I’m honored and excited to have been appointed to the CFPB’s Consumer Advisory Board. With this appointment, the CFPB is sending a strong message about how it views technology’s role in shaping the future of consumer finance in general, and debt collection in particular. I’m proud to be able to represent the industry’s point of view while making sure we usher in a new era of great user experience and technology innovation.

When we founded TrueAccord in 2013, we set set a goal for ourselves – to go to Washington and influence policy making in the debt collection space. Ever since then, we engaged with the CFPB in various ways: quarterly meetings through Project Catalyst, participating in the SBREFA panel for the proposed debt collection rule, and even potential data exchange. We view policy making that enables better debt collections as our mission, and this appointment is just another step in the process.

This appointment isn’t about me, when I attend these meetings I will represent the industry, TrueAccord, its team and our consumers. I will take as very seriously, like we all take our mission. This could not have happened without the TrueAccord team’s hard work and laser focus on making a difference.

Hiring collectors is one of the biggest challenges in collections and recoveries. Most collection processes are manual and require extensive training: the low, commission based salaries and the adversarial nature of the job lends itself to high turnover. Once agents are trained and working, collection managers must keep them up-to-date on debt collection regulations, as well as implement quality controls. One ill-trained agent’s compliance violations can put an operation at risk due to the many regulations that govern the US collection and recovery process. This results in a big investment in human resources. It’s no surprise this is one of the biggest line items for any collection operation. Beyond payroll and training, turnover results in low morale, often hurting organizational cohesion.
Continue reading “Stop the hiring craze: How TrueAccord reached 30,000 cases handled per agent” →