The BBA's Consumer Finance Working Group, co-chaired by Andrew Dennington
(Conn Kavanaugh Rosenthal Peisch & Ford, LLP) and Adam Ruttenberg (Looney
& Grossman LLP), has submitted its proposed recommendations for revisions to
the Massachusetts Attorney General’s regulations at 940 C.M.R. §§ 7.00 et seq.
regarding collection activities by "creditors" of debts incurred "for personal,
family, or household purposes." The recommendations stem from the First Report of
Consumer Finance Working Group, which the BBA formally endorsed last
week. The timing of the Report aligns well with the enactment of the new
federal finance reform legislation.
The Consumer Finance Working Group was formed in the Spring of 2008 to
evaluate consumer finance products, and to assess the problems that have arisen
with some of them. The Working Group was formed by the BBA's Bankruptcy
Section and the Banking and Financial Services Committee of the Business Law
Section. It is composed of lawyers who practice in the Massachusetts state
courts and in the federal court, and who represent both creditors and
debtors.
The Working Group focused its efforts on consumer debt collection and
amending the Attorney General Regulations so they would largely track the more
modern federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and recent revisions of
Massachusetts Division of Banks regulations regarding activities by licensed
debt collectors. The proposal contained in the Report would ensure that
debt collection practices that are unfair or deceptive when conducted by a
licensed debt collector, would likewise be unfair or deceptive when performed by
a creditor.