Consumer Relations Consortium Prepares to Respond to CFPB’s Rulemaking Notice

The Consumer Relations Consortium (CRC) has gathered a team of nearly twenty innovative collection industry thought-leaders to collaborate on a response to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) recently released Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. Among others, the team includes a panel of attorneys – including both in-house general counsel as well as members of prominent national law firms.

John Rossman, attorney from Moss & Barnett, is a member of the CRC steering committee, and is coordinating the response effort on behalf of the group.

“The CRC approach is for our positions to be informed to the greatest extent possible by meaningful collection industry data coupled with thoughtful input from consumer advocacy groups,” said Rossman.

Tim Bauer, CEO of Integrity Solution Services and CRC steering committee member added, “We have put forth a considerable effort in our early stages to establish dialogue with consumer groups, and we expect this to continue into the future. We feel the best solutions for both the industry and consumers will come from a collaborative approach.”

The CRC was formed in 2013 to represent the interests of Large Market Participants (as defined by the CFPB) in the debt collection industry; there are currently fourteen founding CRC members, though the group anticipates adding members who share its mission and want to be engaged at the CEO level.

The Consumer Relations Consortium (CRC) was formed by a group of industry executives who believe that a reasonable and knowledgeable voice is needed to address both issues and solutions in the collection industry. We firmly believe that communication – “relations” – is the key to respectful resolution of a consumer’s financial situation.

Our mission is to collaborate with regulatory agencies to affect change resulting in industry reform that not only provides the best level of service to consumers but also ensures the critical role collections plays in the economic cycle survives, and allows product and service providers to continue to make affordable credit available to the Consumer.

The CRC brings a unique approach to the marketplace by proactively engaging with consumer advocacy groups to bridge the gap of understanding and expectations often present between consumers and collectors. We believe that there is a true common interest among all constituents in the debt collection space; our work will yield solutions to issues that impact the ultimate stakeholder, the Consumer.