Licensing Requirements For Collection Activities Performed By A Sub-Contractor
Pursuant to Mass. Gen. Laws chapter 93, section 24A, licensees must procure a license for each location where the business of the collection agency will be conducted. If a licensee were to engage in collection activity in its name from another location, it would be required to obtain a license in its name for that location. Should a licensee retain a sub-contractor, operating from another location, to collect the licensee's accounts in the name of the licensee, then the licensee would be required to obtain a separate license for that location. Such a sub-contractor operating the second location of the licensee would be required to be conducting business solely for the licensee at this location; furthermore, the business being conducted on behalf of the licensee should be the sub-contractor's primary business. If the sub-contractor were to engage in collection activity on its behalf and in its own name, it would be required to obtain a separate license. Moreover, the Division's regulations require that collection agencies, in communications with debtors, use only the exact name in which their license was granted. Accordingly, an unlicensed sub-contractor retained by a licensee could not use its own name in communications with the licensee's debtors. See 209 CMR 18.13.