TrueAccord Named a Best Place to Work in Collections for 2025

By on August 12th, 2025 in Company News
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TrueAccord is proud to announce it was recently selected as one of the 2025 Best Places to Work in Collections administered by ACA International and Best Companies Group. The award evaluates workplace policies, practices, philosophy, systems and demographics along with employee experience surveys to determine winners.

This survey and award program was designed to identify, recognize, and honor the best places of employment in the collections industry. This year, 48 companies met the standard to be selected. 

“At TrueAccord, we prioritize our mission-driven culture and employee engagement to deliver results for clients and consumers with digital-first debt collection,” commented Mark Ravanesi, CEO of TrueAccord. “I’m honored but not surprised to be on the Best Places to Work in Collections list—our commitment to excellence is baked into everything we do, we put a strong emphasis on our community, and our employees are top-notch and empowered to bring their A-game every day.”

Companies from across the U.S. entered the rigorous two-part survey process to determine the Best Places to Work in Collections. The combined evaluation and employee survey scores determined the top companies and the final ranking. Best Companies Group managed the overall registration, survey and analysis process and determined the final ranking.

To be considered for participation, companies had to fulfill the following eligibility requirements:

  • Be a for-profit or not-for-profit business or government entity
  • Be a public or private U.S. company
  • Have a minimum of 15 employees in the U.S.
  • Must be in business a minimum of one year
  • Must be a collection agency, collection law firm or debt buyer

This survey program is administered by Best Companies Group, which conducts over 60 local, national and industry “Best Places” programs each year. For more information on the Best Places to Work in Collections program, visit: www.BestPlacestoWorkCollections.com

About TrueAccord

A subsidiary of TrueML Technologies, TrueAccord is the trusted industry leader in third-party debt collection, leveraging data science and technology to deliver superior results and a best-in-class consumer experience. Since 2013, TrueAccord has served more than 40 million consumers in debt with a more humane collection experience while delivering unmatched liquidation rates as the leader in digital-first collections for the Buy Now Pay Later, fintech, telecommunications and credit union industries, among others. Visit www.trueaccord.com and follow on LinkedIn to learn more.

Q2 Industry Insights: Reconciling consumer, economic indicators and embracing AI

By on July 29th, 2025 in Customer Experience, Industry Insights, Machine Learning
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Despite economic uncertainty, Americans continue to spend, albeit what they’re spending on has shifted. After two consecutive months of reduced spending, consumers came back in June with purchasing focused heavily on necessities like clothing and personal care, rather than electronics or appliances. Discretionary spending also stayed strong on restaurants and bars, indicating that while consumers are feeling some amount of pressure from the economy, it hasn’t really hit their wallets just yet. But economists and key indicators are foretelling more financial challenges ahead, so consumer sentiment may not be keeping up with reality.

The debt collection industry is navigating a period of transformation via a combination of regulatory shifts, technological advancements and evolving economic pressures. Key developments continue to reshape collection strategies, compliance requirements and the tools used to recover outstanding debts. As you protect your bottom line in a rapidly evolving consumer financial landscape, let’s look at what you should consider as it relates to debt collection with an eye toward the second half of 2025.

Key Economic Indicators

After several months of speculation and fluctuation, inflation is starting to heat back up, potentially showing the first impacts of tariffs and signaling what’s ahead. Consumer prices rose 0.3% in June after rising 0.1% in May, pushing the annual CPI inflation rate higher to 2.7%, the highest since February. The increase was driven by higher gas prices and a broad assortment of goods showing the effects of businesses sharing higher import costs with consumers.

On the jobs front, the economy added 110,000 jobs in June. Looking at the number of jobs added through the first part of the year shows an average of 124,000 jobs per month, which is significantly lower than last year’s monthly average of 168,000. With layoff activity relatively low and wage growth remaining decent, economic uncertainty has slowed the pace of hiring and created a somewhat stagnant employment market.

The Federal Open Market Committee held rates steady at 4.25-4.50% at their meeting in mid-June, and Wall Street economists are predicting the central bank to continue their wait-and-see approach at their next meeting in July given June’s reported CPI and expected PCE inflation increases. Bets are now on a September rate cut if the inflation threat cools and the jobs market weakens more noticeably.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s latest Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit for Q1 2025 showed that total household debt in the US reached $18.20 trillion, a $167 billion or 0.97% increase from the prior quarter. This growth was primarily driven by increases in student loan and mortgage balances, while credit card and auto loan balances decreased. The report showed delinquency rates rising, with 4.3% of outstanding debt in some stage of delinquency, the highest level since the beginning of 2020.  

