CFPB Debt-Collection Guidance — What Exists & Current Status

Router page: the official CFPB interpretive layer over the FDCPA and Regulation F, with the live/withdrawn status of each item. This is the KB's early-warning surface for "the law changed" — the scheduled freshness check diffs this page against the Federal Register API query in source_urls and the CFPB guidance pages.

The headline event: the May 2025 mass withdrawal

On May 12, 2025 the CFPB withdrew a large batch of guidance in one Federal Register action, "Interpretive Rules, Policy Statements, and Advisory Opinions; Withdrawal," 90 FR 20084 (doc 2025-08286). It took out all three debt-collection advisory opinions and two debt-collection bulletins (itemized below).

the Bureau is hereby withdrawing all of the guidance materials set forth in section III below. — 90 FR 20084 (May 12, 2025)

Such withdrawal is not necessarily final. The Bureau intends to continue reviewing all guidance documents to determine whether they should ultimately be retained. — 90 FR 20084

The withdrawals are applicable as of May 12, 2025. — 90 FR 20084

No reinstatement of any debt-collection item found in the Federal Register as of 2026-07-03. The withdrawal does not touch Regulation F itself or the FDCPA — statute and regulation stand.

Advisory opinions (debt collection) — all WITHDRAWN

Item	Issued / FR cite	Status	Gist
Debt Collection Practices (Reg F); Pay-to-Pay Fees — https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/07/05/2022-14230/debt-collection-practices-regulation-f-pay-to-pay-fees	87 FR 39733 (Jul 5, 2022; issued Jun 29, 2022)	Withdrawn 2025-05-12 (90 FR 20084)	Convenience fees violate § 1692f(1) unless expressly authorized by the debt agreement or affirmatively permitted by law; silence ≠ permission; processor pass-through covered. Full page: ./pay-to-pay-fees.md
FDCPA (Reg F); Time-Barred Debt — https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/05/01/2023-09171/fair-debt-collection-practices-act-regulation-f-time-barred-debt	88 FR 26475 (May 1, 2023)	Withdrawn 2025-05-12 (90 FR 20084)	Affirmed the FDCPA/Reg F "prohibit a debt collector…from suing or threatening to sue to collect a time-barred debt" (FR abstract). Note: the underlying regulatory ban, 12 CFR 1006.26(b), is rule text and was NOT withdrawn.
Debt Collection Practices (Reg F); Deceptive and Unfair Collection of Medical Debt — https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/10/04/2024-22962/debt-collection-practices-regulation-f-deceptive-and-unfair-collection-of-medical-debt	89 FR 80715 (Oct 4, 2024); applicability date revised to Jan 2, 2025 by doc 2024-27791 (Nov 29, 2024)	Withdrawn 2025-05-12 (90 FR 20084)	FDCPA/Reg F prohibitions on false/deceptive/misleading representations and unfair practices as applied to medical-debt collection (double billing, inflated/unsubstantiated amounts).

Bulletins & interpretive statements (debt collection) — WITHDRAWN

Item	Cite	Status
Bulletin 2022-05: Debt collection and consumer reporting practices involving invalid nursing home debts	87 FR 57375 (Sep 20, 2022)	Withdrawn 2025-05-12 (90 FR 20084)
Bulletin 2013-07: prohibition of UDAAPs in the collection of consumer debts	issued Jul 10, 2013	Withdrawn 2025-05-12 (90 FR 20084)

Still-live official material (verified 2026-07-03)

