Recovery

Finance companies that use Recovery Database Network (RDN) now have some additional assurance their repossessions are being completed according to state and federal regulations.

On Wednesday, the KAR Global business unit rolled out a seamless application interaction with the American Recovery Association (ARA) that is designed to provide RDN customers instant access to recovery agents’ compliance status.

Both RDN and ARA insisted this additional visibility into real-time information offers increased confidence when considering an agent for assignment.

“By working with the ARA, the industry’s leading voice for establishing universally accepted compliance standards, RDN customers gain peace of mind.” said Justin Zane, president of RDN and Clearplan.

“The new ARA Compliance System will provide all industry stakeholders a comprehensive, verified one-stop solution for compliance management that operates in real-time,” Zane continued in a news release. “This is a big step forward for our industry, and we believe it will deliver great value to all current and future customers.”

Any finance company or agent who assigns or accepts assignments through RDN can take advantage of the transparency offered by the new compliance status feature. To access the benefits of this new compliance tool, finance companies and agents can simply enroll in the ARA Compliance program.

When logging a new case in RDN, color codes under an additional “ARA” column indicate whether an agent is ARA Standards Compliant: red for non-compliant or incomplete, green for compliant, and yellow for pending status. Lenders can quickly filter agents based on current compliance status.

An “ARA Compliant Agent(s)” filter option is also available for agency management.

“ARA is uniquely positioned to lead and manage the oversight of these compliance initiatives for the benefit and mutual success of all stakeholders in the recovery space,” ARA president Dave Kennedy said.

“Together with RDN, we will strive to protect and serve the interests of lenders, forwarders and the repossession community while increasing the efficiency and effectiveness for how compliance is engaged and verified,” Kennedy went on to say.

For more than 10 years, RDN’s software-as-a-service technology has been designed to deliver improved recovery performance and increased operational efficiency while providing full security and transparency.

Similarly, Clearplan’s digital platform can provide recovery agents, drivers, forwarders and automotive lenders a centralized, mobile, cloud-based hub for repossession workflow and logistics management.

Together, Clearplan and RDN, both business units of KAR Global, can connect thousands of recovery agents and automotive finance companies to a streamlined vehicle recovery process — with reduced redundancies and increased actionable data. For more information, visit this website.

Members of ARA, the world’s largest association of recovery and remarketing professionals, specialize in locating and repossessing collateral on behalf of lending institutions such as banks, savings institutions, finance companies, credit unions, rental/leasing companies, and auto, truck and equipment dealers. The nonprofit organization’s members serve 27,000 national and international cities. All members are certified independent business operators. For more information, www.repo.org.

One of the most frustrating places where a finance company’s collateral can be during the repossession and recovery processes is the equivalent of “car jail.”

To help mitigate risk and reduce that frustration, skip-trace and repossession management firm ALS Resolvion recently released a new impound management service called Impound Pro. 

The “end-to-end” service is designed to address the major pain points in the current process of handling vehicles that have been impounded. The firm explained these pain points can include operational inefficiencies, excessive expense, exposure to lien loss and issues remarketing the vehicle.

Impound Pro includes several service components such as VIN monitoring, impound yard negotiation, legal services support, value assessment support, speedy recovery, remarketing for total loss and end of life vehicles, and insurance claim services. 

Most of these components are provided inhouse by ALS Resolvion, but certain services are delivered seamlessly through key partnerships the firm has developed.

The company highlighted the service is available on an “ala carte” basis, giving finance companies the ability to pick and choose certain components or utilize the service as an end-to-end solution.

“The impound management process is difficult for most lenders,” ALS Resolvion chief executive officer Michael Levison said in a news release. “There are multiple steps involved and typically several different service providers must be used.

“Impound Pro is designed to streamline the process and reduce the number of touch points in the process and, by doing so, improving efficiency and results,” Levison continued.

For more information about ALS Resolvion’s Impound Pro service, contact Jose Mendiola at jose.mendiola@alsresolvion.com or call (954) 931-2848.

Justin Zane offered vivid imagery to finance company attendees during the opening session of ALS Resolvion’s Innovations in Recovery Summit last week on the topic of updates regarding agencies’ efforts to find vehicles that are out for repossession.

