WASHINGTON—In advance of today’s Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee’s hearing on The Telephone Consumer Protection Act, CUNA has sent a letter to Committee leaders sharing “serious” concerns over the FCC’s Order that impacts how FIs communicate with account holders.
Last July, the FCC released a declaratory ruling and order that provides limited robocall exemptions under the TCPA for financial institutions making free autodialed calls to consumers.
“Credit unions have serious concerns about the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) problematic Omnibus Declaratory Ruling and Order (“Order”) concerning the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) because it has impacted their ability to communicate with their members about pertinent account information,” wrote CUNA President and CEO Jim Nussle. “The ability to freely communicate with credit union members can help prevent identity theft and stolen data, mitigate the harm once such events have occurred, and give consumers the chance to receive other important information about their accounts such as overdue payments.”
Nussle reminded that credit unions understand the importance of consumer protection.
“After all, they are owned by their members and they, along with CUNA, were among the founding members of the Consumer Federation of America, one of the leading consumer advocacy organizations in the United States . . . Credit unions’ commitment to consumer financial protection is indisputable and we support efforts to reign in abusers of consumers. We believe that part of consumer protection is the ability to communicate with our members who want, and need, to hear from us in a timely and efficient manner when an issue arises with their account.
“We support the concept of preserving consumers’ rights to privacy on their cell phones and protecting financial information, however, the FCC's Order goes far beyond the scope or purpose of the TCPA – which incidentally was enacted in 1991 when a cell phone was considered a luxury item and smartphones were still years away from production,” Nussle said.