compliance Chat

Tuesday, October 28 @3pm ET: Vendor Roundtable

Thursday, October 30 @3pm ET: Small Agency TechTactics

Borrower’s ‘Without Recourse’ Argument Fails in FDCPA, FCRA Case

• A District Court judge in Florida has granted a defendant’s motion to dismiss claims it violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and several other state laws on the grounds that the complaint, which invoked a number of sovereign citizen claims, was “predicated on the ‘patently frivolous’ vapor money theory.”

• More details here.

A MESSAGE FROM TCN

TODAY‘S WEBINAR

UPCOMING WEBINARS

Report Exposes Widespread Use of ‘Coverage Attorneys’ in Debt Collection Cases

• A new academic paper from Harvard Law School warns that the widespread use of “coverage attorneys,” lawyers hired on a per-diem basis to appear in court for collection firms, has become a defining feature of modern debt collection litigation and raises significant ethical and procedural concerns.

• More details here.

BofA’s New AI Assistant Offers Roadmap

• Bank of America has launched AskGPS, a generative AI-powered assistant built to help its Global Payments Solutions team instantly resolve client questions by tapping into a database of more than 3,200 internal documents.

• More details here.

Compliance Digest – October 13

• Insights from seven different compliance experts -- Brit Suttell, Crystal Duplay, Ari Derman, James Schultz, Stacy Rodriguez, Nick Prola and Brooke Conkle -- help you make sense of what's going on in today's credit and collections world. Their insights can help you understand the trends and inform the important decisions you have to make on a daily basis.

• More details here.

• This series is sponsored by Bedard Law Group

WORTH NOTING: Why this is the best week of the year to buy a house ... How banks handle consumers who claim to be the victims of fraud ... Another ranking of the top colleges and universities across the country ... Have we hit the limits of how long we as a species can live? ... Tips and insights to help you measure how the economy is doing while the government isn't ... A trio of myths about debt that can hold you back from making smart decisions ... Based on my experience, I find the results of this study very incorrect ... The most iconic inventions of the last 25 years.

Music Monday, part I

Music Monday, Part II

Webinar Recap: Best Practices & Trends Using E-OSCAR

In this webinar sponsored by CSS Impact, industry leaders shared insights on optimizing E-Oscar — the electronic platform that connects furnishers with credit reporting agencies. As dispute volumes rise and consumer tactics evolve, panelists emphasized that a mix of technology, documentation, and human oversight is essential to maintain compliance and efficiency.

Cathy Buxbaum (Portfolio Recovery Associates), Amanda Gilbert (Provana), Kelli Lowe (Credit World Services), and Michelle Macartney (Bridgeforce) discussed how social media and credit repair schemes are driving a new wave of disputes, often with “template” letters or fraudulent ID theft claims. “We’re seeing more disputes that are 50-plus pages long,” Buxbaum noted, adding that automation tools like OCR could help agents process such complex cases more efficiently.

The panel agreed that automation and AI have a growing role in dispute management but stressed that they should never replace human judgment. “AI can help you find the issue—but it can’t investigate for you,” Buxbaum said. Macartney added that combining AI with human review offers the best balance: “It’s a human-in-the-loop process.”

Training, policies, and data analysis remain the backbone of a strong E-Oscar program. Gilbert emphasized, “Don’t leave anything up to question—spell it out in your documentation.” Panelists also encouraged furnishers to use E-Oscar Insights and root cause analysis to uncover trends and improve processes.

🧠 Key Takeaways:

• Document Everything: Maintain clear, detailed procedures and training for all dispute-handling activities.

• Leverage Technology Wisely: Use automation and AI to streamline processes, but always pair them with human oversight.

• Analyze and Adapt: Regularly review dispute data to identify systemic issues, adjust workflows, and improve compliance.

As the panel concluded, success with E-Oscar comes down to balance—using data and technology to empower well-trained people to make informed, compliant decisions.

The Daily Digest is sponsored by TCN