For collections leaders, the old signs of trouble—like a single missed payment—are being replaced by more deliberate patterns of managing money. Borrowers are moving away from "crisis management" and toward a planned way to resolve what they owe. This shift has a big impact on the relationship between lenders and debt settlement companies.
The federal banking agencies have proposed the most significant overhaul of the CAMELS supervisory rating system in nearly 30 years, signaling a major philosophical shift in bank supervision. The proposal would revise the Uniform Financial Institutions Rating System (“UFIRS”) to place greater emphasis on material financial risks and less emphasis on process-oriented supervisory criticisms.
Commercial chapter 11 bankruptcy filings increased 42% in April 2026 compared to the same month in 2025, according to new data released by Epiq AACER and the American Bankruptcy Institute. The report showed 644 commercial chapter 11 filings in April 2026, up from 454 filings recorded in April 2025.
The CPFB published in the Federal Register the revised Small Business Data Collection Rule, or “1071 Rule” (the “2026 Final Rule”), which it had proposed revising in November 2025. The 2026 Final Rule becomes effective June 30, 2026, although as discussed below, the compliance date is January 1, 2028.
A panel of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals heard argument in Steidinger v. Blackstone Medical Services on whether text messages are covered as “telephone calls” in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). While questions asked by judges during oral arguments are no guarantee of how the court will ultimately rule, Judge Thomas K. Kirsch II and Judge Doris L. Pryor appeared skeptical of the plaintiff’s position that Congress intended “telephone call” to include text messaging in 1991.