Mortgage loans experienced a significant rise in early and mid-stage delinquencies across all credit categories in May. Mortgage delinquencies increased to 1.03% from 0.92% the previous month, suggesting that the housing market might be showing initial indicators of financial strain among homeowners.

What’s Impacting Consumer Finances?

Just as more student loan delinquencies are reported and sent to collections, borrowers who had previously been granted an interest-free forbearance period under the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan will lose those benefits. On August 1, the administration will resume interest charges on the accounts of around 8 million borrowers as the SAVE program and several other income-driven payment options end. Overall, the change will see borrowers being charged more than $27 billion in interest over the next 12 months, which will have wide repercussions on students and families.

And in a reversal of a move by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) earlier this year, a federal judge recently blocked a rule that would have removed unpaid medical debt from the credit reports of about 15 million consumers who carry a total of roughly $49 billion in medical debt. This financial burden could influence creditworthiness and access to loans for many.

What’s Impacting the Debt Collection Industry?

On the federal level, the CFPB has announced a new set of supervision and enforcement priorities for 2025. The bureau intends to reduce the number of its supervisory exams, focusing instead on cases of tangible consumer harm and actual fraud. While this may mean fewer routine audits for collection agencies, it signals more intense scrutiny on practices that directly and negatively impact consumers, with a continued focus on areas including mortgages, credit reporting, and FCRA and FDCPA violations.

In June, the CFPB also published a policy statement in the Federal Register outlining its approach to addressing criminally liable regulatory offenses under statutes including the Consumer Financial Protection Act and Truth in Lending Act, among others.

In efforts to enhance efficiency, the debt collection industry is rapidly embracing new technologies, and artificial intelligence (AI) and digital communication platforms are at the forefront of this technological wave. AI is being leveraged more widely to personalize consumer engagement, predict payment likelihood, and optimize collection strategies. Meanwhile, digital channels like Rich Communication Services (RCS) are gaining traction as innovative methods for consumer contact, offering more interactive and self-service options.

However, the use of technology and collection tactics remains under the watchful eye of regulators. In a significant enforcement action in June 2025, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) secured a permanent ban against a debt collection operation found to be using deceptive and harassing methods to collect on “phantom debts.” This action underscores the agency’s ongoing commitment to cracking down on illegal collection practices and serves as a reminder to the industry of the severe consequences of non-compliance.

How are consumers feeling about their financial outlook?

In analyzing consumer sentiment, it’s important to note that the following surveys relay responses may have been taken before the latest inflation figures were released, so there may be an incongruity in reporting. 

The Fed’s June Survey of Consumer Expectations showed that households’ inflation expectations decreased at the short-term and remained unchanged at the medium- and longer-term periods. Unemployment job loss and household income growth expectations improved while spending growth expectations slightly declined. In general, households were more optimistic about their year-ahead financial outlook.

The latest University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey, reporting from mid-way through July, showed that Consumer sentiment ticked up about one index point to 61.8 from June, reaching its highest value in five months, but still 16% below December 2024 and its historical average. Expected personal finances fell back about 4%, with the report noting that consumers are unlikely to regain their economic confidence until they feel assured that inflation is unlikely to rise.

The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index deteriorated by 5.4 points in June, falling to 93.0 from 98.4 in May. The report showed less positivity about current business conditions and job availability, as well as more pessimism about business conditions, job availability and income prospects over the next six months.

What Does This Mean for Debt Collection?

The debt collection industry in mid-2025 is at a pivotal juncture, tasked with balancing the adoption of powerful new technologies and navigating a challenging economic environment while adhering to an evolving regulatory framework. The ability to adapt to these concurrent trends will mean success for businesses in this sector. For lenders and collectors, here are a few things to keep in mind:

  1. Consumers expect more in debt collection. Gone are the days of debt collection letters or calls from unknown numbers eliciting a productive response. Now, consumers want empathy, understanding and convenience in their financial matters. Keeping up with consumer expectations can mean the difference between collecting debt and not.
  1. Self-service is one of those key expectations. Convenience by way of self-serving is a win-win for your business and consumers. Offering a comprehensive self-serve portal means consumers can engage whenever they want (even outside traditional FDCPA-regulated hours) and reduces resources needed to manage accounts and process payments.
  1. Ready or not, AI is here. Technology is already transforming debt collection by changing the way lenders and collectors engage with consumers, and if you’re not getting on board, you’ll find your business soon left behind. The time to thoughtfully adopt AI is now. Not sure where to start? Here are the must-know tech terms to get you going.

