Barack Obama

OK, so maybe the President on his own isn’t the hottest “who” on the list, although he is certainly getting a lot of scrutiny from the ARM industry. The new Congressional and Executive branch make-up, however, has caused a lot of concern over the regulatory environment in which collection agencies will be operating for the foreseeable future.

And well they should. In the past month, the Executive branch has made at least two moves that directly impact the accounts receivable management industry: the FTC proposed significant changes to the FDCPA in late February and the IRS terminated the debt collection contracts of two ARM companies.

Congress, meanwhile, has been busily setting its sights on the credit and collection industry. A Senator recently called for an investigation of deceased collections. And both the House and the Senate are taking up legislation that will fundamentally change the way credit card issuers do business in the U.S.
In the dawn of a new political reality, the ARM industry finds itself legitimately wondering what will become of the operating environment they have become accustomed to.