The American Bankers Association and seven associations this week urged the Federal Communications Commission to vote in favor of a draft order revising two Telephone Consumer Protection Act rules – the “revoke all” rule and the “provided number” condition – that have made it more difficult for banks to communicate by phone and text message with their customers. The FCC is scheduled to vote on the revisions during its Sept. 30 open meeting.
Revoke all rule
In 2024, the FCC stated that once a consumer revokes consent under the TCPA to receive autodialed or prerecorded voice calls or text messages, the caller may no longer send the consumer any calls or text messages that require consent, even if that was not the consumer’s intent – known as the revoke all rule.
Applying this provision, if a consumer replies “stop” to revoke consent to receive one type of message – for example, future autodialed past-due text messages – the caller must stop sending all future communications by phone or text on unrelated matters, such as warnings about unusual credit card transactions (fraud alerts), low-balance alerts, multi-factor authentication messages or utility calls.
The FCC’s draft revisions would allow the caller to interpret a revocation request as applying only to the category of messages to which the revocation was directed, while also requiring the caller to provide notice of how revocation will be construed. The draft revisions also would allow a caller to designate the exclusive means of revocation in the message sent to the called party.
In June, ABA, the National Consumer Law Center, and ACA International proposed revisions to the FCC that would allow callers to take these steps.
Provided number condition
The FCC’s draft order would also modify the provided number condition. In 2015, the FCC granted ABA’s request for an exemption from the TCPA’s requirements for time-sensitive messages concerning suspected fraud; breach of personal information; remediation action customers can take; and actions needed to arrange for receipt of pending mobile money transfers.
However, in granting the exemption, the FCC required financial institutions to send alerts only to a wireless number provided by the customer of the financial institution. As ABA previously noted, this condition significantly limits reliance on the exemption because a bank may have acquired a customer’s number through reliable means, but cannot satisfy the provided number condition.
Finally, the draft order would allow a caller to place an exempted call to a number that it acquired through a “reliable source,” which the commission defines as a wireless telephone number “supplied by a spouse or other family member who is authorized to be on the account; obtained when the customer calls the financial institution; or included in records obtained from another financial institution.”
