EL DORADO HILLS, Calif. -

Following the completion of a four-market pilot program, nationwide repossession and skip-tracing firm American Recovery Service selected Recovery Industry Services Co. as its partner to perform compliance inspections for the entire ARS collateral recovery agent network.

ARS highlighted that RISC performed in-depth inspections on agents in Miami, Phoenix, Dallas, and Houston.

Inspections are currently being prepared in San Diego, Los Angeles, New York and Chicago with the remainder of the country to be completed shortly thereafter, all at no cost to the repossession service providers.

As part of its risk management platform, ARS emphasized that it is dedicated to the ongoing vetting of its entire network of collateral recovery specialists through a well-qualified, independent third party.

ARS explained that it chose RISC for the compliance inspection portion of its vetting process due to RISC’s expertise in the repossession process, knowledge of current compliance requirements, as well as their ability to deliver a superior inspection product.

“RISC is a natural partner for this undertaking,” ARS chief risk officer Steven Schelk said. “As the recovery industry expert in professional training and certification programs, we can ensure that the inspections are performed by quality, well informed inspectors who understand the businesspeople they are interacting with.”

Patrick Willis, founder and chairman of PK Willis added, “We feel it is our responsibility to partner with our repossession service providers and assist them in understanding the changing regulatory landscape while also providing them with a cost-effective tool they can use to prove that they are compliant.”

While the costs of some compliance programs are significantly impactful, ARS and RISC insisted that compliance should be a manageable cost and a shared responsibility. ARS and RISC have negotiated a low rate for these inspections, which will be performed biannually, while ARS has also committed to covering the cost of the first inspection for each one of their collateral recovery specialists.

“We are excited to see ARS’s proactive approach,” RISC president Stamatis Ferarolis said. “They understand that compliance and training will mitigate risk for their clients and their commitment shows how serious they are about partnering with their vendor network. Those vendors who are interested will also have access to RISC’s Agent Alliance Program, a full compliance management suite.”

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