Bureau withdraws debt collection on-line survey; leadership ‘reconsidering’ in light of rulemaking review

A web-based survey under development about debt collection disclosure forms has been withdrawn by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), according to a posting a federal agency website.

The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) posted the item about the survey; the notice states that the “conclusion date” by the OIRA was Dec. 14.

According to the notice, the CFPB requested the withdrawal. “Bureau leadership would like to reconsider the information collection in connection with its review of the ongoing related rulemaking,” the notice states.

In late November (and after the survey development was announced), Mick Mulvaney, Director of the OMB (which includes the OIRA within its organization), was named acting director of the CFPB by President Donald Trump. He replaced Director Richard Cordray, who resigned.

CFPB announced it was developing the web-based survey Nov. 13. According to the agency, the survey was intended to gauge responses by consumers to debt collection disclosure forms. Titled by CFPB as the Debt Collection Quantitative Disclosure Testing, the plan was to elicit responses from 8,000 individuals to “explore consumer comprehension and decision making in response to debt collection disclosure forms,” according to CFPBs filing with the Federal Register. “The survey will oversample respondents who have had experience with debt collection in the past.”

View ICR – OIRA Conclusion