Remarks of Commissioner O'Rielly Before the ACA International Washington Insights Conference

Speaking in defense of credit and collection professionals probably isn’t the politically savviest or safest move.  I am here to join with [ACA International] as your members continue to face untenable legal risk and uncertainty in your efforts to reach out to borrowers. Now, more than ever, it’s crucial that we get the rulemaking done, and ensure that honest businesses can call their customers without being threatened by bankruptcy. Repeat after me: “robocall” is not a bad word. There are good and legal robocalls, and there are scam and illegal robocalls, and it’s the latter that are wreaking havoc on the nation’s communications networks. Regulators and lawmakers need to stop vilifying automated calls and be clear and precise about the problem and the actors we are addressing: in other words, the scammers, neighborhood spoofers, overseas criminals, and phone number harvesters, some of whom are not even necessarily engaged in robocalling.