Debt buyer Portfolio Recovery Associates Inc., based in Norfolk, Va. and operating in the U.S. and United Kingdom, reported third quarter ended Sept. 30 results that included record revenues of $197.8 million, up 31% from the year-ago period.
Cash collections in the quarter reached $291.7 million, up 27% from the third quarter last year. The total includes bankruptcy court trustee payments of $120.6 million; $89.5 million in call center and other collections; and $81.6 million in legal collections from customers with an ability to pay their debt, but who refuse attempts to collect.
PRA announced plans to open a new call center in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex. The company expects to hire 150 operations managers, account representatives and other professional positions, with bilingual skills preferred, and another 50 employees by the end of 2014. The decision will place all of the companys U.S.-focused collection efforts in the United States.
Company officials believe major banks are placing added value on companies that manage such accounts with U.S. employees, even movng toward prohibiting offshore collections as a condition of selling accounts.
PRA has added 3% to its collector headcount since the year-ago quarter and now has more than 2,000. The company has added to its total full-time by 4% in the same period, now totaling 3,223.
Additional third quarter financial results include $141.9 million spent for new portfolio purchases in the quarter and an investment of $756.4 million for portfolio purchases in the past 12 months.
Earlier this month, PRA was
