DBA International Recommendations Incorporated in Final Ruling

September 16, 2014 (New York, NY) – DBA International applauds the New York State Unified Court System’s Office of Court Administration (OCA) for incorporating DBA International’s recommendations in the final rules on debt collection, which were issued today.

DBA International provided the OCA balanced and measured comments to enhance consumer protections while addressing its concerns with the proposed consumer credit collection case reforms, published April 30, 2014. DBA’s comments were predicated on the uniform industry standards adopted in its national certification program.

“DBA International supports the decision by the New York OCA and appreciates the opportunity to work with its staff to address DBA member concerns. Due to the hard work of DBA leadership and our New York consultant, DBA was successful in communicating our concerns which ultimately led to the incorporation of our recommendations into the final ruling,” said Bryan Faliero, DBA International President and Director of Acquisitions for Sherman Capital Group.

DBA’s constructive dialogue with the OCA and other interested parties resulted in:

  • Delaying implementation of the rules on debt purchased before October 1, 2014 until July 1, 2015. This concession recognized the challenges associated with the retroactive nature of the rule. The industry will be able to operate under existing court rules while they obtain the necessary data and documents in the new prescribed format.
  • Clarifying that the court rules only applied to credit card deb
  • Changing the definition of “credit agreement” to be more flexible, allowing various original documents to be used as evidence of the debt obligation, including the charge-off statement or the last activity statement.
  • Providing a clearer definition of “original creditor” and “debt buye”
  • Eliminating the pre-charge-off itemization requirement on account balances.
  • Allowing portfolio-level affidav

“New York debt buyers should be pleased with the hard work of DBA International which resulted in a favorable outcome in the OCA rules. This is good news for debt buyers in our state and the industry as a whole. However, with all new rules and regulations, there will be additional clarification needed,” said Irwin Kirschenbaum, DBA Board Member and Partner at Kirschenbaum & Phillips, P.C.