CFPB Releases Annual Report On Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA)

As required by amendments to the FDCPA made by Section 1089 of Dodd Frank, the CFPB recently released its annual report to Congress on FDCPA compliance. We note below information provided by the bureau about the complaints it received in 2024, the results of examinations publicly reported in 2024, and enforcement actions by other agencies.

The CFPB received approximately 207,800 debt collection complaints last year, the bureau reported. While that number was almost twice the number of complaints it received in 2023, when it reported receiving approximately 109,900 complaints, the bureau did not comment on the increase. It did note that those complaints comprise 7% of all complaints received last year.

As it has in previous years, the CFPB provided information about the nature of the complaints as identified by the consumers who complained. Complaints about a debt that the consumer says they do not owe once again was the predominant issue selected by consumers, as has been the case. since the bureau began collecting complaints in 2013. The CFPB said that 45% of the complaints filed last year were concerning debts that a consumer said they do not owe.

The CFPB also reported that:

• Of the 207,800 complaints filed with the bureau, it sent 77% (or 159,700) to companies for review, referred 18% to other regulatory agencies and found 5% not be actionable.
• Companies responded to about 97% of the debt collection complaints sent to them.
• Companies closed 67% of the complaints with an explanation, 27% with non-monetary relief and 0.2% with monetary relief.
• As of March 3, 2025, 2% of the complaints were pending review by companies.
• Companies failed to provide a timely response for 2% of the complaints.

With regard to its supervisory examinations, the bureau reported that examiners found that:

• Student loan debt collectors failed to provide validation notices as required, when the initial communication with a consumer occurred in writing.
• Student loan debt collectors violated the prohibition on the use of false or misleading representations. As a result of these violations, the borrowers may have reasonably believed that the FDCPA did not apply and may have been misled about their rights under the FDCPA.
• Certain debt collectors communicated with consumers at times and places known to be inconvenient or unusual.
• Certain debt collectors engaged in harassing, oppressive, or abusive conduct in connection with the collection of debt.
• Some debt collectors communicated, or attempted to communicate, through a particular medium, after the consumer had requested that they not do so.
• Service providers for debt collectors failed to disclose, when communicating by telephone or text message on behalf of debt collectors, and when responding to a request for confirmation of receipt of an electronic payment, that the communication was from a debt collector.
• Certain credit card issuers engaged in unfair practices when they failed to properly calculate and document the applicable state statute of limitations for debts and then misrepresented the statute of limitations when they sold those debts to debt collectors.

All examined entities were reported to be responding appropriately to examination findings.

The Bureau also noted that, although several other agencies have enforcement powers under the FDCPA, in 2024, the FTC was the only agency to announce public enforcement actions addressing harmful debt collection activities in violation of the FDCPA.

While the CFPB issued the annual FDCPA report, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, the ranking Democrat on the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, has sent bureau Acting Director Russell Vought a letter asking him to send the panel its semi-annual report on all of its activities. She noted that the report is required by law.

"Like the requirement that the Director testify on a regular basis, the mandatory report is a critical way Congress fulfills its own constitutional obligation to conduct oversight of the agency," Warren wrote.

She also said that the bureau has not issued its reports on fair lending, student loans, college credit card agreements, financial literacy and credit card markets. "These reports are a crucial tool for Congress, state law enforcement, and the public to monitor potential consumer financial harms," she wrote. She added, "These failures are only the latest indication that you are attempting to illegally dismantle the CFPB and sideline the financial cop that has returned more than $21 billion to families cheated by big banks and giant corporations." In addition to the Warren letter to Vought, Banking Committee Democrats sent panel Chairman Sen. Tim Scott, R-SC, a letter asking him to schedule a CFPB oversight hearing during which Vought would testify. They noted that the CFPB Director is required to testify before the committee twice a year

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