To Help Recovery Industry Better Compete Against Forwarding Companies, ARA Extends Deadline for Industry Scorecard

Seen as a way to encourage as many repossession agencies as possible to participate, the American Recovery Association extended the deadline for companies to submit data for its next industry scorecard.

Pitched as an initiative to compete against forwarding companies, agencies now have until March 15 to gather information about company activity from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2010. That data is what’s used to compile the scorecard.

“The industry scorecard is an important and innovative tool for the recovery and lending industries,” insisted Chris Dunleavy, of TCAR Recovery and Remarketing Services, who also is an association vice president and a member of ARA’s data committee.

“It is an effective way to identify and measure your company’s best-demonstrated practices and how you compare to other companies,” Dunleavy continued. “Having an industry scorecard gives your company a unique, competitive edge. Your participation is crucial to help raise the standards of the recovery industry.”

ARA and Subprime Analytics are teaming up again to compile the second phase of the recovery industry scorecard.

The association explained that this industry scorecard is an independent performance analysis derived from data records that can allow repossession companies to compare performance against peers. The scorecard measures individual companies and industry performance, such as recovery rates and time to recovery.

Furthermore, ARA believes the scorecard can provide lenders an objective tool to evaluate existing and potential repossession vendors while providing industry benchmarks for repossession companies to manage and identify best-demonstrated practices and key performance indicators.

The data is compiled by Subprime Analytics from a variety of software systems, including RDN, RePros and PRIOS.

“Large forwarding companies that had access to data sets used to convince clients it could save them money on their initial costs took our business away,” Dunleavy emphasized. “They did not demonstrate clearly the negative impact these savings would have on the client’s bottom line.

“It is up to us to let clients know,” he went on to say. “Independent agency owners proclaim their superior performance versus the forwarding model. We suggest that now is the time to prove it with the industry scorecard.”

The initial scorecard came out last October during ARA’s 46th annual convention. Association leaders think it proved to be beneficial both to recovery agents and lenders.

During this next phase, participation in industry scorecard evaluation is open both to ARA members and nonmembers. Participation costs $200 per company, and the ARA board of directors is offsetting $100 for its members.

The ARA’s data committee — which includes Dunleavy, along with Mike Plue, of Premier Recovery Service; Dick Frame, of Midland Auto Recovery; and Phil Hourican, of Premier Finance Adjusters — is joining forces with Ken Shilson and Jon Moreland, of Subprime Analytics, to complete the scorecard.

“The recovery industry was one of the few industries that lacked an industry-wide tool to measure its performance,” stated Joe McOwen, president of ARA.
“The industry scorecard is a solid solution to help recovery agents improve business and assist lenders in their evaluation of agents.”