IRVING, Texas -

The American Recovery Association (ARA) landed an enhanced relationship with a finance company on Friday.

ARA announced a new partnership with Bridgecrest Acceptance, a licensed third-party servicer, servicing loans for DriveTime and other affiliated finance companies.

As part of this agreement, ARA will assist Bridgecrest in its vendor vetting, training and monitoring program. 

ARA president Dave Kennedy highlighted that the organization seeks to be a viable industry solution to the high cost of vendor training. He sees this partnership is a major benefit to Bridgecrest’s current vendor network, as it significantly reduces the financial burden placed upon them.

“We are honored to be chosen as the exclusive training program by Bridgecrest and are happy to help reduce the cost burden on vendors,” Kennedy said.

“We still believe repossessors should only have to choose one training service, but until our compliance program is accepted by everyone, we are determined to provide the best value,” he went on to say.

For more information about ARA, its partnerships and its member benefits, visit repo.org.

The partnership arrived about a month ahead of ARA’s annual event — the North American Repossessors Summit (NARS) — which is reaching its 10th anniversary.

NARS 2018 will be hosting more than 600 professionals from the collateral recovery and remarketing industries to gather and network. This year’s speaker lineup includes Tom Jones, scientist, author, pilot and veteran NASA astronaut, as well as other industry professionals who will focus on open and collaborative discussions about the future of collateral recovery and remarketing.

NARS now will include a two-hour open forum meeting exclusively for business owners who will be able to participate in crucial discussions of the challenges and complexities repossessors currently face in order to find solutions that help lay the foundation for the future of the industry.

The theme for the 10th annual summit is “Stronger Together: Celebrating 10 years of Leadership, Education and Unity,” with a keynote by astronaut Tom Jones delivering an inspiring story of adventure, teamwork and inspiration to motivate audiences to work hard together to overcome obstacles to their own particular mission.

This year’s schedule also includes other insightful speakers and powerful roundtable discussions, as well as other exciting events such as the sixth annual golf tournament, AT&T Stadium Tour, Harding Brooks Cocktail Party, and the Digital Recognition Network (DRN) closing party and live auction to end the summit.

The summit will be held at the Omni Mandalay Hotel at Las Colinas in Irving, Texas, on April 19-20.

To register, visit reposummit.com.