Settlement Administration Case Study

Administering Complex Government
Enforcement Actions
In the Matter of Ally Financial Inc. and Ally BankThe situation
In 2013, Ally Financial Inc. and Ally Bank (Ally)
entered into Consent Orders with the Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and with theUnited States through the Civil Rights Division ofthe Department of Justice (DOJ). In its complaint
the United States alleged that Ally engaged in apattern or practice of discrimination on the basisof race and national origin in violation of the Equal
Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA). The allegation wasbased on the interest rate “dealer markup” paidby African- American, Hispanic, and Asian/PacificIslander borrowers who received automobile loans
funded by the bank. Ally asserted in the Consent
Orders that it treated all customers fairly and without
regard to race or national origin, rather Ally enteredinto the settlement for the purpose of avoiding
contested litigation and instead devoting its
resources toward serving its customers.
Ally agreed to pay $80 million in total customer
monetary and other damages caused by the alleged
practices described in the DOJ complaint.

Three categories of customers
The two Consent Orders identified three categories
of Ally customers and detailed how each category ofcustomer could be compensated under the termsof the Consent Orders. Specifically, the three
categories of customers identified were:
1. Opt-out customers
2. Opt-in customers
3. Self-identified customers
The 201,212 opt-out customers were automaticallypaid unless they returned a non-participation form,or self-reported that they were not a member of
one of the ethnic groups or reported they didn’t
want to be paid.
The 218,457 opt-in customers were eligible to be
paid if they returned a participation form attesting
to certain facts.
For the third category of customers, self-identifying
customers, we designed an eligibility form in order
to elicit whether a person who had not been2

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identified as an opt-out customer or an opt-in
customer was nevertheless eligible to receive aparticipation packet. Our team received 2,571
eligibility forms from self-identifying customers.

The notice program
Seven languages
Our team was required to have all customer-facing
documents translated into Mandarin, Cantonese,
Vietnamese, Korean and Tagalog. English andSpanish versions were also included as a matterof course in all customer communications.
We mailed participation packets in English andSpanish to 201,212 opt-out customers. Each
opt-out participation packet prominently instructedcustomers about the other five languages that wereavailable and how to obtain fully translated copies.

The opt-out packets in English and Spanish included
a cover letter, a non-participation form, an address
correction/ confirmation form, and a postage
pre-paid return envelope. Fewer than 0.4% of thisgroup of customers opted out.
We mailed participation packets in English andSpanish to 218,457 opt-in customers. Similarly,
the opt-in participation packet prominently
instructed customers on how to obtain fullytranslated copies in any of the other five languages.
The opt-in participation packet included a cover
letter and participation form which required
checking boxes attesting to certain facts, signing,and dating the form. A postage pre-paid envelope
was included. Over 48% of the opt-in customers
who were mailed participation packets opted in.

By The Numbers: Notice Program

201,212English and Spanish
opt-out mailings

Fewer than

0.4%

of recipients
opted out

Two different address traces performed prior
to re-mailing notices
Any customer participation packets that werereturned as undeliverable were first address traced
via automated address searches. Customers forwhom the automated address trace did not return
updated addresses were traced a second time via
manual CLEAR address searches. All customers
for whom updated addresses were obtained werere-mailed participation packets.
Additionally, if a customer’s returned participation form
was incomplete or invalid, we mailed an individualized
deficiency letter instructing the customer how toprovide the missing or corrected information.

