The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a highly anticipated proposal on Tuesday to update the rules governing debt collectors, establishing new guidelines on disclosure and the number of times a collector can contact a consumer.
The proposed rule, which has been in the works since 2013, drew tepid praise from the industry and condemnation from some consumer advocates. Debt collection is consistently among the top sources of consumer complaints in the CFPB database. The bureau received 81,500 complaints related to debt collection in 2018 — 25 percent of all the complaints it received.