SOURCES:

Have Consumer Expectations Changed in Debt Collection?

By on July 18th, 2025 in Customer Experience, Industry Insights, Machine Learning
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As recently as 15 years ago, consumer expectations about the debt collection experience looked starkly different than they do today. Back then, people expected debt collection communications to come as a piece of physical mail, and consumers were more likely to answer the phone for an unknown number before spam calls and call labeling and blocking became the norm. Companies who were looking to collect on a debt often used aggressive tactics, and customer satisfaction wasn’t a priority as long as some of the money owed was recovered. 

Now, consumers want empathy, understanding and convenience from the companies they interact with, especially in financial services. These shifts in consumer expectations continue to spark changes in debt collection trends and have led to more businesses investing in digital strategies to better engage with consumers. Join us as we take a more in-depth look at how consumer expectations in debt collection have changed and what it means for your business. 

Customer Satisfaction is a Key Debt Collection Trend 

Consumers today want their problems in financial matters resolved sooner rather than later. A recent survey done by TCN on consumer expectations found that financial companies are seeing a decline in customer satisfaction. One of the main drivers of this trend is people reporting that customer service efforts aren’t solving their problems effectively. A key benchmark used in this survey looked at how often financial service businesses were able to solve customer problems on first contact.

Only 13% of survey respondents said that their problem is always solved the first time they reach out. The more someone is forced to call back or wait for a follow up, the less likely they’ll be to engage with the company moving forward. For debt collection, that means fewer payments the longer a consumer has to wait. These survey findings stem from the debt collection trend of consumers wanting to fix problems on the spot. This notion is part of the reason why self-service portals and mobile apps have become the preferred method of resolving financial matters. 

One key digital debt collection strategy is offering your customers more options that are easily accessible to them. In fact, 59% of consumers in debt want more flexible payment options. If your business is trying to improve its debt collection performance, giving your customers more options will often lead to higher levels of satisfaction. The proof of this digital debt collection trend can be seen with TrueAccord. Roughly 98% of TrueAccord customers resolve their debts with self-serve options and don’t ever interact with a human in the process. 

Preferred Communication Channels for Bill and Debt Notifications Have Changed

Today, there’s no shortage of ways to send customers bills and debt notifications. For many companies out there, these notifications are sent through channels that are convenient and/or familiar to them, which doesn’t always align with consumer preferences. The more in-tune businesses are with consumer preferences, the more likely their communications will be engaged with. For businesses looking to recover debt, that means better collections performance and happier customers. 

Let’s walk through an example. According to the same TCN survey, 47% of consumers prefer to be contacted by email for bill and debt notifications. Around 25% of Gen Z and 22% of Millennial customers prefer to be notified by push notifications through mobile apps. Your digital debt collection strategies need to take these expectations into account to maximize engagement. Even though email was the most desired communication method, every consumer is an individual with their own preferences. 

Some of the best digital debt collection strategies leverage AI and machine learning to test and uncover the best channel for every individual. TrueAccord uses its patented machine learning engine Heartbeat that learns from every customer interaction to determine the best step to take with each consumer. It’s a personalized approach to debt collection where consumer expectations and preferences are at the core of every communication. The result is collecting more from happier people. 

Convenience is King in Digital Debt Collection Strategies

In financial industries like banking and debt collection, convenience has emerged as one of the most important consumer preferences. With how critical messages in these industries often are, consumers want ways to be able to easily address them so the problem doesn’t linger and cause prolonged stress. For further proof of this trend, a recent survey by the American Bankers Association showed that 55% of consumers prefer mobile banking. Only 8% of people surveyed go to a physical branch for their banking needs. 

The consumer trend of wanting more convenience through self-serve options is carried through into the debt collection industry. TrueAccord, for example, has been able to honor this consumer trend with its self-service portal. It’s a low friction way consumers use to pay off debt and should be a key strategy leveraged for digital debt collection. 

