The commission has found significant abuses in the collection of old, charged-off debt.

That's not true of ethical agencies. Any ethical agency will check what brought an individual into debt and perhaps refer that person to a bankruptcy lawyer or to a local bar association.

If creditors handle this appropriately, there could be more people helped with debt management programs - but they will need that break on principal,

I think it's a daunting task for any corporate official to figure out what their obligations are.

The law permits the credit bureaus to sell and lenders to buy lists of consumers who meet certain criteria.

From the FTC's standpoint, there are situations where we do hold individual corporate officers responsible.