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Financial Services Law Insights and Observations

CFPB report finds one in four consumers have debts in collection

Federal Issues CFPB Third-Party Debt Collection Consumer Finance

Federal Issues

On July 18, the CFPB released a report providing an overview of third-party debt collection tradelines from 2004 to 2018, which the Bureau segmented into two parts: debt buyer tradelines and non-buyer debt collections tradelines. The CFPB’s report, “Market Snapshot: Third-Party Debt Collections Tradeline Reporting,” is based on a nationally representative sample of approximately 5 million credit records from one of the three major credit bureaus. According to the report, as of the second quarter of 2018, more than one in four consumers in the sample have at least one debt in collection by third-party debt collectors. Additionally, fewer than 900 unique furnishers of third-party collections tradelines nationwide reported unpaid debts for consumers in the sample, according to the Bureau—a decrease from the 2,294 collectors reported back in 2004. The report also notes that in the second quarter of 2018, the top four debt buyers account for 90 percent of all debt buyer tradelines for consumers in the sample, while the top four non-buyers, by comparison, accounted for just 13 percent of reported tradelines. Furthermore, in the second quarter of 2018, 3 out of 4 of all reported tradelines in the sample from non-buyers were for non-financial debt, such as medical, telecommunications, or utilities debt. Buyers, in contrast, were more likely to report unpaid financial, retail, or banking debts.