Based on research done by McKinsey, consumers who digitally self-serve resolve their debts at higher rates and are much more likely to pay off the debt in full. Plus, the customer satisfaction is much higher with self-service portals compared to making a payment over the phone. These trends emphasize the importance of convenience. But just don’t take it from us, here’s what a real TrueAccord customer had to say: 

“Thank you for being patient and for having a portal that makes it easy to make the payment without filling out a bunch of stuff and having to make an account or something.”

Stay On Top of Consumer Expectations in Debt Collection with TrueAccord

It can be challenging to stay on top of consumer expectations in debt collection. But with the right partner, your business can improve debt collection performance while increasing customer satisfaction. 

TrueAccord is a leading digital debt collection agency that’s powered by machine learning to provide a consumer-friendly experience that honors their preferences. Schedule a consultation today to learn more about how our platform can handle your delinquency needs. 

TrueAccord Joins the Visa Fintech Partner Connect Program

By on November 8th, 2022 in Company News

LENEXA, Kan., Nov. 8, 2022 — TrueAccord Corp, a debt collection company using machine learning-powered digital recovery solutions to improve consumer experience, today announced it joined the Visa Fintech Partner Connect program. 

Through Visa Fintech Partner Connect, TrueAccord is Visa Ready certified. This certification helps technology companies build and launch payment solutions that meet Visa’s global standards around security and functionality. This distinction signals that TrueAccord’s debt collection solutions meet Visa standards and broader payments regulations.

“Joining the Visa Fintech Partner Connect program allows TrueAccord to build on its value with existing and potential clients and partners,” said Mark Ravanesi, CEO of TrueAccord. “With Visa Ready certification, businesses working with TrueAccord benefit from the reliability and credibility that come with Visa Ready’s seal of approval.”

Visa Fintech Partner Connect provides companies like TrueAccord the ability to connect with digital-first, next-generation payments and banking platforms and solutions and open up new possibilities. In a rapidly and constantly evolving landscape of new and compelling financial services providers, connecting with Visa’s curated fintech partners can facilitate collaboration between emerging technologies to enhance digital innovation efforts.

“TrueAccord focuses on delivering better, digital-first experiences for consumers facing financial challenges, which is an important consideration for companies providing financial services, and especially for fintechs,” added Ravanesi. “When a company has invested so much in customer acquisition, retaining those customers when they encounter a more difficult time and maintaining positive customer relationships is key to success. Our solutions enable companies to do that at scale with machine learning.”

Powered by TrueAccord’s tech stack, the product suite includes Retain, a client-branded early-stage consumer engagement platform for managing pre-charge off debt, and Recover, a full-service debt collection solution. Key benefits of both products include a simple, intuitive and effortless-to-use digital platform leading to great user experience, constant A/B testing and optimization to reduce friction and boost conversion rate, infinite scalability, and second-to-none channel deliverability. 

To learn more about TrueAccord and its digital-first collection solutions, visit www.TrueAccord.com and follow on Twitter and LinkedIn.

About TrueAccord

TrueAccord is the intelligent, digital-first collection and recovery company that leaders across industries trust to drive breakthrough results while delivering a superior consumer experience. TrueAccord pioneered the industry’s only adaptive intelligence: a patented machine learning engine, powered by engagement data from over 20 million consumer journeys, that dynamically personalizes every facet of the consumer experience – from channel to message to plan type and more – in real-time. Combined with code-based compliance and a self-serve digital experience, TrueAccord delivers liquidation and recovery rates 50-80% higher than industry benchmarks. 

Sila Offers Customers Digital Debt Collection Services through New TrueAccord Partnership

By on February 7th, 2022 in Company News, Product and Technology
TrueAccord Blog

PORTLAND, Ore., (February 7, 2022) – Sila Inc., a fintech software platform that provides payment infrastructure as a service, today announced that it partnered with TrueAccord, the leading debt collection company offering intelligent, digital-first collection and recovery solutions, to make it easier for Sila’s customers to use TrueAccord’s products and services. How to deal with delinquent and defaulted accounts is a key element that fintechs need to have in place as part of their overall management of funds. Using a patented machine learning engine and engagement data from millions of customers, TrueAccord delivers a personalized, self-serve experience that drives consumer engagement and industry-leading results. Meeting consumer preference for digital-first services and to cut through the noise and empower customer self-service and inbound communication, TrueAccord uses a range of channels including email, SMS, voicemail drop, and more.

