ACA attends ALEC and DAGA meetings
while building relationships with key stakeholders.
Key stakeholders????
A little more research found this:
ACA International, the Association of
Credit and Collection Professionals, is the comprehensive, knowledge-based
resource for success in the credit and collection industry.
Founded in 1939, ACA brings together
5,000 members worldwide, including third-party collection agencies, asset
buyers, attorneys, creditors and vendor affiliates
Unfortunately, headquartered in Minnesota.
And they are a lobbying organization – that in addition to
attending ALEC meetings and meeting with state legislators behind closed doors
to craft legislation that benefits the credit industry. – goes to Washington also.
After several years in which the
overzealous tactics of debt collectors have been the focus of regulators and
media alike, ACA International has beefed up its lobbying operation in Washington to pursue a
wish list of laws and regulations that it would like changed.
At the urging of the organization,
debt collectors are traveling to Washington
and state capitals, hoping to convince regulators, legislators and attorneys
general that they are decent people who are doing an important but thankless
job.
Foremost on the debt collectors’
agenda is updating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which was passed in
1977, the era of letters and landlines, and has not been changed much since. ACA International, based here in suburban
Minneapolis, wants its members to have the ability to contact debtors using
modern technology, including e-mail, cellphones and autodialers, all of
which create problems under the current rules.
“Any functional difference between a
cellphone and a residential landline has been eroded,” the association says, in
a blueprint of its proposed changes.
In addition, ACA International wants
regulators to specify precise language that debt collectors may use when
leaving a voice message, something that is now the subject of thousands of lawsuits
each year against the industry.
This story brought reminded me of some information that I wrote about previously about how an ALEC member payday loan industry member was pouring money into the
campaign coffers of legislators in Wisconsin.
When I read over the information I had found and correlated it with
the information from the Wisconsin story - I couldn’t help wondering if the American
Legislative Exchange Council legislators are basically representing the modern-day
version of loansharks and thugs of the credit industry through ALEC legislation
– instead of the public that are their constituents.
Couldn't help thinking are ALEC legislators becoming the modern-day version of the crooked politicians that were bought off by crime bosses
of days gone by??????????
Maybe ALEC legislators coulda played a convincing role on
The Sopranos.
"As this card burns, may my soul burn in Hell if I
betray the oath of Omertà ,"
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