218,475
English and Spanish
opt-in mailings

Over

48%

of recipients
opted in

Notice and Reminder Efforts

7 different
languages

Several roundsof address
tracing

Live
Operators,
IVR, TTY

2 reminder
postcards

Close to500,000
outbound calls

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Two reminder postcards
Fifty days after the opt-in participation packets
were mailed, our team mailed a first batch of
reminder postcards to all opt-in customers whohadn’t yet responded. This first batch of reminder
postcards was mailed to 171,183 opt-in customers.
Approximately six weeks later, a second batch of
reminder postcards was mailed to those opt-in
customers who still hadn’t responded. This second
batch of reminder postcards was mailed to140,942 opt-in customers.
Our team mailed a total of 312,125 reminder
postcards to opt-in customers.
Multi-lingual settlement website withunique logins
Our professionals built and maintained a dedicatedsettlement website in both English and Spanish.
All content was approved by Ally and the government.
The dedicated website contained a summary of thesettlement, relevant documents, and a FAQs section.
In addition, we included the functionality forcustomers to participate in the settlement byelectronically entering a unique login and password,
and then completing and submitting their form(s).
All forms were available on the website in English,
Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese,Korean, and Tagalog.
Live operators, IVR, and TTY
Our in-house contact center provided live phone
operators in both English and Spanish. The contact
center was staffed five days a week from 8am– 8pm EST. We answered 80% of incoming calls
within 20 seconds or less. The other 20% of thecalls were answered within 45 seconds or less.
We provided simultaneous interpretation services
in Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Korean andTagalog for all customers requesting such services
for live phone operators. Our live phone operators
answered approximately 75,000 customer phone calls.
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) recordings wereavailable entirely in English and Spanish, plus theIVR emphasized the availability of and detailed how

4

to access Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Korean
and Tagalog interpretation services.
The IVR system permitted customers to leave
voicemails which were returned within two businessdays. Our IVR system handled approximately
120,000 customer calls. In addition, our contact
center provided customers with TTY Relay Services
for the deaf or hard of hearing.

Contact Center Stats80%
The other20%
Overof incoming calls
were answered within
20 seconds or lessof incoming calls
were answered within
45 seconds or less

75,000

customerphone
calls answered

Close to half a million outbound phone
calls madeFor opt-in customers who had not returned
participation packets within 50 days of the original
notice mailing, our team was required to attempt
to contact these customers by phone.
We made at least four attempts to reach each customer
at each known telephone number. Our team wasdirected not to call an individual more than one time
per day, unless instructed to do so by the customer.
If the first two attempted calls were unsuccessful,
we attempted contact at a different time of day.
We also performed searches to obtain additional
phone numbers for calls that were unsuccessful.
Over the course of the outbound opt-in calling
campaign, our professionals placed over 435,000
outbound reminder phone calls to opt-in customers
who had not returned their participation forms.

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Over the course of the opt-out outbound calling
campaign, we placed over 26,000 additional
reminder phone calls to opt-out customers who
had not returned a form or whose address
was undeliverable.
In addition to the above outbound calling campaigns,
for those opt-out and opt-in customers who had
not returned a form and had not been contactedby phone, we performed additional CLEAR
automated and/or manual searches, plus comparable
search methods. Our team mailed participation
packets to those customers for whom these
additional searches provided updated addresses.
Four different form submission options
Customers were able to submit relevant forms via
mail, fax, email, and the settlement website using theunique customer login name and password provided
in the customers’ mailed participation packets.
We also created a dedicated email addressfor sending and receiving emails about thesettlement. We responded to all customers’
emailed questions within two business days.

Customer payments
We issued over 300,000 payment packages tovalidated customers.
For payment packages returned as undeliverable
we performed a CLEAR automated search and/or
other comparable manual searches and thenre-mailed the payment packages with re-issued
checks to any better addresses identified, after
first voiding the previously issued checks.

SummaryAs a result of the extensive notice mailings, remailings, services in seven languages, multiple
mailed reminder efforts, and extremely robust
outbound calling campaign, we successfully
distributed over 95% of Ally’s $80 million payment
to its customers.
Kroll Settlement Administration offers a full rangeof class action settlement notice and administration
services, including in-house contact center
capabilities for any size case. Our team provides
clients with the most comprehensive experienceand innovation in the industry. We provide ourclients with the practical knowledge neededthroughout the administration process to proactively
anticipate potential problems before they occur
and recommend proven solutions to protect theinterests of all stakeholders.

Third-party authorization letters
Our team prepared and distributed third-party
authorization letters to determine the beneficiaryor legal heir for deceased customers or legal
representatives for living customers.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this article does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice; instead, all information and content contained
herein is for general informational purposes only.

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