Since its inception, Sila has been laser-focused on providing industry-leading API solutions. As importantly, Sila has been steadily growing its partner network to augment its offering by anticipating additional functionality that Sila customers will need to successfully build their businesses. With the recent addition of TrueAccord, Sila is on path to have agreements with over 40 specialist service providers signed by the end of this quarter.

“Sila is proud to welcome TrueAccord as a partner. We know that our customers will benefit from this key addition to our partner network and from a closer relationship between our two organizations,” said Shamir Karkal, CEO and co-founder, Sila Inc. “Like many of our fintech customers, TrueAccord was founded by an individual who had a sub-optimal experience with a traditional financial institution and decided to do something about it. That’s a mindset that is very close to our own because we started Sila around the idea to provide payment services that allow entrepreneurs to build the new financial world they have in mind.”

“We have worked with more than 16 million consumers on their journey to pay off their debts, and we use that data and feedback to understand how and when to best engage consumers to facilitate repayment. By allowing consumers to create flexible payment plans and by offering modern, digital-first communication channels, we are changing the landscape of debt collection from hostile and harassing to empathetic and helpful,” said Mark Ravanesi, CEO of TrueAccord Corp. “We are looking forward to bringing to bear our significant expertise for the benefit of Sila’s customers and consumers.”

About Sila

Sila is a fintech software platform that provides payment infrastructure as a service, a business-critical element for all companies that need to integrate with the US banking system and blockchain quickly, securely, and in compliance with applicable US regulation. Sila offers Banking, Digital Wallet & ACH Payments APIs for Software Teams. The firm was recognized as a ‘2021 best place to work in financial technology’. Sila is headquartered in Portland, Oregon. For more information go to www.silamoney.com

About TrueAccord

TrueAccord is the intelligent, digital-first collection and recovery company that leaders across industries trust to drive breakthrough results while delivering a superior consumer experience. TrueAccord pioneered the industry’s only adaptive intelligence: a patented machine learning engine, powered by engagement data from over 16 million consumer journeys, that dynamically personalizes every facet of the consumer experience – from channel to message to plan type and more – in real-time. Combined with code-based compliance and a self-serve digital experience, TrueAccord delivers liquidation and recovery rates 50-80% higher than industry benchmarks. The TrueAccord product suite includes Retain, an early-stage recovery solution, and Recover, a full-service debt collection platform.To learn more, go to http://www.trueaccord.com.

Collections Economics 101 for Digital Lenders

By on February 3rd, 2022 in Industry Insights
TrueAccord Blog

With digital lending via neobanks and fintechs on the rise, consumers have more options than ever for obtaining loans. There are a lot of considerations for these digital financial providers when building their business models, but one important and often-overlooked strategy is recovery for delinquent accounts. We sat down with TrueAccord’s Chief Growth Officer, Sheila Monroe, who has held numerous executive-level positions at TrueAccord on top of a multi-decade career in collections, to learn more about the economics of collections and what new lending players should look for when considering a collections solution.

What are the economics of collections metrics for delinquent accounts?

There are a number of metrics to pay close attention to in the management of delinquent accounts. These can be separated into two main categories, portfolio metrics and operational metrics. 

Portfolio metrics address the health of the entire portfolio or a defined segment of a portfolio (a certain vintage or a certain risk group or even a particular product). For a U.S.-based lender following GAAP accounting, the lender’s net loss rate (or net charge off rate) is the ultimate metric. It tells investors and management what percent of the portfolio is lost as a result of non-payment, which is a key metric in the overall health of the business. Private equity and venture capital firms, along with companies who invest in a lender’s receivables, will be most interested in a predictable loss rate in line with investment objectives.

Operational metrics are also important in managing delinquency and losses. Operationally, lenders should understand how well consumers follow through on payment plans or promises by monitoring a promise kept rate as well as what percent of payments cover the total payment due to cure the account. For measuring efficiency, lenders look at the ratio of delinquent accounts per collection employee, often referred to as accounts per employee (APE) or accounts to collector ratio (ACR), as well metrics like promises and dollars collected per paid hour of operations. Many also look at the cost to collect a dollar or the cost per delinquent account. 

