Regulation F (12 CFR Part 1006) — Overview

Authority

12 CFR Part 1006 ("Regulation F"), the CFPB's rule implementing the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA, 15 U.S.C. 1692 et seq.); administered and enforced by the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (CFPB).

Operative text

Part-level authority and source notes as shown in the current eCFR:

Authority: 12 U.S.C. 5512, 5514(b), 5532; 15 U.S.C. 1692l(d), 1692o, 7004. — 12 CFR Part 1006, Authority note

Source: 85 FR 76887, Nov. 30, 2020, unless otherwise noted. — 12 CFR Part 1006, Source note

Issuing authority and purpose:

(a) Authority. This part, known as Regulation F, is issued by the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection pursuant to sections 814(d) and 817 of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA or Act), 15 U.S.C. 1692l(d), 1692o; title X of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act), 12 U.S.C. 5481 et seq.; and paragraph (b)(1) of section 104 of the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (E-SIGN Act), 15 U.S.C. 7004. — 12 CFR 1006.1(a)

(b) Purpose. This part carries out the purposes of the FDCPA, which include eliminating abusive debt collection practices by debt collectors, ensuring that debt collectors who refrain from using abusive debt collection practices are not competitively disadvantaged, and promoting consistent State action to protect consumers against debt collection abuses. — 12 CFR 1006.1(b) (first sentence)

Coverage:

(c) Coverage. (1) Except as provided in § 1006.108 and appendix A of this part regarding applications for State exemptions from the FDCPA, this part applies to debt collectors, as defined in § 1006.2(i), other than a person excluded from coverage by section 1029(a) of the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010, title X of the Dodd-Frank Act (12 U.S.C. 5519(a)). — 12 CFR 1006.1(c)(1)

The pivotal coverage definition (statutory FDCPA definition, restated in the rule):

(i)(1) Debt collector means any person who uses any instrumentality of interstate commerce or mail in any business the principal purpose of which is the collection of debts, or who regularly collects or attempts to collect, directly or indirectly, debts owed or due, or asserted to be owed or due, to another. — 12 CFR 1006.2(i)(1) (first sentence; exclusions at § 1006.2(i)(2))

(h) Debt means any obligation or alleged obligation of a consumer to pay money arising out of a transaction in which the money, property, insurance, or services that are the subject of the transaction are primarily for personal, family, or household purposes, whether or not the obligation has been reduced to judgment. — 12 CFR 1006.2(h)

(e) Consumer means any natural person, whether living or deceased, obligated or allegedly obligated to pay any debt. For purposes of § 1006.6, the term consumer includes the persons described in § 1006.6(a). — 12 CFR 1006.2(e)

Structure (current eCFR)

Verified against the current eCFR part page. Note: the part today has subparts A, B, C [Reserved], and D — not A/B/C.

Subpart	Heading	Sections
A	General	§ 1006.1 (authority, purpose, coverage), § 1006.2 (definitions)
B	Rules for FDCPA Debt Collectors	§ 1006.6 (communications), § 1006.10 (location information), § 1006.14 (harassment), § 1006.18 (false/deceptive), § 1006.22 (unfair/unconscionable), § 1006.26 (time-barred debts), § 1006.30 (other prohibited practices), § 1006.34 (validation notice), § 1006.38 (disputes/original-creditor requests), § 1006.42 (sending required disclosures)
C	[Reserved]	—
D	Miscellaneous	§ 1006.100 (record retention), § 1006.104 (relation to State laws), § 1006.108 (exemption for State regulation)
—	Appendix A (State exemption procedures), Appendix B (Model Forms, incl. the validation notice), Appendix C (Advisory Opinions), Supplement I (Official Interpretations / commentary)

Effective / amendment dates

• The debt collection final rules were published at 85 FR 76887 (Nov. 30, 2020) and 86 FR 5766 (Jan. 19, 2021); the eCFR versioner shows the current text of the core debt-collection sections (§§ 1006.1, 1006.2, 1006.6, 1006.10, 1006.14, 1006.18, 1006.22, 1006.26, 1006.30, 1006.34, 1006.38, 1006.42, 1006.100–108) took effect November 30, 2021.
• Section source notes for §§ 1006.1 and 1006.2 read: [85 FR 76887, Nov. 30, 2020, as amended at 86 FR 5853, Jan. 19, 2021].
• Post-2021 amendments shown by the eCFR versioner touch only Appendix A (State exemption procedures, 2023) and Supplement I (2022-11-01, 2023-03-20, 2023-04-19) — the operative communications/harassment sections (§§ 1006.2, 1006.6, 1006.14) have not been amended since the 2021-11-30 effective date.

Plain English

Interpretation — if this conflicts with the quotes above, the quotes win.

Regulation F is the CFPB's implementing regulation for the FDCPA — the first comprehensive federal rulemaking under the statute. The FDCPA statute (15 U.S.C. 1692 et seq.) remains the underlying law; Reg F restates it, interprets it (Supplement I official commentary), and adds specifics the statute lacks: the 7-in-7 call-frequency presumptions (§ 1006.14(b)), the limited-content message (§ 1006.2(j)), electronic-communication opt-outs (§ 1006.6(e)), email/text bona-fide-error procedures (§ 1006.6(d)(3)–(5)), the itemized validation notice (§ 1006.34 + Appendix B model form), time-barred-debt suit/threat prohibition (§ 1006.26), credit-reporting-before-contact prohibition (§ 1006.30(a)), and record retention (§ 1006.100).

Coverage tracks the FDCPA: it applies to third-party debt collectors collecting consumer debts (personal/family/household purposes). It does NOT apply to creditors collecting their own debts in their own name, and it does not cover commercial/B2B debt.

Traps / edge cases

• Reg F is not broader than the FDCPA in coverage — it binds "debt collectors" as defined in § 1006.2(i). First-party servicers/creditors are outside it (though UDAAP still reaches them).
• Commercial claims are out of scope — the § 1006.2(h) "debt" definition is limited to personal/family/household purposes. Reg F obligations attach only to consumer debt; commercial claims are outside Part 1006.
• Deceased consumers are still "consumers" (§ 1006.2(e): "whether living or deceased"), and § 1006.6(a)(4) extends "consumer" to the executor/administrator of the estate.
• Structure drift: the part now has Subpart D (Miscellaneous) and a reserved Subpart C; older summaries describing "subparts A/B/C" are stale.
• The statute and rule can both apply; where the rule is more specific (e.g. 7-in-7), compliance analysis runs through the rule, but a court claim is still pleaded under the FDCPA sections the rule cites (e.g. 15 U.S.C. 1692d(5)).

Related

• communications-opt-outs.md — § 1006.6
• call-frequency.md — § 1006.14
• limited-content-message.md — § 1006.2(j)
• validation-notice.md — § 1006.34
• ../fdcpa/communications.md — the statute Reg F implements
• ../fdcpa/harassment-abuse.md
• ../cfpb-guidance/debt-collection-faqs.md