Think Tank Gets Bored, Decides to Rail Against Collectors

by Patrick Lunsford, CollectionIndustry.com

Washington, DC-based Center for American Progress released a report this week entitled ?Reigning in the Repo Man: The Case for Increased Regulation of the Debt Collection Industry.? The report is little more than a compilation of FTC data and mainstream media press reports.

The twelve-page document relies heavily on recent articles and stories in major newspapers and TV networks (diligently covered by CollectionIndustry.com) and the recent release of FTC numbers concerning a dramatic rise in the number of complaints logged against collectors. In fact, the report uses little else to support its position and recommendations.

The recommendations laid out in the report include extending the FDCPA to include in-house collectors at credit grantors, implementing stricter pleading requirements to prevent collectors from using small claims courts to ?exploit vulnerable citizens,? and the real gem of the bunch, increasing punitive damages for FDCPA violations.

The primary reasons given for increasing the damage size were inflation and the increased size of the collection industry. Since the industry now makes so much money, it should be more than willing to pay drastically increased penalties, reasons the report. Besides, there?s no way consumers would abuse that new measure.

In sum, the report is little more than an emotional populist appeal to rid the Earth of bottom-feeding collectors in favor of consumers who feel entitled to own a flat-screen plasma TV. This is evidenced by the authors constantly referring to collectors as ?pirates? and naming one the sections of the report ?Collector?s Fantasy: A Middle Class Squeezed.? The document is also filled with misleading half-truths, such as railing against debt purchaser Asset Acceptance for spending only 2.4% of face value on purchased debt.

You can read the full report by clicking here. (Adobe Acrobat or some other .pdf reader required.)