Debt Collection Activities Study

EXHIBIT E

Debt Collection Activities Study
Questions for vendors of debt collection products and services
This outreach is being conducted in order to build the Bureau’s knowledge of the costs of
operating a debt collection business. The information that you provide will help the CFPB better
understand the burden of potential regulations affecting debt collectors. We hope to have
discussions with a relevant representative or representatives from your organization who are
familiar with the topics listed below. Participation in these discussions will be voluntary, and we
expect each conversation to last approximately 90 minutes.
[Below is a list of questions that we will use in our discussions with you. We may not cover
every question; however, we hope this list will serve as a useful guide for the types of topics that
we would like to cover. We would welcome written answers to the questions below, but if you
do not wish to provide written answers we will discuss your answers during our discussions.]
1. Please describe the principle products or services you provide to debt collectors and
creditors.
2. Apart from debt collectors and creditors, do you market your products or services to other
types of business?
3. Are there particular segments of the debt collection/accounts receivable industry that are
a greater focus for your sales?
4. What is the range of sizes for your clients – what is the smallest firm (in terms of
employees, accounts, or another relevant metric) that would typically use your products
or services, and what is the typical size of your largest clients?
5. Who are your main competitors? How often do potential clients rely on in-house
solutions rather than relying on you or other vendors?
6. Describe your pricing model and approximate prices for representative products, and
costs to your clients of using competing products or alternatives.
7. Describe the major features of your product or service and how they differ from
alternatives that your customers face.
8. Are there systematic differences in how your customers use your products or services (for
example, differences depending on what type of debt your customers collect)?
9. What is the market share of your products among (1) creditors and (2) collectors, within
the segments of the market that you target? What are your estimates of the market share
of competing products?
1

10. How is your product offering affected by the regulatory environment facing debt
collectors? Please describe how your product has changed or may change as a result of
changes to state or federal regulation.
As required by federal law, the Office of Management of Budget has approved the topics of
these conversations under the Paperwork Reduction Act. The OMB control number for this
collection is 3170–0032.
Also, a federal law called the Privacy Act directs how the CFPB collects, keeps and shares your
personal, private information- including the personal information contained in your answers to
these questions. Your participation is completely voluntary, and is subject to the CFPB privacy
policy that can be found on our website, consumerfinance.gov. The CFPB will also treat the
information received consistent with its confidentiality regulations at 12 CFR § 1070
If the responses you provide to this study are requested under the Freedom of Information Act,
the Bureau will withhold such responses to the extent that it determines that they constitute trade
secrets or confidential commercial information that you would not ordinarily make public. The
Bureau will deem any such trade secrets or confidential commercial information to be
“confidential information” for purposes of the Bureau’s confidentiality rules at 12 CFR §
1070.40 et seq.

2