What are credit loss provisions and why are they important to financial providers?

Lending institutions will inevitably have loans that go into default, and this is planned for in their financial modeling. For lenders, even the largest international banks, loan losses are the largest expense line in the budget so it’s important to prepare for those losses. When money is loaned, whether in a 30-year mortgage, a 5-year car loan, or a revolving credit card, some of those accounts will go past due, and some will fail to pay long enough that they get charged off as bad debt (credit loss), and it can take years to see that happen. 

But when account balances do get charged off as bad debt, the lender must have enough money “reserved” to absorb those losses and still be able to operate. So any lending company with investors will need to have a reserve for losses that shows up in their balance sheet. Depending on market conditions and actual loss rates, these reserves can be adjusted upward or downward periodically to ensure what is commonly referred to in financial services as “safety and soundness”. This is even more important if a lender takes consumer deposits to fund any of their lending. 

What is a roll rate in debt collections?

The roll rate is the sum of account balances that moves from being in one stage of delinquency to the next. For example, if 500 accounts with balances totalling $600,000 are one month past due (often called bucket 1 or one down), and the next month there are 150 accounts with balances totalling $125,000 that are 2 months past due, there was a 20.8% roll rate from buckets 1-2. Roll rates can also be calculated based on number of accounts, but that metric is rarely used in a performance analysis. 

How do lenders and debt collectors use roll rates?

Roll rates are primarily used to forecast future charge-off levels, to develop sophisticated risk scoring models to be used in underwriting or collection strategy, and to evaluate the effectiveness of a collection strategy or process. The collection process is designed to effectively intervene when consumers miss payments and to encourage and enable them to get back on track quickly. The longer loans and credit cards go unpaid, the more they accumulate late fees and finance charges and become much more difficult to get back to good standing. 

What are “good” roll rate ranges in debt collections?

This can be tricky to determine because portfolio objectives and type of debt come into play. For example, some products might be aimed at riskier customers, those with thin or no credit profiles, or those who have lower credit scores and it would be disadvantageous to compare those roll rates to those of a prime product. It’s important to understand the objectives of a lending product when evaluating performance. Depending on their objectives, some lenders target high-risk customers and have high credit losses, padded by high fees, while others target prime borrowers and enjoy low losses.  

If a lender has been in business long enough, they can benchmark roll rates against prior years, but need to account for any changes to underwriting and macro economic conditions. For example, banks can compare delinquency and charge off rates to other banks or look at performance by vintage, meaning how are all the accounts that were opened during a specific period of time performing. Peer benchmarking can be difficult for Fintech and other young lenders who often don’t have a base of publicly traded competitors who must report these key metrics in shareholder reports, but there are some consortium groups that can help (Auriemma Roundtable Group).

Roll rates are early indicators of collection effectiveness and often require more than a glance to understand if they are good. Often looking at connected roll rates or flow rates is more telling. For example, a high roll rate one month may be the product of a short billing month, while looking at a broader metric like debts that rolled from current to 3 months or those that went from 4 months to charge-off, might be a more telling indicator.  

What are “good” ranges of cost to collect?

Generally, collection costs include the cost of collection staff wages and fringe benefits, software licensing, management overhead (for quality monitoring, training, supervision, workforce management and others), communication costs (letter and postage, telephony, SMS and other costs), equipment, supplies, scrubs and skip tracing information, and premises (leases and maintenance). If the collection function is completely outsourced, a lot of these costs will be wrapped into the cost per hour or cost per FTE being charged. I’ve seen costs on a per account basis range anywhere from $4.50 to more than $16 for unsecured consumer debt, depending on the strategy, the type of portfolio, and the location of the operation.  

As a lender, it’s important to know what you are optimizing for. Spending more to keep losses low may seem like a no brainer, but there is a point of diminishing returns and, worse, a point in which more collection activity drives disproportionate costs in the forms of complaints, litigation, customer attrition and reputational damage. It may make sense for your business to manage delinquency and charge off levels near your industry’s benchmark or even higher, but put more thought into customer retention and how to get them using your product again once their finances have stabilized.  

Why should a company that’s new to lending have a collections partner?

