Archive for the ‘Recovery Industry News’ Category
A Letter from ARA Executive Director, Les McCook
I had the honor of joining a panel of Association Executives at the National Automotive Finance Association conference. I sat alongside Phillip Bohi of American Financial Services Association, Paul D Metrey of National Automobile Dealers Association, and Shaun K. Peterson of National Independent Automobile Dealers Association. Jack Tracey served as the moderator and led our discussion about the challenges each of our respective memberships face on a daily basis.
Jack Tracey and Joel Kennedy, NAF Association leaders, were instrumental in assembling the panel together. Our goal was to discuss strategies on how we can begin to define a minimum compliance standard for our sectors.
After confirming as leaders that we should move forward with the initiative, we successfully brought lenders and clients into agreement on a solution. As individual company owners, you should decide where and how you obtain the training necessary for your employees to meet the many compliance standards as prescribed by our clients.
Looking forward, our next project will be improving the quality of site inspections and then determining the best way to share that information within the community of industry stakeholders.
We always look forward to these discussions, and we want to thank everyone for their time and commitment to such an important project.
Dear ARA Members,
We have long sought relationships with the lending community and their associations to foster a strategy of seeking mutually beneficial solutions to areas of concern that both sides face.
Clients request financial information regarding the short and long term financial health of our businesses. Does anybody actually look at this information? Poor short term decisions will insure a continuing erosion of critical third party service providers.
A reasonable profit for the supplier with a firm ceiling for the clients should be a cooperative effort to insure long term success for both entities. Decisions based on “how much can I save today” will have far reaching consequences for both client and supplier, in the future.
Accepting 35% recovery rates today, when profits are high from sectors other than auto finance, will not serve lenders well when faced with weaker profits, in the future, from these other sectors. In order for third party suppliers to provide the services necessary to continue the lending cycle, we must work together to insure the minimum financial package necessary to continue to function in a compliant and customer focused manner and maintain a viable business model for the qualified, professionally trained and educated repossessor. The long term view is optimal for both parties.
As a critical function of long term business planning, our lending partners perform risk assessments regarding the long term viability of their vendors and suppliers. Will the third party suppliers that clients depend on become extinct or still be viable, healthy, and providing the critical services that are needed in the future?
We will be redoubling our efforts in the 4th quarter of this year to educate our industry as to the seriousness of these issues and seek every opportunity to address them.
Sincerely,
Les McCook
ARA Executive Director
Members,
As you are well aware, there are repossession companies having their bank accounts closed by the very banks employing them, allegedly because they don’t meet the bank’s “risk profiles.” Although recent actions at the highest levels of our government should go a long way toward resolving this issue, those wheels are infamously slow to turn. Meanwhile, American Recovery Association is proactively working to correct individual wrongs as well as working with others to present a united front for the entire industry to our legislature, banks, and the Department of Justice (DOJ).
If you and your business have been directly affected by this issue, contact ARA and please be sure to inform us of the particulars.
On background, Operation Choke Point was a 2013 initiative of the United States Department of Justice to investigate banks and their business associations that the DOJ believed to be a high risk for fraud and money laundering. The program, which purportedly was to use legal and regulatory pressure to “choke off” financial support for businesses that were exploiting consumers, unfortunately had a far wider effect.
Banks were being pressured to separate themselves from legal businesses of which the previous administration disapproved (like payday loans, gun dealers, etc.). Obviously, the effect has gotten wider, yet.
Fortunately, things are changing.
On Monday, the House of Representatives passed a bipartisan bill to prohibit any future Operation Choke Point initiatives.
American Recovery Association insists the closure of accounts of professional collateral recovery agents who have been held to the highest levels of personal and business standards in the financial arena is unlawful and unconscionable – this practice must be stopped and all accounts reinstated. We have been in contact with Representative Hensarling’s office and Senator Ted Cruz’s office about this matter. Rest assured we will continue this fight until we win.
Dave Kennedy
President
American Recovery Association
Photo courtesy of BellesLink.com
Paul Kulas shares his thoughts on compliance. The original version can be found HERE.
In the recovery industry, Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) compliance is still the topic everyone is talking about. Compliance has felt like a winter storm you know is coming, but hasn’t arrived yet. For your clients, the auto lenders, it’s a different story. CFPB regulations have hit them hard and created a “comply or die” situation. (more…)
ARA friend and colleague, Alex Price, recently wrote a guest blog for BellesLink regarding the art of communication in the skip tracing field. The original version can be found HERE.
For years I have used my writings to advocate the power of networking, and have gone so far as to acknowledge that most of the success I have had in life is due to my ability to network. I have never thrown a business card away. I even carry a small recorder with me at all times to record some simple highlights of a conversation so that I can document it at a later time, as the old memory is not what it once was, and the gems gleaned from impromptu conversations are sometimes the most valuable. (more…)
Auto Finance Excellence featured ARA in a recent article about the recovery industry. The original version can be found HERE.
Led by automobiles, the repossession business is poised to enter five relatively fat years following five lean years, bolstered by a stronger economy, greater sales of new vehicles and increased lending to borrowers with less than perfect credit, according to a new report.
Repo companies that do their business “the right way” – i.e., by complying with stricter federal regulations and lender oversight – are likely to take a greater share of the expanding business. (more…)
Paul Kulas shares his thoughts on Automatic License Plate Recognition. The original version can be found HERE.
Across the automobile finance and recovery industries people will tell you that automatic license plate reader (ALPR) technology has been a valuable recovery method. As one BellesLink customer says, “Anything that helps me locate a vehicle is good. ALPR is one more tool in my toolbox.” But ALPR is not without downsides.
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Paul Kulas shares his thoughts on Automatic License Plate Recognition. The original version can be found HERE.
Automatic license plate recognition (ALPR), also know as automatic number plate recognition, is a hot topic in the automobile repossession industry. Over the next posts, we’ll take a close look at ALPR from the perspective of clients, forwarders and repossessors. Like all advances, there’s nothing wrong with ALPR itself, it’s just a technology—and a pretty cool one. But it has raised a lot of questions and concerns over privacy and civil liberties. So much so that lobbyists and law makers across the political spectrum are tracking this issue closely. At the start, here’s what you need to know about ALRP. (more…)
The following is a guest post by Alex Price.
Greetings from the great State of Alabama! ROLL TIDE ROLL!!
Passion: (noun) any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling.
I know I’m not the only one asking, “Where did the passion go?” Not to sound like a grumpy old man here, but it was not too long ago that a person got up each morning with one desire: to be the best in their chosen profession. We woke up each morning and did what it took. We worked long hours, studied, read anything we could get our hands on to figure out how to do the job better. We went to seminars, took notes, networked with our peers and shared information in an effort to reach our pinnacle of success. (more…)
The New York State Office of the Attorney General recently issued a detailed letter to repossessors doing business in the state of New York regarding the acceptance of specific assignment types that could be illegal as defined by New York State law. Review the full letter below:
STATE OF NEW YORK OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL (more…)
