Collections & Credit Risk articles from September 2003

Collections & Credit Risk archives from September 2003

Regulations and Innovations: Call Centers Front and Center.
September 1, 2003... Call centers are receiving a lot of attention these days, in the wake of the enormous rush to sign up for the federal "Do Not Call" registry. Debt collectors are exempt from the regulation prohibiting contact with registrants, which goes into...

Letters to the Editor.(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2003... Proven Worth To the Editor: In our experience, using scores to prioritize work on charged-off accounts has proven its worth. By focusing on customers most likely to pay their debts, we have been able to increase our recoveries while...

Survey Results.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2003... Here's how visitors to Credit & Collections World, Collections & Credit Risk's website, voted on this month's Instant Survey: Scoring technology has expanded beyond the front end of the credit and collections cycle. Is your firm using...

Legal Mess for Former CFS Brain Trust.
September 1, 2003... More than four years after Commercial Financial Services closed, the brain trust for the former king of charged-off debt purchases remains buried in a legal mess. The latest charged in connection with helping bring about the Tulsa, Okla. firm's...

PredictiveMetrics Introduces UtilityScore.(Rapid Notify Account Acquisition)(Rapid Notify Cross Sell)(Ajent 2.05)
September 1, 2003... PredictiveMetrics announces the launch of UtilityScore, a statistical model for collections. UtilityScore helps utility companies direct collections activities by determining which accounts are likely to pay and which are likely to go 90+ days...

Fair Isaac Buys NAREX.(Caffery Capital Partners)(Credit Data )
September 1, 2003... Fair Isaac Corp., an analytics and decision technology provider, will acquire NAREX Inc., an analytic solutions provider for collections and recovery firms, in a $10 million cash transaction. Golden, Colo.-based NAREX will become an operating...

A Kinder, Gentler Dispute Age: Doing a better job of refereeing customer disputes about charges that appear on their bills can strengthen customer relationships. Technology can help.
September 1, 2003... Most credit card companies, until recently, preferred keeping dispute operations as far from the customer as possible. Disputed transactions are a liability after all, so from the issuer's perspective the more inaccessible the dispute function...

M&A Dry Spell: Real or Just a Mirage?: For the accounts receivable sector, mergers & acquisitions activity in the first half of 2003 has been rather sparse, at least in terms of deal-size. But the credit reporting sector has been hot. What will the rest of the year bring?
September 1, 2003... If it weren't for the oasis, the first half of this year would look like an M&A desert, at least as far as the value of deals at the back end of the credit and collections cycle is concerned. One category - credit bureau-reporting,...

Credit Scoring Heats Up: Commercial credit grantors and lenders are turning to credit scoring as a way to better manage their portfolio risk and lower operating costs.
September 1, 2003... Commercial credit grantors and lenders, faced with mounting pressure to set bad debt and capital reserves to better reflect their portfolio risk - and a growing need to reduce operating costs to offset shrinking margins - are embracing risk...

From Soup to Nuts: Revenue cycle management is a hot topic in healthcare financial circles these days, and some AR firms are stepping up to offer a full menu of services - from pre-registration to collecting charged-off debt. How's it working?
September 1, 2003... The push is on for healthcare providers to improve their revenue cycle. In response, a number of collections firms are expanding the services they offer their medical clients by furnishing what's known as Extended Business Office - or EBO -...

State Anti-Predatory Lending Laws: More Harm than Help?: Consumer advocates and mortgage lenders continue to argue the merits of state vs. federal lending laws. What does a recent North Carolina study add to the debate?
September 1, 2003... Since the late 1990s when the problems of predatory lending grabbed the national spotlight, a number of states have drafted legislation to protect their residents from ince the late 1990s, when the problems of predatory lending grabbed the...

Not Your Father's Call Center: The economy and trickle-down regulations have some collections experts advocating redesigns for collections call centers. How is technology changing the business?
September 1, 2003... Turning a handsome profit in the collections call center business is no longer a sure bet, not with a tricky economy and the threat that points tucked within new federal do-not-call regulations could be applied to the collections trade. In...

Call Center & Predictive Dialing Systems (Partial List).(Directory)
September 1, 2003... Company Access! Corporation Advanced Call Center Technologies LLC Amcat APAC Customer Services Avaya Communications Blue Pumpkin Call One Inc. Calltrol Corp. Castel Inc. Center Force Technologies...

Let Profit Be Your Guide: Using profit analysis, credit managers may find they can lower cutoff scores and still boost company profits.
September 1, 2003... In recent years, credit portfolio managers have realized the need to focus on profit management, not just risk management, when setting score cutoff strategies. This concept is the "efficient frontier." In essence, it's the idea that by...