The American Bankers Association and the National Consumer Law Center today sent a joint letter asking the Federal Communications Commission to initiate rulemaking to revisit three provisions in its 2024 order on revocation of consent. ABA has previously said that the provisions, if not revised or rescinded, could effectively require banks to cease sending communications — including fraud alerts — to certain customers.
Under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, with limited exceptions, a bank or other business can place an autodialed or prerecorded voice call or text message only with the prior express consent of the called party. A called party has the right to revoke his or her consent to receive these calls.
In the 2024 order, the FCC required a business to treat a consumer’s revocation of consent to receive one type of call or message as a revocation of all consented-to calls and messages (the “revoke all” rule). In addition, the FCC stated that if a consumer replies to a text or voice call using a phrase other than one of seven specified revocation phrases, the business must treat that reply as a valid revocation request “if a reasonable person would understand those words to have conveyed a request to revoke consent.” These provisions have created significant challenges for banks in processing customers’ revocation requests accurately and efficiently.
The organizations also asked that, if the FCC reopens rulemaking, the agency extend the current waiver of the “revoke all” rule to April 11, 2027.