“Visualize a truck backing up to your door every day with 410,000 updates, dumping it and then driving away,” said Zane, who is the chief executive officer of Recovery Database Network (RDN) and Clearplan, each part of the KAR Global family of companies.

“Most agents are contingency now. They’re not going to get paid unless they secure the collateral, so the actions don’t stop,” Zane continued. “These agencies are still going to run all these accounts repetitively try to secure your collateral, but their updates that they’re sending back to you, you can’t consume them.”

MBSi Corp. president Cort DeHart participated on this panel, as well, chiming in on Zane’s descriptions.

“These are remnants from a bygone era,” DeHart said. “It’s one of those habits that are hard to break.”

Both Zane and DeHart explained that their technology companies not only are trying to change industry habits, but also streamline processes by leveraging technology. Especially since when it comes to charge-offs, repossessions and recoveries, time truly is money.

Zane described enhanced ways firms are getting updates to finance companies.

“Whether it’s through API, whether you’re logging into Cort’s system, whether you’re logging into mine, you’re consuming all this data. What we’re trying to do is we’re trying to ease the industry into the process. Instead of a text update, what you’ll be receiving is kind of a categorized set of updates,” Zane said.

“If it’s a simple, ‘Ran the address, no unit found,’ that’s going to be an update type. And the next phase of that is also going to be your kind of discounted, or your invalidated information, because a lot of a lot of agencies will tell you in an update that this address is no longer any good. But per your automated systems, you are still asking for an update on 123 Main Street, even though on the first day, that agency told you this address is no good. It’s vacant, and it was vacant three times I ran it for three other companies,” he continued.

“So what we want to do is categorize those into buckets, if you will, or update types. The only thing you’re going to be doing is actually filtering through either we found new information, or we need information. But the simple status updates, we think that those are a thing of the past,” Zane went on to say.

Along with a new way of presenting data, Zane also elaborated on what else might be on the horizon for the recovery industry,

“You’re going to see cleaner data,” he said. “We’re already introducing you to real-time connectivity at the agent at the agent level. You’re already getting connected much, much quicker to your assignments. Your assignments are getting filled faster. Agents aren’t coming back and updating their accounts at the end of the night anymore, because they have to be within a certain proximity of the address to perform an update. The information you guys are getting is already better. You may not realize because it still comes through the same conduit.

“Now our job is to make the information cleaner and more consumable,” Zane added. “The next two to three year, even though even though our space has been really, really slow to move with technology, technology forces more speed now on every industry, and I think you’re going to see a lot of advancements.”

DeHart also insisted the recovery industry must continue to adopt technology to improve itself. He pointed to significant reductions in wrongful repossessions since mobile technology can connect the finance company with the repossession agent almost instantly if the customer finds the funds to redeem their contact and become current.

“I will say that to the extent that we can use data to make decisions in real time, that are not monolithic across the board, across the whole portfolio, but the ability to consume the data, use it to drive workflow and processes downstream, that might be where we could get in the near future. And I think that’s a huge step forward,” DeHart said.

“The new platforms will be able to keep up with data changes and things that we don’t even know are out there yet because they’re architected with different plug-and-play options and new technologies that may be developed in a different industry,” he went on to say.

During this summer’s Automotive Intelligence Summit, masterQueue finalized a partnership with PassTime. On Thursday, the web-based Software-as-a-Service platform that can automate the skip-tracing process expanded its relationship with PAR North America, a business unit of KAR Auction Services.

According to a news release, PAR said it has enhanced its capabilities through the power of masterQueue — giving PAR a more efficient tool for skip-tracing.

“As they face higher recovery costs, our customers demand solutions that can provide efficiencies while increasing recovery rates,” PAR president Lisa Scott said. “Partnering with one of the most reliable, respected automation platforms in the industry gives our customers confidence, knowing they are getting the most precise skip tracing information that ultimately could lead to increased recovery rates.”

masterQueue can improve productivity and efficiency by combining the power of artificial intelligence and data with its seamless, streamlined collections and skip tracing information solution. Its platform is a single software solution uniquely designed to automate data collection, manage regulatory compliance and maintain data privacy.

