Compliance for Funding Calls, Texts and Files

How to read this page

This page explains the rules in plain words so you understand why they exist. It is not legal advice. The company and its legal counsel decide the exact rules for each campaign. When your campaign's instructions are stricter than this page, follow your campaign. When anything is unclear, stop and ask your lead before you act.

1. Honest identity

• Always say your real first name (or your approved work name) and the company you represent.
• Never claim to be a lender or a bank, never claim to be the merchant's existing funder.
• If asked where you are calling from, answer with the client's company and market, using the client's approved wording: "I'm with (COMPANY NAME). We help business owners all over (MARKET) find the right funding." Never mention your own country.
• On the Narqix funding desk, never name a funder or lending partner unless a founder approved it.
• If you do not know an answer, say so and offer to find out.

2. Calling and texting consent

US federal telemarketing rules (and some state laws) control who you may call or text and how.

• Consent for automated contact. Calls made with an autodialer or an AI-generated voice to a cell phone generally require the person's prior express written consent. Business owners often use personal cell phones, and the rule applies to them too, even though this is business funding.
• Prerecorded voicemail drops and cold texts. Allowed on the campaign's approved, do-not-call scrubbed lists. Use only the drops and first-touch texts in the Outbound Qualification Call script (or your client's approved versions), inside calling hours, with an opt-out in every message.
• Do-not-call lists. Leads must be checked against the national do-not-call registry and the company's internal do-not-call list before outbound contact, unless your campaign's legal team has cleared a specific exception.
• Your rule of thumb: if you are not sure a lead has consent for the channel you are about to use, or is on an approved cold list for it, do not use it. Ask your lead.
• The cost of mistakes. These laws allow damages per call or per text, commonly hundreds of US dollars each and more for willful violations. Class action lawsuits over a few thousand texts can be very large.

3. Calling hours

• Federal rules allow telemarketing calls between 8 AM and 9 PM in the lead's local time.
• Some states are stricter: shorter windows, limits on how many times you may call about the same topic in 24 hours, or no calls on certain days or holidays.
• The dialer is set to block calls outside the allowed window. You never override it, never call from a personal phone to get around it, and never ask a teammate to dial for you.
• When the business address and phone area code are in different time zones, use the window that is allowed in both (start later, end earlier).
• Texts follow the same quiet hours unless your campaign's rules are stricter.

The Funding Shift SOP has a full Dhaka time table for every US time zone.

4. Opt-outs

• A person can revoke consent in any reasonable way: "stop", "remove me", "don't call me again", "unsubscribe", in a call, a text reply, an email or a voicemail.
• Honor it on the spot. Mark it in the CRM, the dialer and the texting platform before you do anything else.
• Do not argue, do not ask "are you sure?", do not try one more pitch.
• Your campaign may send one short confirmation that the person has been removed. Nothing else.
• Opt-out accuracy is measured at 100%. One missed opt-out is a serious incident.

Them: Stop calling me. You: Understood. I've removed your number from our list. Sorry for the trouble, and have a good day.

5. Recording disclosure

Some US states require every person on a call to agree to recording. Always use your campaign's recording disclosure at the start of the call, exactly as written. If the merchant objects to recording, follow your campaign's rule (usually: end the call politely or continue only if the system can stop recording).

6. Texts and emails

• Texts go only to leads with texting consent or to numbers on the campaign's approved cold text list, through the company's registered texting platform.
• Every marketing text identifies the company and includes opt-out language (for example, "Reply STOP to opt out").
• Use only company-approved message templates and links.
• Emails use honest subject lines, identify the company, include the company's contact details and an unsubscribe option, and honor unsubscribes promptly.
• Never send documents, Social Security numbers or account numbers by text or regular email.

7. State rules for funding brokers

Many US states now regulate commercial financing such as cash advances, factoring and small business loans. Two kinds of rules matter for you:

1. Disclosure laws. In several states the funder must give the merchant a written disclosure of the cost and terms before the merchant signs, and in some states the disclosure must show how the broker is paid. States with laws of this kind include California, New York, Utah, Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Connecticut, Kansas, Missouri and Texas, and the list keeps growing.
2. Broker registration or licensing. Some states require brokers to register or be licensed before doing business with merchants in that state, and more are adding these rules. Some states also ban brokers from charging merchants advance fees.

What this means for you:

• The company confirms licensing. You do not market in a state until told. If a lead is in a state your campaign has not cleared, do not work it. Tell your lead.
• You never deliver, explain or interpret a disclosure. The funder delivers it. The Processor logs that it was delivered and signed.
• You never ask a merchant for any fee, deposit or payment of any kind.
• You never describe a cash advance cost as an "interest rate" or "APR". You do not describe costs at all.

8. Banned behaviors and the lessons behind them

Every rule below exists because companies in this industry were sued, fined or shut down for breaking it. The descriptions are general; the lessons are what matter.

Lesson 1: Misstating amounts, fees or guarantees

What happened: a cash advance funder and the marketers working for it told merchants they would receive one amount, then deducted large undisclosed fees so merchants received much less. They also told merchants no personal guarantee was needed when the contracts required one. Federal regulators and a state attorney general brought cases that ended with multi-million dollar payments and bans on misleading claims. The funder was also required to police the brokers marketing for it.

The rule for you: never state an amount, fee, cost or term. Never say "no personal guarantee" or "no collateral". The funder's written contract and disclosure define everything.

