The mergers-and-acquisitions market in the accounts receivable management industry reportedly was active in the second quarter, according to a news release by Kaulkin Ginsberg, an industry M&A and strategic advisory firm.

Editor's Note: To comment on the below story and what it means for DBA International, contact Darren Waggoner at 815.463.9008 or darren.waggoner@sourcemedia.com. With your approval, your comments may be included in an upcoming story.

Fifth Third Bancorp has announced its Fifth Third Processing Solutions LLC unit has acquired the assets of credit union processor TNB Card Services from credit union-owned Town North Bank of Dallas.

M&A transaction value in 2Q 2010 in the Accounts Receivable Management (ARM) sector surpassed $255 million, a 197% increase over 1Q 2010, and a sign of a strengthening M&A environment, according to advisory firm Greenberg Advisors LLC.

Prices for bad debt are up by as much as 15%, depending on portfolio quality, and a lack of supply likely will keep prices high in the near-term, according to several industry insiders. The freshest credit card debt is fetching between five cents and seven cents on the dollar.

Experian PLC said last week that it has purchased RentBureau, a credit bureau that tracks rent payments, from DSI Holdings LLC.

The management team at Synovus Financial Corp. decided to be an aggressive seller of troubled assets after taking a look at the bank's balance sheet and seeing what was coming up the pike.

Credit card delinquencies and chargeoffs at credit unions remained near all-time highs, even as the average balance on card accounts continued to grow in the first quarter, according to AssetExchange, a card broker for credit unions.

With more than $600 billion of bad loans, foreclosed properties and other assets from failed banks, federal regulators are counting on the private sector to help sell the loans rather than doing so independently.

Just two of the 2,100 credit unions with credit card receivables of $1 million or more sold their portfolios during the first three months of this year, according to TRK Advisors, a card-portfolio consulting firm.

U.S. Bancorp has purchased grocery retailer Kroger Co.’s credit card portfolio from a Royal Bank of Scotland Group subsidiary.

Aditya Birla Minacs, a global business services and call center operator, has acquired U.S.-based Bureau of Collections Recovery (BCR), an accounts receivables management firm that operates collection services for the credit industry. Financial terms of the deal, announced last week, were not revealed.

U.S. credit card charge-off rates that began rising in the fall of 2008 likely hit their peak during the first quarter of this year and are beginning a march back to lower levels, Moody’s Investors Service announced today.

Flock Advisors, a mergers-and-acquisitions advisory firm, announces a successful senior debt raise for Velocity Portfolio Group LLC, a debt buyer focused on a "legal first" strategy.

The Maryland State Collection Agency Licensing Board (CALB) released an advisory notice this month clarifying licensing requirements for debt purchasers that collect debt through civil litigation, according to ACA International, the association that represents collection agencies.

Rebounding car sales are offering banks a rare chance to expand lending in a business line that many of them fled just before the economy collapsed.

Determined to improve earnings on sales of bad debt, many credit issuers and consumer lenders are holding back the amount of chargeoffs placed for sale. The strategy is working as prices have inched up since late 2009.

Debt buyer Sherman Financial Group has re-purchased the last remaining outstanding stake in the firm from mortgage insurer Radian Group, according to an announcement today from Radian.

Asset Acceptance Capital Corp. reported cash collections of $89.2 million in the first quarter ended March 31, versus cash collections of $94.1 million in the year-ago period.