The ACA Makes a Key Decision for the Future of the Debt Collection Industry.

On 11-4-09, the ACA (Association of Credit and Collection Professionals) decided to reverse it’s decision on wanting legislation to create a self-regulation structure for the debt collection field. Many members did not see this self regulation idea as a good thing. This meant more government involved meant, more fee’s and registration costs to what the ACA was originally planning. The CAC (California Association of Collectors) have been close to voting that members do not need to be a member of the ACA. For many years now the CAC always required it’s members to be apart of the ACA, however, due to decisions the ACA has been making in the past few years. Many of their policy changes, and the decisions they have been making have been counterintuitive to what the CAC feels is in their best interest. The CAC however, were not the only ones that were outraged by the ACA’s decision, many of its members were furious that the ACA would want to take this turn. John Nemo an ACA spokesperson told InsideARM,

“We are a member driven organization. We listen to our membership,” Nemo said. “There was no intent to try to deceive anyone or do anything behind the scenes. We understand that this is an incredibly sensitive and important issue, perhaps the biggest one since the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act passed, and we want to make sure we do as good a job as possible of being transparent about the process and making sure our board of directors and our membership at large are informed and able to give their input.”

It seems most of the ACA’s members are extremely happy with their current decision to not want added registration costs and fees. This decision still leaves questions to what the FTC, the ACA and other involved parties are going to do. With this year being the year with the greatest amount of Fair Debt Collection Practices Act law suits yet, there will be some kind of change in the future. Rumson, Bolling & Associates will do our best to keep our clients, readers and consumers on the forefront of news in the debt collection industry.