America’s Credit Unions President/CEO Jim Nussle and Chief Advocacy Officer Carrie Hunt Wednesday met with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioner Geoffrey Starks to provide the credit union perspective on the FCC’s final rule related to a consumer’s right to revoke consent to receive robocalls and robotexts under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).
The rule, published in March, reflects several changes requested by America’s Credit Unions during its engagement with the FCC on the subject, including the expansion of time to process revocation from 24 hours to “as soon as practicable,” but no more than 10 business days. Prior to the transformation to America’s Credit Unions, both NAFCU and CUNA wrote to the FCC opposing a 24-hour timeframe for honoring opt-out requests and advocating for a longer timeframe.
During the meeting, the group discussed the burdensome requirement for credit unions to show that a non-conforming method of revocation is unreasonable. America’s Credit Unions recently joined with several organizations to urge the commission to require consumers that use non-standard revocation prove the method was reasonable if there is a dispute.
Nussle and Hunt also called on the commission to provide clarity on the scope of revocation, explaining that the primary concern is that notices such as fraud alerts, data breach notifications, and security elections such as multi-factor authentication would be disallowed at the point of revocation.
Although the final rule became effective April 4, the new consent revocation provisions, and the timeframe for honoring these requests, will be effective six months following review by the Office of Management and Budget. The FCC will publish a Federal Register announcement once the effective date has been established.
America’s Credit Unions’ James Akin and Amanda Smith also attended the meeting, along with FCC Legal Advisor for Media and Consumer Protection Hannah Lepow. During the meeting, America’s Credit Unions staff also shared the organization’s priorities and strategic goals related to the FCC’s mission.
