Nevada Extends Work From Home Until May 31, 2021

On March 5, 2021, Nevada’s Department of Industry and Financial Institutions Division provided guidance to Collection Agency Licensees and Registrants allowing the employees of licensees and registrants to work from home until May 31, 2021.  The full text of the guidance is below.  

insideARM will continue to provide updates regarding changes to work from home orders, such as the recent orders from Washington and Maryland.   As we progress through 2021 and (hopefully) see a return to normalcy, agencies and other entities affected by work from home orders should ensure the end dates of work from home orders are tracked within their organizations. 

Full Text of Guidance:

On March 12, 2020, Governor Steve Sisolak declared a state of emergency for Nevada. In addition,  the Nevada Financial Institutions Division (“NFID”) issued a memorandum of temporary guidance  regarding working from home initially until May 31, 2020. Since then, NFID granted two  extensions, first extension until December 31, 2020 and the second until March 31, 2021. Excerpt  from that guidance:  

This Guidance does not amend current Nevada Revised Statutes (“NRS”) or  Nevada Administrative Code (“NAC”) and does not create new statutory  framework. All licensees and registrants must comply with the applicable NRS,  NAC, and other state and federal laws and regulations, which includes establishing  and maintaining proper security protocols to ensure maximum data, records and  transaction security.  

The Division’s Guidance: 

1. Data security requirements include provisions for the employee to access the  company’s secured system from any out-of-office device the licensee or registrant  uses through the use of a VPN or other system that requires passwords or an  identification authentication. The company is responsible to maintain any updates  or other requirements in order to keep information and devices secure;  
2. Neither the employee nor the company is to do any act that would indicate or tend  to indicate that the employee is conducting business from an unlicensed location.  Such acts include but are not limited to:  
3. Advertising in any form, including business cards and social media, the  unlicensed residence address or landline telephone or facsimile number  associated to the unlicensed residence; 
4. Meeting consumers at, or having consumers come, to an employee’s  unlicensed residence;  
5. Holding out in any manner, directly or indirectly, by the employee or  company licensee, the residence address that would suggest or convey to a  consumer that the residence is a licensed location for conducting licensable  activities;  
6. Employees and companies must exercise due diligence in the safeguarding of  company and customer data, information and records, whether in paper or  electronic format, and to protect them against unauthorized or accidental access,  use, modification, duplication, destruction or disclosure.  

As Nevada continues to work through these unprecedented times and ever-changing conditions, NFID has decided to grant another extension to the temporary guidance regarding working from  home until May 31, 2021, unless otherwise modified or withdrawn at the discretion of the  Commissioner. The NFID may not extend this guidance past May; therefore, it is imperative  that the collection agency begin making plans to ensure it can both comply with Nevada law  and the laws of the other jurisdictions it does business in.  (emphasis in original).