LA Times Looks at the CFPB's New Role Over Larger Collection Agencies

This L.A. Times piece opens with a story about a woman who can’t remember if/when she rented or didn’t rent videos she might or might not have returned to Hollywood Video (were we ever so young as to remember renting from a brick-and-mortar video store?).

She owes Hollywood Video $24.43, according to the story, but isn’t sure the debt is legitimate.

This anecdote is used to introduce more about last week’s big story from the CFPB: There’s about to be more governmental oversight for large collection agencies.

David Lazarus, the columnist who’s bringing us this story, suggests that “debt collectors are largely unregulated by the federal government,” a claim that may not pass muster with a lot of you out there. Lazarus then quotes CFPB director Richard Cordray: “”Debt collectors and credit reporting agencies have gone unsupervised by the federal government for too long.”

It’ll be interesting to see how much of the CFPB’s new activities are those of the New Guy in the Office — you know, the guy who just got hired and does too much work in the first month or so, to make a good impression, but then sort of levels off afterwards like everyone else.

Or, it could be the beginning of a newer, and more scrutinized, era.

In fact, let’s put this to a poll: