Collections & Credit Risk articles from June 2003

Collections & Credit Risk archives from June 2003

The More Things Change...(editorial changes )(Editorial)
June 1, 2003... In last month's issue, Collections & Credit Risk Editor & Publisher David Whiteside was smiling as he contemplated his retirement move from the Windy City to sunny Southern California. This month it's my turn to smile as I take up the...

Letters to the Editor.(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2003... Good Move To the Editor: We have lots of emerging markets experience. There are only good reasons to operate offshore, particularly for routine, lower-ticket collections. It a misperception that offshore call centers have high...

Survey Results.
June 1, 2003... Here's how visitors to Credit & Collections World, Collections & Credit Risk's website, voted on this month's Instant Survey: With a number of credit grantors already operating call centers abroad - and some of the largest accounts...

Credit Card Chargeoffs Hit Record High.(Industry Overview)
June 1, 2003... An all-time high for credit card chargeoffs could indicate the U.S conomy has not yet bottomed out, and may worsen before it rebounds. Standard & Poor's securities rating agency reported chargeoffs in March reached 7.6% of receivables, news...

What's New?(industry news briefs)
June 1, 2003... Intell-A-Check Offers e-mail Payment Notice Intell-A-Check, Corp., an electronic payment solutions provider, offers the first NACHA-compliant e-mail confirmation notice solution for telephone-based electronic ACH payments. The service will...

AT&T, Accenture Ink Pact.(industry news briefs)
June 1, 2003... AT&T will pay Accenture $500 million over five years to manage its residential billing operations. The agreement will help AT&T expand its service portfolio, improve uncollected receivables, increase marketing flexibility, and reduce costs....

E-checks: Still a Risky Business?: E-checks may be gaining momentum in the merchant community, but online retailers are hesitant to get on board until banks assure them they can reduce the risk of accepting them.
June 1, 2003... As attractive as electronic checks can be to online merchants seeking lower-cost payment alternatives to credit cards, they do come with a high level of risk. Merchants operating in a non-face-to-face retail environment cannot verify a...

Cutting Bankruptcy Losses: How can creditors spot a troubled business - one whose cash is flying out the window - before it's too late to collect what's owed, or at least minimize the damage?
June 1, 2003... The rate of commercial bankruptcies has slowed a bit, but credit managers aren't ready to relax quite yet. Many companies are still experiencing significant financial trouble as the economy struggles to shake off the after effects of a...

Getting Along: Riding the collections industry merry-go-round takes skill. Industry insiders offer some tips for making the lender-agency-attorney relationship a win-win for all.
June 1, 2003... Maybe there should be the equivalent of marriage counseling for collections industry outsourcers - or at least riding lessons before boarding the collections carousel. Creditors, collections agencies, and collections attorneys form a...

JPMorgan's 'eCare' Equals Ease of Use: JPMorgan's treasury management initiatives include leveraging Web-based tools to give clients greater control over data in their accounts.
June 1, 2003... With corporate headquarters in midtown Manhattan, JPMorgan Chase Bank's Treasury Services Division managed to conduct business without missing a beat on September 11, 2001 by switching its New York-based operations to its Tampa facility. ...

A Little-Used Prescription for Medical Debt: With healthcare providers squeezed by higher costs as well as slower and lower reimbursements, will factoring - the discounted purchase of accounts receivable - become a more popular remedy?
June 1, 2003... Lester Poris, a 21-year veteran of managing patient accounts, says the hospital where he works would not consider factoring its receivables - selling them at a discount - to quicken the pace of incoming cash. "A hospital would have to be pretty...

Talking the Talk: Like trial runs on the ski jump, speech recognition-based simulations help prepare call center agents for the real world. Combined with data entry and retrieval, they are a powerful training tool.
June 1, 2003... Imagine yourself standing at the top of an Olympic-size ski jump. Your only knowledge of how to make the jump comes from reading a few books, attending some lectures, and standing in a classroom with a pair of skis on while a partner tells you...

Debt Merchants: From Main Street To Wall Street.
June 1, 2003... The debt-buying market's three-year growth stunt came to an end last year as investors - public and private - bought into the business. Portfolio Recovery Associates, Norfolk, Va., and Arrow Financial Services, Chicago, took home separate $45...

Debt Sales Market Guide: Top Purchasers of Consumer and Commercial Chargeoffs.(Directory)
June 1, 2003... These purchasers of charged-off consumer or commercial debt were primarily derived from research underway for Collections Source 1. Absolute Resolutions Corp. 3443 Camino del Rio South, #201 San Diego, CA 92108 760-729-7675...

The CNN Effect That Wasn't: Pundits expected that during the war in Iraq, American consumers would be glued to their television sets and shopping would decline as it did in the first Gulf War. Where did they go wrong?
June 1, 2003... There is still a great deal of talk about "the CNN Effect" and its impact on shopping. A great deal is riding on consumer spending today because corporate profits, exports, and pricing power for product markets are weak and government spending...

Predicting Consumer Bankruptcies: Using multiple scoring models, rather than single ones, can significantly increase the chances of identifying potential bankruptcies at the time of application.
June 1, 2003... Economic recessions always produce a bumper crop of household bankruptcies. The most recent U.S. recession is no exception. The record-setting number of non-business bankruptcies has contributed to an alarming increase in credit losses for many...