Collection Agencies Industry Profile

Companies in this industry collect payments for claims on behalf of their clients. Major companies include Alorica, Encore Capital Group, iQor, PRA Group, Rithm Group (all based in the US), as well as First Collect International (UK), Intrum (Sweden), and NTT Finance (Japan).

Worldwide, demand for collection services can be driven both by economic weakness, as consumers are challenged to repay debt, and economic strength, as the volume of transactions involving credit increases. Emerging markets in Asia are contributing to industry growth. The rise in cross-border transactions can also drive demand for debt collection services.

The US collections industry consists of about 3,900 establishments (single-location companies and units of multi-location companies) with combined annual revenue of about $15 billion.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Demand for collections services is driven by the volume of financial transactions and by the health of the economy. The profitability of individual companies depends largely on efficiency of operations. Large companies enjoy economies of scale in their ability to buy receivables portfolios. Small companies can compete successfully by providing superior customer services. The US industry is concentrated: the 50 largest companies account for about 50% of revenue.

Competition may come from potential customers that can conduct their own collections in-house. In some cases, the size of a company's operations makes it profitable to do collections work internally.

PRODUCTS, OPERATIONS & TECHNOLOGY

Leading services handled by collection agencies include individual debt recovery, which accounts for about ...