“The skip-tracing process has its challenges, especially when lenders lose touch with their customers,” said Shannon Berry, skip services and project manager at PAR.

“Now, together with masterQueue, we have simplified the process with aggregated, up-to-date information in one easy-to-use solution. PAR customers will benefit from enhanced, informed reporting and potentially improved recovery rates,” Berry went on to say.

Representatives from both masterQueue and PAR will be participating in Repo Con, which is presented by Millennium Capital and Recovery. Repo Con is part of the industry-leading conference conducted during Used Car Week, which begins on Nov. 11 at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas.

Agenda details and Early Bird Registration discounts available through Oct. 1 can be found by going to www.usedcarweek.biz.

Collections agents, skip-tracers and other personnel associated with repossessions and recovery will have to wait a while longer for a federally operated database of reassigned phone numbers to become available.

Despite objections from a private sector company, an order released by the Federal Communications Commission last week said the regulator’s Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau (CGB) and the Wireline Competition Bureau (WCB) granted, in part, a request for an extension of time filed by the North American Numbering Council’s (NANC) Numbering Administration Oversight Working Group (NAOWG).

In December 2018, the FCC adopted rules that would establish a single, comprehensive database containing reassigned numbers information. The database will enable any caller to verify whether a number has been permanently disconnected before calling that number, “and it will help consumers avoid unwanted calls intended for others,” according to the FCC.

The FCC directed the NANC to present a technical requirements document (TRD) containing the NANC’s recommendations on certain technical aspects of database establishment, operation, and funding no later than June 13, Specifically, the FCC directed the NANC and its NAOWG to consider technical issues surrounding how the database administrator can collect fees from callers that use the database.

In a letter dated April 30, the NANC requested an extension of the deadline from June 14 of this year until April 13 of next year.  On June 12, the bureaus granted the NANC an additional three months setting a new deadline of Sept. 13 to provide its reassigned numbers database recommendations to the FCC.

The FCC’s bureaus also required that the NANC provide a progress report by July 12 so that the commission could evaluate its progress toward the deadline.

Well, according to the latest FCC document, a letter dated July 11 said the NANC chair provided the FCC status report that indicated that the NAOWG was “making progress but that an additional extension would likely be needed to complete the NAOWG’s work.”

Then on Aug. 14, the NAOWG submitted a letter requesting an additional seven-month extension of the deadline to April 13, 2020 as mentioned in its earlier extension request.

“The NAOWG asserts that although it has continued to work diligently, additional time is necessary to complete its work on the database’s Technical Requirements Document and to make recommendations on the funding, pricing, and fee structure issues,” the latest FCC order said.

“In addition, the NAOWG claims that progress has been slow because of the complexity of the task, which has been made greater by a reluctance by vendors of similar databases to provide assistance out of fear of disqualification from bidding on the reassigned numbers database contract,” the document continued.

“In support of its request, the NAOWG argues that it has been diligently engaged in meeting the Commission’s deadline, conferencing for approximately four hours each week, and resolving details which, if left unresolved, would be deferred to another time,” the document also said.

The FCC explained what elements went into making its latest decision.

“In this instance, however, it is important that the commission receive a complete set of technical recommendations in order to establish an operational database efficiently,” officials said in the order. “At the same time, it is important that the Reassigned Numbers Database be launched as quickly as possible.

As a result, the FCC granted the NANC an additional four months, until Jan. 13, to complete its work on the Technical Requirements Document associated with the Reassigned Numbers Database and to present its recommendations to the commission. 

“The additional time will ensure the development and consideration of a complete record on the complex technical aspects of the database’s establishment, operation and funding,” officials said. “The additional time is also necessary for the NAOWG’s, and in turn the NANC’s, development of fully informed recommendations and thus serves the public interest. 

“To ensure that we can monitor the NANC’s progress and encourage timely completion, we condition the entirety of the extension on the NAOWG submitting an adequate work plan, including a detailed timeline by Sept. 30, showing how the NANC will complete its work by the specified dates,” they went on to say.

