ACA Ponders Self-Regulatory Authority

ACA International, the major trade organization for collectors, is considering becoming a self-regulatory organization for the collection industry, investigating complaints against agencies, the ACA’s chief attorney said Friday at the group’s annual convention in Chicago.

Rozanne M. Andersen, the ACA’s general counsel and senior vice president of legal and government affairs, said the organization could become the regulator of its member firms, implementing a uniform system of licensing and registration. That would be part of creating a nationwide system of regulation for agencies as opposed to the state-by-state regulatory system now in place.

“That would get us to national standards instead of a patchwork of inconsistent state laws that makes it difficult to do business,” said Andersen.

The ACA could possibly hire a third party administrator such as the Better Business Bureau to independently handle consumer complaints, said Andersen.

Minneapolis-based ACA has 5,500 members in the U.S. and worldwide including third-party collection agencies, attorneys, creditors and vendor affiliates. It creates ethics standards, is an active publisher, and represents the industry to federal and state policy makers and regulators. 

Andersen stressed that the self-regulatory concept is at the preliminary discussion phase by ACA leadership and nothing has been finalized. The idea was given greater impetus last week after the ACA board unanimously approved an association code of ethics.

Andersen said that in one approach, the regulatory arm of the ACA would act under the auspices of the Federal Trade Commission, the agency that currently investigates and enforces complaints against collection agencies.

“Today we receive complaints and the FTC receives complaints,” said Andersen. “There is no adequate source to resolve complaints.”

The ACA has stepped up its communications with the FTC as the agency prepares a two-day conference this October on the collections industry.

The FTC called the conference after receiving more than 69,000 complaints against collection agencies in 2006. The FTC reports that the collection industry typically receives the most consumer complaints of any industry.

One well-known self-regulatory organization is the NASDAQ stock market.

The NASDAQ is a public company that has long policed its member firms under the auspices of the Securities and Exchange Commission. It has extensive rules and regulations, oversees the daily functioning of its trading markets, and receives and investigates complaints against its member firms. It also has the authority to set fines, trading moratoriums or out right bans of its members.