Item	Date	URL	Gist
Debt Collection Rule FAQs (compliance aid)	Oct 29, 2021 + Jul 27, 2022 tranche	https://www.consumerfinance.gov/compliance/compliance-resources/other-applicable-requirements/debt-collection/debt-collection-rule-faqs/	Official Q&A on limited-content messages, 7-in-7 call frequency, e-comms, opt-outs, validation. Not in the withdrawal list. Full page: ./debt-collection-faqs.md
Debt Collection Rule compliance resources (SECG v2.0, model validation notices, itemization guidance, exec summaries)	various; model notices modified Mar 12, 2025	https://www.consumerfinance.gov/compliance/compliance-resources/other-applicable-requirements/debt-collection/	Implementation aids for Reg F. Catalog with per-item URLs/dates: ./debt-collection-faqs.md
Annual FDCPA report to Congress — latest: "Fair Debt Collection Practices Act CFPB Annual Report 2025"	published Nov 21, 2025 (covers CY2024)	https://www.consumerfinance.gov/data-research/research-reports/fair-debt-collection-practices-act-cfpb-annual-report-2025/ (PDF: https://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/cfpb_fdcpa-2025-annual-report_2025-11.pdf)	Yearly CFPB+FTC activity summary: complaint data, supervision, enforcement in debt collection. Watch each fall for the next edition.
Supervisory Highlights touching collections — Issue 34 "Servicing and Collection of Consumer Debt" (Summer 2024)	2024-07-19 (doc 2024-15960)	https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/07/19/2024-15960/supervisory-highlights-servicing-and-collection-of-consumer-debt-issue-34-summer-2024	Exam findings incl. Reg F validation-notice violations. Earlier junk-fee editions: Issue 29 (Winter 2023, doc 2023-05667) and Issue 31 (Fall 2023, doc 2023-22869) applied the pay-to-pay AO in exams. No collections-focused issue found after mid-2024.
Enforcement / consent orders (debt-collection category)	ongoing	https://www.consumerfinance.gov/enforcement/actions/	Filterable database of public enforcement actions; FDCPA/Reg F consent orders show remediation patterns examiners expect. Not itemized here — pull per-question.
FDCPA & debt-collection examination procedures	—	https://www.consumerfinance.gov/compliance/supervision-examinations/fair-debt-collection-practices-act-fdcpa-examination-procedures/ and https://www.consumerfinance.gov/compliance/supervision-examinations/debt-collection-examination-procedures/	What examiners check; useful as a checklist of what examiners look for.

Pending rulemakings (Federal Register, CFPB, last 24 months — checked 2026-07-03)

Docket / RIN	Document	Stage	Status
CFPB-2025-0030 / RIN 3170-AB51	Defining Larger Participants of the Consumer Debt Collection Market, 90 FR 38418 (Aug 8, 2025), doc 2025-15091 — https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/08/08/2025-15091/defining-larger-participants-of-the-consumer-debt-collection-market	ANPRM (advance notice) — evaluating amending the 2012 Consumer Debt Collection Larger Participant Rule (who is subject to CFPB supervision)	Comments closed 2025-09-22; no proposed rule published as of 2026-07-03
—	Interpretive Rules, Policy Statements, and Advisory Opinions; Withdrawal, 90 FR 20084 (May 12, 2025), doc 2025-08286	Final (guidance withdrawal, "not necessarily final" per its own text)	Applicable 2025-05-12; watch for re-adoptions

No Regulation F (12 CFR part 1006) amendment — proposed or final — was found in the Federal Register for the CFPB in the last 24 months (sweeps: term "debt collection" and term "Regulation F", agency CFPB, checked 2026-07-03). The substantive rule is unchanged; the movement has all been in the interpretive layer (withdrawals) and the supervision perimeter (larger-participant ANPRM).

Freshness-check recipe (for the scheduled job)

1. Federal Register API (docs page updates daily): https://www.federalregister.gov/api/v1/documents.json?conditions[term]=debt%20collection&conditions[agencies][]=consumer-financial-protection-bureau&order=newest&per_page=20 — and the same with conditions[term]="Regulation F". Any new Rule/Proposed Rule → FLAG.
2. https://www.consumerfinance.gov/compliance/advisory-opinion-program/ — any debt-collection AO (re)appearing → FLAG (would signal reinstatement).
3. FAQ + compliance-resources pages — content drift vs. ./debt-collection-faqs.md → FLAG.
4. Fall: new annual FDCPA report edition → update row above.

Known discrepancy to be aware of when checking: the CFPB site's own pages for withdrawn AOs (e.g. pay-to-pay) carried no withdrawal banner as of 2026-07-03 — the Federal Register (90 FR 20084) is the controlling record, not the presence/absence of the CFPB page.

Related

• ../fdcpa/unfair-practices.md
• ../reg-f/call-frequency.md
• ../reg-f/limited-content-message.md
• ../reg-f/electronic-communications.md
• ./pay-to-pay-fees.md
• ./debt-collection-faqs.md