Client Alerts
CFPB Proposes Parameters for Jurisdiction of Larger Participants in Debt Collection and Consumer Reporting Markets
February 22, 2012
BY KEVIN L. PETRASIC AND KEVIN ERWIN
As a follow up to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureaus (CFPB) June 2011 notice of proposed rulemaking (Notice) on determining which markets it should cover and which entities in such markets should be deemed larger participants under its nonbank supervision program, the agency issued its first proposed rule defining larger participants (Proposal).
The Proposal addresses two of the six consumer financial product and service markets the CFPB identified in the Notice (i) consumer debt collection, and (ii) consumer reporting activities. Under the larger participant authority set forth in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (DFA), the CFPB is required to define the larger participants subject to its nonbank supervision program by July 21, 2012. Thus, the remaining four areas identified in the June 2011 Notice (i) consumer credit and related activities, (ii) money transmitting, check cashing, and related activities, (iii) prepaid cards, and (iv) debt relief services are expected to be addressed by the CFPB in the relatively near future.