For much of the summer, Re3 Conference panel discussion moderator and Intellaegis president John Lewis has been dissecting the debt collection regulation proposal released by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Lewis compiled a three-segment blog series on Intellaegis’ website, portions of which are on tap to be discussed during this week’s episode of Used Car Week Live on the conference’s Facebook page.

Lewis raised dozens of questions about how the CFPB is going to interpret current statutes — or perhaps even champion a revamp of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) that was originally finalized back in 1977. In one of the posts, Lewis made a statement perhaps anyone in an auto finance company’s collection department might make: “One live contact per week, really?”

Lewis insisted that finance companies need to closely monitor and catalogue any attempts to reach defaulted contract holders, which can include efforts in the field by a repossession agent.

“For example, if early stage collection accounts are assigned to a loan servicer, or later stages assigned to a skip tracing firm or post charge off assigned to a collection agency or even a debt buyer, then the first-party lender needs to be using a central repository software that tracks and logs this in an easily auditable format,” Lewis said.

“So, if the customer calls the first-party lender, then the first-party must notify the third-party that contact with the customer has been made and they are not allowed to make or receive calls for a week,” he continued.

Should the CFPB choose to leverage penalties that are possible through the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), Lewis pointed out the fine could be $500 per incident if regulators deemed it to be accidental or up to $1,500 per occurrence if determined to be intentional.

“Not having the technology to track these rules does not appear to be an excuse for accidentally,” Lewis said.

In another Intellaegis blog entry, Lewis reiterates a segment of what the CFPB released back in May, which stated:

“The proposal under consideration would require subsequent debt collectors to obtain (and prior collectors to provide) certain information consumers provided to prior collectors that obligates collectors to take or refrain from taking certain action relating to rights arising under certain substantive provisions of the FDCPA and the proposals under consideration.”

Lewis considered the implications of this part of the CFPB proposal.

“To me, this states that all work on any account must be transparent and available to anyone working the account, and that information must be in a system everyone can access, or in systems interfaced where notes and activity from one collector are available to be seen by another collector, even when they work for competing companies,” Lewis said.

“This will be interesting as not every company competes fairly, so will companies document false information to throw their competitor off track? As regulatory compliance weeds out the unscrupulous bad actors in the industry, one would hope that the level of professionalism will rise to a higher standard where everyone will work together in a fair and honest manner, and those who do not will be caught and penalized,” he went on to say.

Lewis’ entire blog series can be found here.

Lewis will also be a part of the Used Car Week Live conversation about this topic and more with conference chair Bill Zadeits and Nick Zulovich, senior editor of SubPrime Auto Finance News and BHPH Report. Used Car Week Live is set to 1 p.m. ET on Thursday and can be seen at www.facebook.com/UsedCarWeek.

Furthermore, Lewis will be hosting his own free webinar with two other experts who are planning to be part of Used Car Week. Lewis will welcome Stephanie Alsbrooks, chief executive officer of defi SOLUTIONS, and Mark Floyd, the former CEO of Exeter Finance and current president of the National Automotive Finance Association. Space is limited for the webinar titled “How to Handle New CFPB Rules In 2017,” which is set for Sept. 22 at 3 p.m. ET.

Registration for the webinar can be completed here.

And for even more discussion about collections, repossessions and recoveries, the Re3 Conference at Used Car Week will bring together more than a dozen experts. The Re3 Conference is set for Nov. 16 at the Red Rock Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. More details can be found at re3.autoremarketing.com.