CONSUMERS WARNED ABOUT CCCS WASHINGTON, July 12 /PRNewswire A national advocacy group, Consumers for Responsible Credit Solutions, released an 80-page report recently carrying serious warnings for consumers about the nation's best known chain of credit counseling agencies, Consumer Credit Counseling Services (CCCS). Some of the many creditors who have been represented on the NFCC Board of Trustees have recently paid hundreds of millions of dollars in Federal Trade Commission fines and other settlements for anti-consumer practices and abusing consumers' rights. The report argues the best way to make the credit counseling industry more favorable to consumers is to reduce the direct influence and control of creditors and encourage the growth of independent, non-NFCC credit counseling agencies. The report finds two factors have particularly enabled problems to arise: a lack of national regulatory standards; and mandates that credit counseling agencies be "nonprofit," which exempts them from most State and Federal regulation. This has left an industry that handles billions of dollars in consumer payments largely unregulated. The report recommends establishing national standards and opening the industry to professional financial services businesses that already serve consumers and are already subject to regulatory scrutiny. Consumers looking to better understand the NFCC and the industry are urged to read the report entitled: "Nonprofits In Service to One of America's Most Profitable Industries: A Report On How Creditor Control of the Credit Counseling Industry Hurts Consumers and The Need For Fundamental Reform." Copies are available at: http://www.responsiblecredit.com