UDAAP: The Little Acronym with the Potential for a Big Impact in Collections in 2014

One of the main points Paul-Rose Stark of Promontory Financial made in her Large Market Participant Summit 2014 keynote looked at the complications of UDAAP — Unfair, Deceptive, and Abusive Practices.

“There isn’t one act or practice that UDAAP applies to that isn’t also covered under several other regulations. This means that you can be perfectly in line with, say, the FDCPA, and still be in violation of UDAAP.”

UDAAP promises to be the Violation Accessory of 2014 — something easily tacked on to lawsuits filed by consumers against collection agencies. In its early days, UDAAP was mainly a banking issue; however, with the homogenization of those in the Accounts Receivable Management industry (creditors and banks are finding themselves being treated more and more like collection agencies, and vice versa), the UDAAP blanket is falling on everyone.

However, as Stark also shared: “What’s the glass half-full? This industry is reasonably well-prepared. The FDCPA is nothing more than a specialzed UDAAP statute.”