Collections & Credit Risk articles from August 2008

Collections & Credit Risk archives from August 2008

Industry Rankings and Letters.(Letter to the editor)
August 1, 2008... After talking to you and your peers for more than three months, starting with the release of the 2007 annual reports, were pleased to present our latest Industry Rankings report. This year, we solicited information from nearly 500 agencies,...

Q: Barack Obama or John McCain? What will either mean to the collection and debt buying industries?
August 1, 2008... I found the article An Industry Flight to Action by Darren Waggoner in the June issue of Collections & Credit Risk to be most timely. At a meeting of the magazines board of advisors in Las Vegas last year this topic was on the agenda. Myself,...

Issuers Face Bigger Losses Than Expected.
August 1, 2008... Credit card issuers in the coming months are likely to suffer greater losses than first expected, hit by both a growing reliance on cards by cash-strapped consumers and general weakness in the economy. Information from Fitch Ratings...

State of Illinois Sues Countrywide.
August 1, 2008... Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a lawsuit last month against Countrywide Financial Corp., alleging that the lender engaged in deceptive and unfair lending practices that harmed tens of thousands of borrowers who, as a result, were...

Hospitals Auction Patient Debt Online.
August 1, 2008... With costs rising to provide charity care and treatment for uninsured/underinsured patients, U.S. hospitals more often are auctioning their delinquent accounts online a decision they hope will help them recoup a larger percentage of unpaid...

Bankruptcies Jump in First Half of 2008.
August 1, 2008... U.S. consumer bankruptcy filings increased 30% nationwide during the first six months of 2008 from the same period a year ago, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute, relying on data from the National Bankruptcy Research Center. ...

The VoIP Revolution: The rise of VoIP as a reliable, low-cost backbone telephony option is bringing greater operating efficiencies to the call center.
August 1, 2008... When it comes to squeezing more costs out of hard-wired telephony systems, collection managers have few options. The technology has matured to a point that there is no room left for cost-cutting innovations. Short of telephony carriers...

Chasing the Hidden Dollar: Lenders in this troubled economy are reexamining where their risk assessments failed. Can they improve processes to lessen fallout?
August 1, 2008... With the economy in a freefall, the obvious challenge for creditors is to collect from clients that are feeling its effects. Most insiders agree this should mean more business, but the debt is much more difficult to liquidate. With the...

2008 Industry Rankings: As a group, the top accounts receivable management firms and the top portfolio purchasers continued to exhibit healthy growth last year, and are on track to see double-digit growth in 2008 top-line revenues.
August 1, 2008... A primary goal behind CCRs annual Industry Rankings report is to spot market trends based on information participants provide in the surveys including gross collections, hiring, productivity, placements and technology spending. Most agencies...

Growing Gangbusters: Talbott, Adams & Moore makes no small plans. The six-year-old Texas collection agency is in a perpetual growth mode.
August 1, 2008... Most ground-up collection agencies chart a slow-growth strategy. Then, theres Talbott, Adams & Moore. Start-ups generally make sure a business line is profitable, or at least financially stable, before considering taking on new ventures....

Building Relationships In Jamaica.(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... Despite rapid growth at Talbott, Adams & Moore, opening a call center in Jamaica was more than a simple impulse decision. The agency felt the potential success of the expansion hinged on finding someone with extensive knowledge of the country...

Risk and Fraud: Protecting ACH: The automated clearinghouse network is pushing beyond its traditional roots. How are operators protecting it against wrongdoers?
August 1, 2008... An Expansion of the automated clearinghouse, the largest electronic-payments network in the United States, is moving the network away from its base of direct paycheck deposits and utility bill payments and into riskier business such as consumer...

An Unsteady House of Cards: Credit card issuers face tough times ahead. Consumer confidence and spending are withering fast thanks to the economic downturn sparked by the subprime mortgage crisis. Now what?
August 1, 2008... Household debt levels are at an all-time high, fueling an increase in bankruptcy filings. Credit card delinquency and charge-off rates are at manageable levels, but both are moving upward and are not likely to peak until late 2009. The...

The Rise Of The "Won't Pay" Population.
August 1, 2008... * Twenty one percent of all new homes purchased in 2007 were bought as investment properties, rather than primary residences, according to the National Association of Realtors. In 2006, the figure was 22%. * The average U.S. homeowners home...

Stats: Household Debt Service and Financial Obligations Ratios.
August 1, 2008... The household debt service ratio (DSR) is an estimate of the ratio of debt payments to Americans disposable personal income. Debt payments consist of the estimated required payments on outstanding mortgage and consumer debt. The financial...