Bank associations urge FCC to revise three rules
On April 11, several trade associations filed joint comments urging the FCC to revise or rescind certain rules implementing the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) which restrict non-telemarketing informational calls. In March, the FCC invited stakeholders to identify rules that should be modified or rescinded to comply with the new administration’s policy to deregulate the federal government under the FCC’s “Delete, Delete, Delete” initiative.
The joint comments weighed in on three areas of concern with current FCC regulations. First, the joint comments take the position that the FCC’s February 2024 order requiring businesses to treat any consumer revocation of consent as applying to all future communications, known as the “revoke all” requirement, could inadvertently prevent consumers from receiving critical fraud alerts and multi-factor authentication messages. The associations argued this requirement could harm consumers by reducing their awareness of fraudulent activity on their accounts.
The trade groups also challenged the FCC’s “3-in-30 days” limitation adopted in 2022, which restricts exempt informational calls to residential numbers to three calls within any 30-day period. They argued this restriction conflicted with the CFPB’s mortgage servicing rules requiring servicers to make good faith efforts to establish live contact with borrowers, potentially hampering time-sensitive assistance for those at risk of default or foreclosure. Additionally, the associations seek removal of the 2015 “provided number” condition limiting fraud alert exemptions to numbers directly provided by customers, arguing this requirement significantly reduces financial institutions’ ability to send critical security notifications.