New debt collection rules that have been in the works for at least seven years will take effect in November as planned.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) considered extending compliance until at least January 2022 for new rules under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), but said recently that no extension will be given.
The pending rules were discussed at the ACA International’s Convention & Expo 2021, that was recently held Las Vegas. And if you’ve delayed updating your processes and technology, there’s simply no time to waste now.
Going Digital
In a big win for the collections industry, the new rules open up electronic communications (email and text) for legally required notices with the proper express or implied consumer consent while specifying that consumers also must be given a simple way to opt out of each.
The rules reflect changes in how consumers want to interact with businesses. Most Americans now use text-ready and email-ready phones, with 85% owning a smartphone, according to Pew Research Center. The changes also compensate for increasing restrictions on robocalls and voicemails, other types of phone calls and even mailed communications.
Staying Agile
A cloud-based customer communications management (CCM) platform gives collectors and agencies the maximum flexibility and control to meet both changing regulations and business conditions. With omnichannel communications and payments capabilities, CCM is not only key to staying compliant with new federal rules — it also offers the agility to content manage all the varying state debt collection regulations that can change with a stroke of a legislative pen.
With a few clicks of your keyboard, a cloud-based CCM software platform makes it fast, simple and effective to reach and engage customers with print, email and text. CCM’s modular content management system lets you streamline communication updates, making quick changes that populate all affected communications. Automated business rules facilitate compliance by enabling you to develop and distribute the right message and disclosures to the right person via the right channel to drive collections.
CCM technology also allows collectors to improve effectiveness by easily and securely catering to customer preferences. You can remove barriers to connecting and payments by offering self-service portals and giving consumers the ability to choose how they receive communications. More self-service and digital also means saving money on call-center contacts, postage and printing.
Going Beyond Compliance
CCM technology also improves your operating efficiency and productivity. It accelerates onboarding following a merger or acquisition and makes it fast and easy to consolidate communications from multiple vendors or organizations into a single, flexible system.
Nordis’ hosted managed services model for executing omnichannel communications is helping firms in credit and collections, healthcare, vacation ownership, auto finance, mortgage servicing and other industries digitally transform operations and achieve significant efficiencies. Our cloud-based Expresso® CCM system offers omnichannel communications as well as seamless integration to digital and print production and delivery.
To continue the discussion and learn more about how we can help you navigate the ever-changing communications roadmap in collections, come see us in Las Vegas at the ACA convention in Booth #203. And please stop by the Innovations Stage on Friday, July 30th at 11:20 a.m. where I’ll be presenting, “Leveraging Multi-Channel Communications to Increase Collections.” Hope to see you there.