Lesson 2: Threats and unauthorized debits

What happened: a funder threatened merchants with harm and took more money from their accounts than the contracts allowed. Its leaders were banned from the industry for life and faced large judgments.

The rule for you: never discuss collections, never threaten, never talk about what a funder "will do" if a merchant misses payments. Any default or collections conversation goes to a founder the same day.

Lesson 3: Card stacking sold as loans

What happened: a company sold "business funding" that was really a set of personal-guarantee credit cards. Federal regulators said it called the cards loans and lines of credit, promised long 0% periods it could not guarantee, told owners applications would not hurt their credit (some scores reportedly fell sharply), advertised "no upfront fees" and then charged large fees, pushed owners to e-sign during calls, and used fake reviews. A court froze the business while the case continued.

The rule for you: cards are cards. Say clearly that applications can be hard inquiries, cards usually need a personal guarantee, and the 0% period is promotional and ends. Never rush an e-signature. Never post or ask for fake reviews.

Lesson 4: Advance fees and deceptive broker claims

What happened: several states passed laws banning brokers from charging merchants fees before funding (with narrow exceptions) and banning false or misleading statements by brokers. Brokers that ignore these face state penalties.

The rule for you: never ask for money. Never claim anything you cannot prove: "lowest rates", "best terms", "approval in one hour", "we have helped thousands" (unless the company has approved that exact claim).

Lesson 5: Contact without consent

What happened: funding companies and their call centers have been sued in class actions for robocalls and texts sent without consent or outside allowed hours. Damages are counted per call and per text.

The rule for you: consent first, every channel, every time. Hours enforced by the dialer, never bypassed. Opt-outs honored instantly.

The banned list

Never say or do	Why
"You're approved", "pre-approved", "guaranteed", "everyone qualifies"	Only funders approve. False approval claims are deceptive.
Any rate, factor, APR, fee, payment amount or total cost	Pricing comes only from the funder's written offer, presented by a closer or founder.
"Funded in 24 hours", "money by Friday"	Timing depends on the funder and the file.
"This won't affect your credit"	Some products involve hard inquiries.
"No personal guarantee", "no collateral"	Only the contract says that.
Calling an MCA a loan	It is legally a purchase of future sales, not a loan.
"Stop paying your other funder"	This can cause default and lawsuits against the merchant and the company.
Asking for any fee or deposit	Banned in several states and against Narqix policy everywhere.
Coaching any answer or document	Fraud risk for the merchant and the company.
Pretending to be someone else	Deceptive.
False urgency ("only today", "last spot")	Misleading pressure.

9. Product-specific rules

• 0% Business Credit Cards: the full card disclosure on every call (see Lesson 3) and a signed acknowledgment before any application.
• Credit Repair: federal and state credit repair laws require a written contract, specific disclosures, a cancellation period, and no fees before services are performed. Never promise a score increase or the removal of accurate information. The company handles contracts and payments.
• Residential Mortgages: only licensed loan originators take applications or discuss rates and terms with homebuyers. You capture interest and contact details only.
• MCA Bailout: never promise a payment reduction, never call it "debt relief", and never advise stopping payments.

10. Complaints and red-alert escalations

Escalate to your lead immediately, and to a founder the same day, when a merchant:

• Mentions a lawyer, lawsuit, regulator, attorney general or the media
• Says they are in default, being sued or contacted by collections
• Accuses the company or you of lying or misleading them
• Says they never gave consent to be contacted

Do not argue, do not explain the law, do not promise anything. Listen, apologise for the trouble, take notes, tell them a manager will follow up, and escalate.

11. Data security for merchant documents

Merchants trust us with Social Security numbers, IDs, bank statements and tax returns. Narqix protects them to the standard required of US financial institutions, whatever the exact legal status of a given campaign.

Intake

• Secure upload link or CRM portal only.
• Documents that arrive by email or text are moved to the secure vault immediately and the message copy is deleted, following your campaign's process.
• Never use personal email, messaging apps or social media for merchant documents.

Devices and workspace

• Approved devices only, with disk encryption, auto-lock after 5 minutes, current updates and antivirus.
• No shared family computers.
• Private workspace, clean desk, screen not visible to others.
• Your campaign's time-tracking and monitoring tool stays on during your scheduled shift.

Access

• Your own login only, multi-factor authentication everywhere, passwords in the approved password manager.
• You see only what your role needs. Lead Qualifiers do not open document vaults.
• Never share logins, even with a teammate.

Handling

• No downloads to your device, no screenshots, no printing, no USB drives, no photos of your screen.
• CRM notes show only the last 4 digits of Social Security and account numbers.
• Documents go only to funders the desk lead approved, through portals or encrypted channels.
• Follow the company's retention schedule; never keep your own copies.

Incidents: report within 15 minutes

• Lost or stolen device
• Document sent to the wrong person or funder
• Strange login alert or locked account
• You clicked a suspicious link or opened a suspicious attachment

Reporting fast is never punished. Hiding an incident is.

Bank-detail changes

• If anyone asks to change the bank account where funds or payments go, never act on an email or text. The change is verified by calling a known number on file, by the authorised team.

Check yourself

1. A merchant agreed to calls on the form. May you send them a marketing text?
2. It is 8:40 PM in the merchant's time zone. May you start a new call? What about at 9:05 PM?
3. A merchant writes "please remove me" in an email reply. What do you do?
4. A lead is in a state your campaign has not cleared. What do you do?
5. Name four things on the banned list.
6. You emailed a document to the wrong funder. What do you do, and how fast?

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