In advance of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's debt collection roundtable with the Federal Trade Commission on Thursday, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) called on CFPB Director Richard Cordray to enact rules to rein in debt collection policies that lead to consumer abuses.

In a letter this week to the CFPB, the chair of the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection urged Cordray, a former Democratic attorney general in Ohio, to examine practices of both creditors and third-party actors in the industry and suggested a number of rules that would reform the debt collection industry.

"It's hard enough when families aren't able to make enough to pay their bills, but it's tragic that families who are struggling to make ends meet are being hounded to make payments on debts that they have already paid off or that they never owed in the first place," Brown said.