The DBA International Certification Council is proposing edits to the Receivables Management Certification Program. The Council is required to perform a review of certification program standards at least annually to ensure the program reflects “evolving industry best practices, input from key stakeholders and communities of interest, areas of Council concern, and recent regulatory and statutory changes.”

The proposed changes to the Certification Governance Document have been posted on the DBA International website. DBA International Members are encouraged to review the changes and email any comments they have to [email protected] no later than December 31, 2016.

While there are a number of non-substantive technical amendments contained in the revision, here is a summary of the major substantive changes:

  • Article IV (Remediation Committee) – Designates the last individual serving as President of the Board who is not currently on the Board and the last individual serving as Certification Council Chair who is not currently on the Board as members of the Remediation Committee. These two individuals will join the Chair, the Executive Director, and the consumer representative on the Council as the designated members of the Committee.
  • Appendix A – Standard # 25 (Meaningful Attorney Involvement) – New standard to require certified law firms to establish policies and procedures to ensure there is meaningful attorney involvement prior to the filing of any collection-related lawsuits.
  • Appendix A – Standards # 29 thru # 33 (Client Commissions) – Divided an existing standard on third party agency “client communications” into four separate standards for ease of reading and understanding.
  • Appendix B – Created a new appendix for broker certification
  • Appendix B – Standards # 1 thru # 7 – Same standards that exist in Appendix A for debt buyers, law firms, and third party agencies.
  • Appendix B – Standard # 8 (Broker Agreements) – Requires brokers to identify who the client is in broker agreements; prohibits brokers from representing both the buyer and seller.
  • Appendix B – Standard # 9 (Multiple Listings) – Requires brokers to use commercially reasonable efforts to obtain an exclusivity clause in their contracts to increase data security and to prevent unintentional concurrent sales.
  • Appendix B – Standard # 10 (Due Diligence) – Requires brokers to conduct reasonable due diligence on both the selling and purchasing entities associated with a sales transaction prior to the transmission of any account level data.
  • Appendix B – Standard # 11 (Prior Experience) – Prohibits brokers from facilitating a sales transaction for a seller when the broker facilitated another transaction with the same seller in the prior two years that resulted in a significant number of the accounts having to be returned to the seller for issues concerning title, accuracy or integrity of account information, fraud, or identity theft.
  • Appendix B – Standard # 12 (Seller Requirements) – Prohibits brokers from facilitating a sales transaction without appropriate representations & warranties from the seller.
  • Appendix B – Standard # 13 (Purchaser Requirements) – When one of the parties to the contract is DBA certified, prohibits brokers from facilitating a sales transaction where the purchaser does not agree to terms and conditions that requires the purchaser to be DBA certified, or if not DBA certified, to meet or exceed the DBA certification standards.
  • Appendix B – Standard # 14 (Title) – Prohibits a broker from taking title or having any ownership interest in the receivables it brokers.
  • Appendix E (formerly Appendix D) – All of the “directions to the auditor” that were contained in Appendix D have been moved to the Standards Manual (Appendix A) for convenience and transparency. However all the content is still in the document . . . just in a different place.

When responding via email, please: (1) indicate “30 Day Comment” in the email subject line, (2) provide your name and company name in the body of the message, and (3) indicate the page and section number from the Certification Governance Document that your comment is referencing.

Based on comments received from this 30 day comment period, additional edits may be incorporated prior to final adoption.  If you have any questions, please contact the DBA International offices at (916) 482-2462.