ABA Asks FCC to Provide Immediate Relief for COVID-19-related Bank Calls

Ms. Marlene H. Dortch
Secretary
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20554

Dear Ms. Dortch:

On April 8, 2020, I met by telephone with Zenji Nakazawa, Public Safety and Consumer Protection Advisor to Chairman Ajit Pai, and with Arielle Roth, Wireline Legal Advisor to Commissioner Michael O’Rielly, separately, to discuss the petition for expedited declaratory ruling, clarification, or waiver (Petition) filed by the American Bankers Association (ABA) and six other trade associations. The Petition asked the Federal Communications Commission to issue an expedited declaratory ruling, clarification, or waiver stating that phone calls and text messages placed by banks, credit unions, and other customer-facing financial services providers using an automatic telephone dialing system (autodialer) or prerecorded or artificial voice on matters related to the COVID-19 pandemic are “call[s] made for emergency purposes,” and thus may be placed without the consent of the called party, pursuant to 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(1)(A) (Emergency Purposes Exception).

On behalf of ABA, I asked the Commission to act without delay to provide the relief requested in the Petition, such as through issuance of an interim declaratory ruling. Under the existing comment deadlines, reply comments may be submitted up to May 21 — nearly six weeks from today.Financial institutions seek to place COVID-19-related informational calls to theircustomers now, not in six (or more) weeks.

Stakeholders from across the political spectrum agree that the Commission should act on thePetition without delay. As Commissioner Michael O’Rielly stated, it is “tough to reconcile [the]timing of [a] late May or June decision, at [the] earliest” on the Petition with the need forfinancial institutions to contact their customers now with COVID-19-related information. Heasked rhetorically if the Commission could act with “[s]ome more urgency??” Six organizationsdedicated to representing the interests of consumers, led by the National Consumer Law Center(NCLC), yesterday “urge[d] the Commission . . . as expeditiously as possible” to allow a subsetof the calls described in the Petition to be placed under the Emergency Purposes Exemption.

ABA shares the sense of urgency expressed by Commissioner O’Rielly, the National ConsumerLawCenter, and the other organizations aligned with NCLC. More than 17 million Americanshave filed for unemployment benefits during the past four weeks.7 The number of unemployed is“moving with alarming speed . . . to what will likely be very high” levels, according to the Chairof the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Jerome Powell. Consumers needinformation about programs, relief, and resources offered by financial institutions now, not intwo months. We urge the Commission to issue an interim declaratory ruling or other immediaterelief as soon as possible.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Thessin
Senior Counsel
Consumer & Regulatory Compliance
Regulatory Compliance and Policy