IMGCAP(1)]
Asta Funding Inc., an asset-management company that buys unpaid credit card loans and tries to collect them, reported net income of $8.8 million for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, down 83.2% from $52.3 million during the same period a year earlier. Asta reported fiscal 2008 total revenue of $115.5 million, an 18% decrease from $140.8 million the previous fiscal year. The company during the 12 months spent $49.9 million for $1.5 billion in charged-off consumer receivables. During the same period in 2007, Asta purchased $10.9 billion of charged-off consumer receivables at a cost of $440.9 million. The company last week announced it will be closing its call center in Bethlehem, Pa., by the end of March as part of a cost-reduction program and has begun moving all accounts to its headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J. (CardLine, 2/20).
