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MINNEAPOLIS — The incoming president of ACA International, the Association of Credit and Collection Professionals, asked the industry several questions about where it's heading during the next 10 years.

Martin Sher, co-chief executive officer of AmSher Receivables Management in Birmingham, Ala., wondered, "Will you still be working in the credit and collection industry? Will your business be larger or smaller?"

Sher didn't stop with those inquiries. He went on to pose, "Will the industry be more or less regulated? Will our industry have morphed into something totally different? What kind of technologies will we be using? Will credit be more or less available? What new services will we be providing for our clients? Will the federal government be contracting with collection agencies? What new industries will we be servicing that do not even exist today? How will we be governing ourselves as an industry to best keep up with an ever-increasing rate of change?"

In an attempt to answer some of those questions, Sher recounted his own career and how the industry has changed.

"I made my first collection call in my family business in 1961 when I was 10 years old," Sher remembered.

"The first major change in the collection industry occurred 16 years later in 1977 when the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act was passed," he continued.

"Now let's fast forward a bit," he went on to say. "In the last two years, the credit and collection industry has been bombarded with change. Our economy does not even resemble the economy we enjoyed just two short years ago. We have also been inundated with new and sometimes contradictory state and federal regulations. We have experienced an unprecedented rise in frivolous litigation." 

For the industry to continue to prosper, Sher believes a united front has to be presented so all companies can navigate in an industry that seems to be evolving more and more.

"With so many changes affecting us, it is very important that we take a fresh look at how we govern ourselves as an industry," Sher stated. "We must be able to react quickly to our changing world."

Sher wrapped up his message by mentioning, "Like Yogi Berra once said, ‘Predicting is difficult, especially when you are talking about the future.'"

ACA International Reacts to Congressional Report

Leadership of ACA International took a strong position when an annual report to Congress on the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act was released. The organization believes the Federal Trade Commission's methodology for analysis paints an incomplete and inaccurate portrayal of consumer complaints against the third-party collection industry.

"We agree with the FTC about the importance of consumer protection from debt collectors who engage in deceptive, unfair or abusive collection practices," explained ACA International chief executive officer Rozanne Andersen.

"But, respectfully, by counting solely the number of consumer complaints without verification of whether they were actually illegal or a violation of the FDCPA, or whether the complaints were resolved, only tells a small part of the real story," Anderson continued.

To back up her claims, Anderson shared some details from the Council of Better Business Bureau's annual report on complaint resolution. She indicated this report's findings determined the collection industry resolved 85 percent of the complaints it received in 2009, compared to the average of 73.8 percent among all industries tracked by the BBB.

"Effective complaint resolution helps consumers find answers to their questions and reduces the likelihood and expense of adjudication through the legal process," Andersen declared.

Since 2002, ACA International contends the credit and collection industry has resolved an average of 82.5 percent of the complaints filed with the BBB — exceeding by 11.5 percent the average of complaint resolution by all industries.

From 2002 through 2009, the organization asserts all other industries resolved on average 71.45 percent of the complaints received.

"We are proud of our rate for complaint resolution, but we are pushing ourselves to do better," Andersen stated.

"That's why ACA is resolved to continue working with the FTC, state attorneys general, regulators and others to better assess consumer complaints and ensure that, as an industry, we better understand and diligently address them," she concluded.