“We do not believe that a grant of the NAOWG’s requested seven months is warranted under the circumstances. In the NAOWG’s extension request, it notes that the NAOWG will likely complete the Technical Requirements Document by the end of year,” officials added. “We find, therefore, that the bureaus’ four-month extension allows sufficient time for the NAOWG to complete its work, seek agreement from the NANC, and present the Technical Requirements Document to the Commission by the Jan. 13 deadline we establish herein. 

Meanwhile in the same order, the FCC also touched on a letter it received from Somos, Inc. that challenged the need for the NANC to receive any additional time to complete its work.

“Specifically, Somos argues, among other things, that the reassigned numbers database will not be difficult to set up, based on its experience with administration of toll-free numbers, and that the Commission could outsource the NAOWG’s remaining tasks to bidders,” FCC officials said. “We treat Somos’s filing as an opposition and note that it was untimely filed later than the 10-day deadline specified pursuant to … the commission’s rules.

“Even if we were to consider Somos’s opposition on the merits, however, we find it unpersuasive because we accept the NAOWG’s expert view that preparing the Technical Requirements Document poses significant complexities and that preparing a detailed TRD will benefit the procurement,” officials continued. “We believe that there are complexities to the Reassigned Numbers Database, as described in the NANC’s requests, that are different from a toll-free number database and that necessitate the NANC’s expertise and the additional time it seeks. 

“Indeed, the NANC is the commission’s expert advisory body on these matters and we see nothing in Somos’ filing that would justify reversing the commission’s directive to consult the NANC on the relevant issues, or that persuades us that additional time is unnecessary,” officials went on to say. “Moreover, we are concerned that outsourcing the remaining tasks to bidders could negatively impact the procurement because doing so would require bidders to speculate on the matters the NANC has not addressed and make it extremely difficult for the commission to consistently compare bids.” 

With the threat of security breaches haunting companies large and small, Recovery Database Network (RDN) is taking steps to ensure its systems connected with repossessions and recoveries are safe.

The division of KAR Auction Services announced it achieved the six components that go into Veracode Verified Team Status certification. Veracode Verified is a program that validates a company’s secure software development processes by testing for potential vulnerabilities and evaluating its software security.

The company explained this verification helps assure RDN customers across the repossession and disposition value chain of its commitment to securing their data.

“RDN is continuously making enhancements through data science and building on its digital suite of solutions,” RDN vice president Pradeep Mahdevu said in a news release. “Undergoing rigorous security testing, implementing strict development practices, and earning Veracode Verified certification ensures that our digital solutions meet a high standard of application security, reducing risk for our customers.”

Organizations like RDN that had their secure development practice validated, and their application accepted into the Team Tier, have demonstrated that the following security gates have been implemented into their software development practice:

• Assesses first-party code with static analysis

• Documents that the application does not allow Very High flaws in first-party code

• Provides developers with remediation guidance when new flaws are introduced

• Assesses open source components for security flaws

• Identifies a security champion within the development team to ensure secure coding practices are used across the development lifecycle.

• Provides training on secure coding best practices for the identified security champion.

“RDN is committed to delivering secure code to help organizations reduce the risk of a major security breach,” Veracode’s Asha May said. “Companies that invest in secure coding processes and follow our protocol for a mature application security program are able to deliver more confidence to customers who deploy their software.”

For more than 10 years, RDN highlighted that its software-as-a-service technology has helped finance companies with improved recovery performance and increased operational efficiency while providing full security and transparency.

Similarly, Clearplan’s digital platform provides recovery agents, drivers, forwarders and automotive lenders a centralized, mobile, cloud-based hub for repossession workflow and logistics management.

Together, Clearplan and RDN connect thousands of recovery agents and finance companies to a streamlined vehicle recovery process — with reduced redundancies and increased actionable data. 

One of the most frequent guests on the Auto Remarketing Podcast is back for another episode.

DRN’s Jeremiah Wheeler recapped his TED-style presentation during this summer’s Auto Intel Summit along with looking ahead to Used Car Week, which begins on Nov. 11 in Las Vegas.

The full discussion can be found below.

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As Intellaegis, which does business as masterQueue, gears up for a potential award-winning appearance at the Finovate Fall conference in New York this September, the company announced an executive adviser joined the team, bringing a diverse technology background.

