CFPB Evaluates Market Thresholds For Supervised Entities

The bureau is considering changes to the monetary thresholds for regulation of specific industries, including debt collection and consumer reporting.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is seeking comments on whether to amend definitions of larger market participants in debt collection, automobile financing, consumer reporting, and international money transfers.

“The bureau is concerned that the benefits of the current threshold may not justify the compliance burdens for many of the entities that are currently considered larger participants in this market, and that the current threshold may be diverting limited bureau resources to determine whom among the universe of providers may be subject to the bureau’s supervisory authority and whether these providers should be examined in a particular year,” it said in a notice on each topic published in the Federal Register.

The bureau released an advance notice of proposed rulemaking on each topic.

The CFPB is pursuing this rulemaking while undergoing a transformative period highlighted by eliminating unnecessary and duplicative regulations, modifying enforcement priorities, and reducing funding, according to a client alert from Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.

In the debt collection notice, the bureau is requesting data to evaluate the potential introduction of a regulation that would modify the assessment criteria to define larger participants in the consumer debt collection market.

The current Consumer Debt Collection Larger Participant Rule, published on Oct. 31, 2012, defines a nonbank covered person as a larger market participant if the person has more than $10 million in annual receipts resulting from consumer debt collection activities.

The information to determine the $10 million threshold has changed, according to the bureau.

For example, in 2013, the Small Business Administration (SBA) classified a debt collection agency as a “small business concern” if its annual receipts were less than $7 million. The $10 million threshold was established to exclude those small businesses. However, the SBA classifications have changed over time and today it is $19.5 million. A number of collection agencies are small businesses by SBA standards, but larger participants as defined by the bureau, it reports.

Consolidation in the collections industry and changes in annual receipts are other factors prompting the bureau to consider changing the market thresholds. ACA’s advocacy efforts have played a role in communicating concerns regarding the thresholds as well as abuses and overreach that occurred in the use of Civil Investigative Demands with those thresholds under former CFPB Director Rohit Chopra.

For specific questions to provide input as well as comment instructions from the bureau, view the Federal Register notice here. Comments are due on or before Sept. 22, 2025.

Additional Comment Requests

• The bureau also seeks input on the consumer reporting market since the final rule defining participants was published on July 20, 2012. Currently, a nonbank covered person is a larger participant in the consumer reporting market if the nonbank covered person has more than $7 million in annual receipts resulting from relevant consumer reporting activities. For specific questions to provide input and comment instructions from the bureau, view the Federal Register notice on consumer reporting here. Comments are due on or before Sept. 22, 2025.
• The bureau also seeks input on the automobile financing market and defining larger market participants since the final rule defining participants was published on June 30, 2015. Currently, a nonbank covered person is a larger participant in the automobile financing market if they have at least 10,000 aggregate annual originations. For specific questions to provide input and comment instructions from the bureau, view the Federal Register notice on automobile financing here. Comments are due on or before Sept. 22, 2025.
• Lastly, the bureau seeks input on the international money transfer market since the final rule defining participants was published on Sept. 9, 2014. Currently, a nonbank covered person is a larger participant of the international money transfer market if the nonbank covered person has at least one million aggregate annual international money transfers. For specific questions to provide input and comment instructions from the bureau, view the Federal Register notice the international money transfer market here. Comments are due on or before Sept. 22, 2025.

ACA International members with questions or who are interested in submitting comments may contact ACA’s advocacy team at advocacy@acainternational.org.