AI in Debt Collection: Opportunities, Risks, and the Importance of Data Governance
Release Date: 09/24/2026
The Supreme Court Opinions in Trump v. Slaughter and Trump v. Cook: What Do They Mean for the Future of the Administrative State?
Consumer Finance Monitor
The Supreme Court’s June 29, 2026 decisions in Trump v. Slaughter and Trump v. Cook raise fundamental questions about presidential power, the independence of federal agencies, and the constitutional structure of the administrative state. Although both cases involved the President’s authority to remove federal officials, the Court’s decisions appear to point in different directions. In our latest Consumer Finance Monitor podcast, our host, Alan Kaplinsky (founder and former practice group leader for 25 years and now Senior Counsel of our Consumer Financial Financial Services Group)...
info_outline
Consumer Financial Services Litigation Series - Episode 1: Pro Se Plaintiffs
Consumer Finance Monitor
Artificial intelligence is increasingly changing single‑plaintiff consumer litigation, particularly by enabling pro se plaintiffs to file longer, more citation‑dense complaints more quickly, while simultaneously giving defense counsel tools to assess cases, identify weaknesses, and pursue early resolution or dismissal strategies. In the first episode of this series focusing on consumer financial services litigation, Joseph Schuster and Matthew Morr, partners at Ballard Spahr in our Consumer Financial Services Group, discuss both the tactical opportunities and the professional...
info_outline
What Are Class Action Waivers Worth? A New Study Looks to the Stock Market for Answers
Consumer Finance Monitor
In the episode of the Consumer Finance Monitor podcast released today, the host of the show, Alan Kaplinsky (founder, former leader for 25 years, and now Senior Counsel of our Consumer Financial Services Group) spoke with James Fallows Tierney, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Associate Professor of Law at Chicago-Kent College of Law, about his working paper, “.” Professor Tierney’s research focuses on the intersection of law, financial markets and consumer finance. His study uses financial-market data to examine how investors reacted to developments affecting the...
info_outline
SpaceX’s Novel Shareholder Dispute-Resolution Bylaws Could Have Far-Reaching Implications
Consumer Finance Monitor
The SpaceX IPO generated enormous attention for obvious reasons. It was the largest IPO in history, and the company’s stock price initially surged after trading began. But an important legal development associated with the IPO has received considerably less attention: SpaceX adopted an unusually comprehensive shareholder dispute-resolution regime (the “Regime”) in its bylaws. In our Consumer Finance Monitor podcast released today, our host, Alan Kaplinsky (founder, former leader for 25 years, and now Senior Counsel of our Consumer Financial Services Group) spoke with Professor Mohsen...
info_outline
AI in Debt Collection: Opportunities, Risks, and the Importance of Data Governance
Consumer Finance Monitor
In our Consumer Finance Monitor podcast show being released today, our special guest John McNamara, Chief Growth Officer at Avtal (a fintech and software as a service (SAS) company that provides an AI-powered, white-labeled digital engagement platform to help third-party consumer debt collection agencies automate communication and process self-service payments) and a former CFPB senior official who played a significant role in developing Regulation F promulgated under the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act explained that the debt collection industry needs to distinguish genuine AI...
info_outline
The End of Shopping? Agentic AI and the Future of Consumer Financial Services Introduction
Consumer Finance Monitor
In the Consumer Finance Monitor podcast we are releasing today, Alan Kaplinsky, founder and former chair for 25 years and now Senior Counsel of the Consumer Financial Services Group, spoke with Professor Mark Bartholomew of the University at Buffalo School of Law, co-author with Professor Samuel Becher of “,” a forthcoming article in the William & Mary Law Review. The article explores how autonomous shopping agents could transform consumer commerce and raises fundamental questions concerning consumer autonomy, privacy, competition and consumer protection. The implications for financial...
