Debt collection

E-mail Darren Waggoner at darren.waggoner@sourcemedia.com to comment on this developing story.

For the third consecutive month, the Credit Manager's Index is signaling that the recession is over and the economy is expanding, according to a report by the National Association of Credit Management (NACM).

Seventy-six percent of more than 6,100 consumers polled by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC) picked "decrease debt" as a top financial resolution for 2010. But while the collection industry looks favorably at that goal, NFCC officials are concerned about where other consumer priorities ranked.

Home prices are leveling out after an unexpected rebound in the spring and summer while consumers are feeling a little better about the overall economy, according to two closely watched reports released on Tuesday.

After a two-month run of improvement, November charge-offs on credit cards rose about half a percentage point to 10.56%, according to Moody's Investors Service in its latest Credit Card Indices report. The delinquency rate for November also rose, to 6.2%.

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While banks and government agencies are increasing efforts to save troubled home loans, the attempts thus far have not slowed a rise in foreclosures, according to a report released this week by the Offices of Thrift Supervision (OTS) and Comptroller of the Currency (OCC).

The Education Department has released new data on the percentage of students at more than 5,000 colleges and universities who defaulted on student loans over a three-year period.

The benefits of custom scoring models are becoming more obvious and the cost has plummeted, but little attention is being paid to developing better ways for risk managers to implement them.

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More than 276,000 federal employees and retirees owed a total of $3.04 billion in back income taxes as of Sept. 30, 2008, according to new data provided by the Internal Revenue Service. The figure was up from $2.7 billion owed by federal employees and retirees in 2007.

Bad-debt buyer Asta Funding Inc. this week reported a net loss of $79.2 million for its fiscal fourth quarter ended Sept. 30.

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Twelve individuals who worked for a group of Buffalo, N.Y. area collection agencies were charged yesterday with grand larceny after allegedly posing as law enforcement officials and threatening debtors with jail if they did not pay their bills, according to New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

Attorneys general in Ohio and West Virginia yesterday filed separate lawsuits against National Enterprise Systems Inc. (NES), a Solon, Ohio-based collection agency, for allegedly using collection methods that violate state and federal laws.

In the fall of 2008, Al Zezulinski, at NCO Group Inc., would have expected bad-debt sales to have improved more than a year later. "We’re not seeing it,” says the executive vice president at the Horsham, Pa.-based accounts receivable management company.