Collections & Credit Risk articles from January 2004

Collections & Credit Risk archives from January 2004

New Year's Greetings: May 2004 Bring Good Times to All!
January 1, 2004... As we begin the ninth year of publication for Collections & Credit Risk, we look back and see how much things in the industry have changed - as indeed they have in the rest of the world. Our cover story this month highlights the important...

Letters to the Editor.(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2004... Optimistic Outlook To the Editor: A one question survey...how different! To the subject: Yes, I am very optimistic about the next quarters. Our client base has expanded, recoveries are consistently stable and increasing, with minimum...

Survey Results.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Here's how visitors to Credit & Collections World, Collections & Credit Risk's website, voted on this month's Instant Survey: conomic indicators looked quite positive in early November. Are you expecting a significant improvement in your...

Counseling Reform Cry Heard.
January 1, 2004... A rash of lawsuits and warnings about deceptive practices in the credit counseling industry made the past year difficult for U.S. credit counseling agencies. Yet, most in the industry hope the focus will lead to positive changes. The...

What's New?
January 1, 2004... RecoveryScore Launch PredictiveMetrics, a Tinton Falls, N.J.-based scoring company, launches RecoveryScore, a statistical model for recovering outstanding debt. RecoveryScore optimizes dollars collected by predicting two outcomes:...

Acquittal Ends Bartmann Saga.(William R. Bartmann)
January 1, 2004... William R. Bartmann, ex-boss of defunct debt buyer Commercial Financial Services, spent nine weeks in a Tulsa, Okla. courthouse late last year, before a federal jury found him not guilty of 57 counts of conspiracy, fraud, and money laundering....

NCO Buys CRM Firm.
January 1, 2004... NCO Group Inc., the largest provider of accounts receivables management services, acquired RMH Teleservices Inc., a provider of customer relations management services. The deal is part of NCO's strategy to reposition itself as a global provider...

Building a Better Pipeline: New technology is boosting communication between creditors and outside collectors and improving their decision-making capabilities. The goal: to increase efficiency and cut cost. How's it working?
January 1, 2004... Overhauling information technology grew into a multimillion-dollar venture for creditors and collections agencies in the late 1990s - with Web-based operating platforms using relational databases accounting the bulk of the cost. The new...

Back in Business: Some familiar faces are in new places - starting up brand new collections firms. With their "non-competes" expiring or winding down, these experienced execs are rolling up their sleeves and starting all over again.(The Westchester, Ill)(Anthony Crews & Co.)
January 1, 2004... Having built successful collections businesses and sold them, why are industry veterans opening that door again? The lure of applying hindsight, perhaps. And because the industry is changing so dramatically, the challenges are fresh, even...

What's Fueling Commercial Card Growth?: Two years ago, commercial card spending was predicted to skyrocket and reach $112 billion in charges by 2004. Is that growth on target or has the trajectory changed?
January 1, 2004... Faced with a maturing and largely saturated market, issuers of commercial cards in recent years have intensified their efforts in the small-to-mid-tier business arena - one of the few market sectors with lots of potential new business. By...

Middle East: Card Lending Challenges: Along with opportunities, there are unique obstacles to credit card lending in the Middle East. Here are some ways to overcome them.
January 1, 2004... Credit cards swept through the Middle East at an astonishing rate in the past decade. At the start of the 1990s, people in the Middle East believed that cards were a luxury reserved for the rich and famous. Now, because of the growth in...

Debt Buyers: Leaders of the Pack: The latest lists of buyers ranked by purchases and revenue include some shuffling at the top, but Sherman Financial Group still comes out on top.(Unifund Group)
January 1, 2004... Heeding the adage "slow and steady wins the race," today's leading debt buyers pulled ahead of the pack by setting a deliberate purchasing pace - careful to avoid the big-spending dangers that knocked off a pair of former giants. Still,...

Top Debt Buyers.(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... (Ranked by 2002 Revenue and Purchases) Company City 2002 Revenue Sherman Financial Group LLC New York, $325,000,000 Risk Management Alternatives Duluth,...

Consumer Spending Likely To Slow: In the fall, economic reports pointed to a healthy outlook for consumer spending. But new business trends are prompting consumers to rethink their priorities.(Economic development)
January 1, 2004... Here's the rosy scenario. The job market seems to stabilize, and we add back about 200,000 jobs, compared to the millions of jobs lost during the meltdown of 1999-2002. Interest rates are low, construction is strong, stimulus is still in place,...

Slight Downturn for B2B.(B2B)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2004... Most of the key indices in The Credit Research Foundation's National Summary of Domestic Trade Receivables for the third quarter indicate a decline in B2B accounts receivable performance. The Collections Effectiveness Index, the most...

Ins and Outs of Loss Forecasting: Finding the best way to predict portfolio performance can be different for every organization, but it is critical for all.
January 1, 2004... The ability for organizations to accurately forecast credit risk clearly puts them in a better position to reap financial rewards. As new customers are booked, accounts age, and the environment changes, the expected losses on a portfolio can...