The federal licensing of debt collectors will not necessarily replace the existing state-based licensing regimes, leaving this industry with a myriad of federal and state laws, guidelines and regulators to comply with in addition to the industry's own proposed new code of conduct.ASIC is responsible for dealing with misconduct associated with debts that arise from financial services. The ACCC through the Trade Practices Act is responsible for dealing with misconduct resulting from debts concerning non-financial goods and services. State and territory offices of fair trading currently have responsibility for the regulation and licensing of debt collectors. There have been no announcements about the states giving up those powers that are now being duplicated at the national level."Every state and territory has a different set of rules about how debts can be collected and how collectors are licensed," said Alan Harries, chief executive of the Australian Collectors and Debt Buyers Association."Now we find that we are getting a national licensing scheme that on the surface looks like a good idea, but it is additional to the individual state and territory licenses that debt collectors have to hold now and will have to continue to hold post the introduction of the new regime."I can't see too much sense in that."The Privacy Act and commissioner also impact heavily on debt collectors, says Harries."We can also often get tied up with the banking code of practice but not the least of our compliance issues are in the contracts themselves, which often have a higher standard of obligations than the regulators require."Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Graeme Samuels said yesterday that many collectors are concerned that the requirement to join an external dispute resolution scheme will add to costs and be pro-debtor.Alan Harries said the fear was not so much that the EDR scheme would be pro-debtor but that it would be used by vexatious litigants to complicate the collection process at no cost to themselves."If referral to an EDR scheme involves no consequence to the debtor so they can continue to make complaints, ultimately the collecting firm being complained about bears the cost of that EDR process."