Intellaegis’ newest executive adviser is Victor Kan, former president and chief executive officer of Fujitsi Computer Products of America, the U.S. division of the world’s seventh-largest IT services provider.

Intellaegis highlighted Kan is a tenured Silicon Valley veteran with more than 25 years of executive leadership in sales, marketing and product management.

Kan started his career at Fujitsu of America in 1999 as senior director of product and channel marketing, culminating in his promotion to president and CEO in 2012.

“While we’re honored to bring in a person with the track record Victor has, what’s even more exciting is his desire to get in the weeds at an entrepreneurial level and roll up his sleeves in a very modest, matter-of-fact manner that we believe will help our organization continue our upward growth pattern well beyond what we have projected for 2020,” Intellaegis founder and chief executive officer John Lewis said in a news release.

Kan explained why he decided to become an executive adviser to Intellaegis.

“After meeting with the co-founders of Intellaegis, John and Perla Lewis, I was captivated by the energy and passion they displayed in transforming their years of experience in skip tracing and debt collections into a thriving and cutting-edge software business,” Kan said.

“masterQueue is a unique product solving a real need, and I’m excited about the opportunities for the product in the marketplace and was ecstatic to accept their offer to join the company,” Kan continued.

The company’s offerings are impressing other industry leaders, too, as Intellaegis was named a finalist in two fintech award categories for the upcoming Finovate conference.

Intellaegis is also one of 75 fintech companies selected as a presenter to showcase the features that generated these nominations during the two days of demos of the newest fintech products at the event. The opportunity marks the second appearance for the company at this conference. Intellaegis also appeared at Finovate in 2011 when it launched masterQueue.

The masterQueue fintech platform is used to help financial institutions and their third-party vendors automate the process of contacting customers who have fallen out of touch

“This allows financial institutions and their customers an opportunity to re-establish broken communication to help resolve past due account issues before the situation becomes further delinquent and more serious,” the company said.

Intellaegis explained the features masterQueue built into its debt-collection platform can create efficiencies utilizing automated data processing power that can streamline a time-consuming manual process better known as skip tracing.

masterQueue can automates this process while at the same time simultaneously layering in the various regulatory and data privacy laws to ensure the multiple and complex state and federal compliance requirements needed for accessing and using consumer data in debt collections can be met, providing CCPA and FDCPA solutions for the debt collections industry.

These regulatory features were architected by a combined effort from a Fortune Top 100 financial institution and the team at masterQueue. This resulted in the two nominations at Finovate for Best FinTech Partnership and Best RegTech Solution.

For more information, contact masterQueue at sales@intellaegis.com or (866) 563-7547.

About a month after rolling out its “mobile only” policy, ALS Resolvion announced this week that the skip-tracing and repossession management firm completed the integration between its proprietary operating system (Wombat) into the forwarder platform fueled by Recovery Database Network (RDN), which is a division of KAR Auction Services.

ALS Resolvion chief executive officer Michael Levison said in a news release, “This is a big step forward for us.

“We have been integrated into the lender side of RDN for years. However, this new integration completes and creates real time connectivity to the agent side of RDN, which is the system of record for a large percentage of our repossession agency partners,” continued Levison, who is slated to be among the speakers during Repo Con, which is part of Used Car Week that runs from Nov. 11-15 at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas.

Back in July, ALS Resolvion said under its new policy, the company will provide involuntary repossession assignments only to repossession agencies that are deploying mobile technology at the repo truck level.

And now it’s fully integrated with RDN. 

“This integration accomplishes a number of important objectives for both our company and our clients," ALS Resolvion post repossession operations manager Danny Mullen said.

“In addition to creating significant operating and communication efficiencies with our agency network, it also greatly strengthens our overall compliance program as it allows us to change case status in real time in the agent’s system of record,” Mullen added.

From RDN’s perspective, the integration development also is positive.

“We continue to invest in enhancing the level of connectivity with agency users,” said Justin Zane, chief executive officer of RDN and Clear Plan.

“ALS Resolvion is a major source of business for many of our users and this new functionality will significantly increase the efficiency and compliance profile of those relationships," Zane went on to say.