"I read the news today, oh boy"

There's "Life of Pi" and "Life of Brian," Boswell’s “Life of Samuel Johnson,” the sitcom “Life of Riley,” and the Beatles’ ground-breaking “A Day in the Life.”   We view Life of a Debt: Data Integrity in Debt Collection, a roundtable hosted by the FTC and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), as pretty ground-breaking, too.  And the topic — the flow of consumer data through the debt collection process — should attract the interest of your clients in the financial field.

The agencies just released the agenda for the Thursday, June 6, 2013, event.   FTC Commissioner Julie Brill and CFPB Acting Deputy Director Steven Antonakes will set the stage with opening remarks at 9:00.   After that, speakers will help frame the issues with presentations on the life cycle of a debt, how information flows through the collection process, a review of the FTC’s recent study on the debt buying industry, and a follow-up on changes to the law since the FTC issued its 2010 report, Repairing a Broken System.

Also up for discussion:  just what info is available to debt collectors at the time of assignment or sale, verifying disputed debts under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and investigating them under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, debt collection litigation, and time-barred debts.

Registration for Life of a Debt begins at 8:00 at the FTC’s Conference Center at 601 New Jersey Avenue, N.W., in Washington, DC — or watch the webcast live.  Follow @FTC and the hashtag #DebtData for more on the roundtable.

(By the way, there's been a ton of interest in this event, so we can't guarantee seating if you haven't RSVPed.  But if you'd still like to attend, we'll do our best to accommodate as many people in the conference center as possible.  Other options:  an overflow room with a live video feed at FTC headquarters, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., and the webcast, of course.)