Debt collection agencies are starting to use automated voice systems and AI-driven messaging to handle consumer calls. These systems help scale outreach, reduce call center staffing demands, and offer 24/7 service. A new study covering 11 European countries found that this shift changes how consumers emotionally experience debt collection, especially around stigma and empathy.
On today’s Consumer Finance Monitor podcast, we are releasing an episode about a timely and wide-ranging discussion on one of the most significant and fastest-evolving developments in commercial finance: the rapid “consumerization” of small business lending law.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) today released enforcement actions for February 2026.
The enforcement actions released are terminations. The OCC terminates enforcement actions when a bank has demonstrated compliance with all articles of an enforcement action; or when the OCC determines that articles deemed “not in compliance” have become outdated or irrelevant to the bank’s current circumstances; or when the OCC incorporates the articles deemed “not in compliance” into a new action.
A proposal that would reshape how interest is applied to medical debt in Washington is now under consideration in the House. Washington Senate Bill 5993 cleared the Senate with a 29–19 vote and has been forwarded for additional review.
The measure centers on limiting the amount of interest that can be added to medical debt. An earlier draft would have eliminated prejudgment interest entirely. However, during committee review, lawmakers revised the language to instead establish a simple interest cap of 1% per year.
On February 12th, Senator Bernie Moreno (R-OH) and Representative Warren Davidson (R-OH) introduced the American Lending Fairness Act of 2026, legislation designed to restore long-standing federal interest rate exportation authority for state-chartered banks and credit unions engaged in interstate lending. The bill directly responds to the Tenth Circuit’s controversial 2-1 decision in National Association of Industrial Bankers v. Weiser which held that Colorado’s opt-out of the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980 (“DIDMCA”), pursuant to Section 525, requires out-of-state, state-chartered banks and credit unions to comply with Colorado’s usury limits when lending to Colorado residents.
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