ABA today urged the Federal Communications Commission to issue new rules to ensure that customers can receive important communications from their banks. The letter was submitted as the FCC considers issuing new Telephone Consumer Protection Act rules in light of a federal appellate court’s decision in March to strike down two key aspects of the FCC’s prior rules.
“Despite Congress’ intent, the Commission’s prior TCPA interpretations have in practice become a ‘barrier’ preventing customers from receiving time-critical, non-telemarketing communications from their banks, including suspicious activity alerts, notices of address discrepancies, data security breach notifications, delinquency notifications, and loan modification outreach,” said ABA. “Consumers are the ones most harmed when they are deprived of critical information about their bank accounts.”
ABA urged the FCC to issue a new interpretation of an “automatic telephone dialing system,” such that the statute’s restrictions would apply only to dialing equipment that generates telephone numbers in random or sequential order. ABA also asked the FCC to shield from liability calls made to customer numbers that have been reassigned to other consumers, and to confirm that banks may contract with their customers to limit the methods by which customers may revoke their consent to receive autodialed calls. For more information, contact ABA’s Jonathan Thessin.