info_outline
The CFPB Needs Reform, But Not More Regulatory Whiplash
Consumer Finance Monitor
The future of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB or Bureau) has rarely been more uncertain. Since its creation, the CFPB has been at the center of intense political and policy debate, with its priorities changing dramatically as administrations change. The events of the past year or so under the leadership of Acting Directors chosen by President Trump, however, have taken that policy whiplash to a new level. In our latest Consumer Finance Monitor podcast released today, Alan Kaplinsky (the founder and former leader for 25 years of the Consumer Financial Services Group at our firm)...
info_outline
Cantero II: Circuit Split and OCC Preemption Determination Set Up Likely Supreme Court Review
Consumer Finance Monitor
National bank preemption is headed toward another Supreme Court showdown. The Second Circuit has held that New York’s mortgage escrow-interest requirement is preempted, directly conflicting with the First Circuit’s decision upholding a comparable Rhode Island requirement and the Ninth Circuit’s decision allowing a similar California law to remain in effect. The OCC has sided with the Second Circuit, issuing final preemption regulations concluding that state laws requiring national banks to pay interest on mortgage escrow accounts are preempted. In the latest episode of the Consumer...
info_outline
When Consumer Protection Disclosures Work Too Well: New Podcast Explores the Distributional Costs of Effective Consumer Regulation
Consumer Finance Monitor
Disclosure has long been one of the principal tools of consumer protection. The basic premise seems straightforward: if consumers are given better information about the terms of a transaction, they should be able to make better-informed decisions. But what if better disclosure works differently for different consumers? And what if a disclosure that improves decision-making overall can, in some circumstances, actually worsen outcomes for financially vulnerable consumers? Those are among the important and provocative questions explored in the latest episode released today of the Consumer Finance...
info_outline
The “Confidence Advantage”: Why Privacy, Cybersecurity and AI Governance Are Becoming Business Imperatives
Consumer Finance Monitor
In the latest episode of the Consumer Finance Monitor podcast that we are releasing today, we explore a topic that is becoming increasingly important for financial services companies and virtually every other business operating in today’s digital economy: how privacy, cybersecurity, and AI governance can be transformed from compliance obligations into sources of customer confidence, resilience, and competitive advantage. Alan Kaplinsky (founder, founder lease for 25 years and now Senior counsel of our Consumer Financial Services Group) hosts and interviews our guests. Our guests are Amy...
info_outlineIn our Consumer Finance Monitor podcast show being released today, our special guest John McNamara, Chief Growth Officer at Avtal (a fintech and software as a service (SAS) company that provides an AI-powered, white-labeled digital engagement platform to help third-party consumer debt collection agencies automate communication and process self-service payments) and a former CFPB senior official who played a significant role in developing Regulation F promulgated under the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act explained that the debt collection industry needs to distinguish genuine AI applications from the marketing hype surrounding the technology. He also emphasized that the use of AI must be accompanied by careful attention to data governance, explainability, consumer protection, and human oversight.
Our show is hosted by Alan Kaplinsky, founder and former leader for 25 years and now Senior Counsel of our Consumer Financial Services Group.
Key Topics Discussed:
· Where AI is being used in debt collection
· Consumer-facing AI presents greater risks
· AI can also improve consumer outcomes
· Data governance may be the most important issue
· The “black box” problem
· Hallucinations and the importance of a human in the loop
· Vendor management remains critical
· AI may become infrastructure rather than a separate technology
The central lesson from McNamara’s discussion is that responsible deployment should begin with the use case rather than the technology. Companies should ask what they are trying to accomplish, what data is actually necessary, what legal authority they have to use that data, whether the system’s output can be understood and defended, and where human oversight is required.
Consumer Finance Monitor is hosted by Alan Kaplinsky, Senior Counsel at Ballard Spahr, and the founder and former chair of the firm's Consumer Financial Services Group. We encourage listeners to subscribe to the podcast on their preferred platform for weekly insights into developments in the consumer finance industry.