New lenders go into business to lend money. They start with a target audience and product market fit, and tailor underwriting to their growth aspirations and customer value proposition. That is absolutely what any new lender should focus on. But often lenders are either naive about the impact of losses (maybe they think their underwriting will be so good they don’t need to think about collections), or they don’t have a full appreciation of how managing losses and taking advantage of recoveries will enable them to lend more money and retain more of those hard-earned customers. Having a trusted collection partner can allow the lender to focus on what they do best while reaping the benefits of sound practices to manage delinquency.  

How do you measure success?

Ultimately, it will be a combination of your lending strategy (did you lend to the right people) and your collection strategy (how well can you get customers back on track after missing a payment) that will influence portfolio metrics. But none of these metrics will drive outstanding performance in isolation. To be effective, it’s important to understand a lender’s reach into the delinquent customer base. What percent of customers are actually engaging with the collection effort? A calling strategy results in about 2% of phone calls reaching a “right party” (the person responsible for paying) and about 1.5% resulting in a payment. 

More lenders should look at engagement metrics – what percent of their delinquent customers actually engaged with some form of communication. In a purely digital strategy it is easy to measure email open and click rates, and SMS engagement rates as strong top of the funnel indicators. For Fintech we see a 46% email open rate and 2.5% click rate, with SMS delivering click rates between 25-32%. This is substantially higher engagement than what can be achieved in a calling environment and is better received by consumers. 

What should a digital lending company consider when choosing a collections partner?

Companies new to lending are originating loans, and therefore the entire customer relationship, online. Their customers had a digital experience to begin the relationship and they will expect a digital experience throughout their relationship with the lender. With that in mind, some things a digital lender should consider when choosing a collections partner include:

  • Does the collection company primarily communicate with my customers in their channel(s) of choice? Many collection companies will say they use email, but it is often not the primary mode of communication and can amount to less than 10% of an otherwise heavy, offensive phone calling strategy. 
  • Are customer communications personalized when it comes to the channel being used, the time of day the communication occurs, the content and tone of the message or do they segment broad groups of customers for a one size fits all treatment strategy? 
  • Does the collection company leverage any machine learning that could augment what I already know about my customers based on my internal data alone?
  • What process does the collection company have for continuous improvement enabled by a strong champion/challenger testing capability? 
  • How much execution risk does my collection partner expose me to? Operations that rely on more collection agents will carry more risk exposure. Poor agent attendance or high attrition will impact expected coverage. Poor quality or agent errors across a varied labor pool will impact collection results and pose compliance risks. Cultural bias or unneutralized accents of offshore agents have been shown to result in lower contacts and lower average commitments than more expensive on-shore agents.
  • If you are outsourcing to an agent-intensive provider, make sure you understand what drives the agent incentive plan. Agents interested in making incentives don’t always have your customers’ best interests in mind.

TrueAccord Brings Collections to the Synapse Fintech Ecosystem

By on January 5th, 2022 in Company News
TrueAccord Blog

Collections-as-a-Service offering is seamlessly integrated to service customer debt accounts while delivering consumer-friendly, digital-first experiences

LENEXA, Kan., Jan. 5, 2022 — TrueAccord Corporation, a debt collection company offering ML-powered digital recovery solutions, today announced a partnership with Synapse as an expansion of its Collections-as-a-Service offering. The partnership will bring the best-in-class collection and recovery capabilities of TrueAccord to Synapse’s fintech partners and customer base, integrating collections into the customer-centric fintech ecosystem.

Given the rapid growth in fintech lending and banking-as-a-service (BaaS) and the steady rise in delinquencies, consumers are expected to fall behind on their payments and require assistance to repay their debts. Synapse, a BaaS platform that provides the infrastructure and leverages APIs to enable companies to quickly build and launch best-in-class financial services, selected TrueAccord to join their growing tech stack of fintech partners with similar approaches to financial services and customer experience to address the need for debt collection when it arises. 

“We chose to partner with TrueAccord to add debt repayment services to Synapse’s BaaS ecosystem, because it aligns with consumer preference for a frictionless, digital-first financial services experience, especially when they fall behind,” said Sankaet Pathak, Founder & CEO of Synapse. “We want to ensure our customers have a good experience across all aspects of their financial journey, and providing that in collections is just as important for customer retention as it is in origination and servicing.”

Through an API integration, TrueAccord’s Recover debt collection solution will service charged-off debt accrued through Synapse’s lending platform. This will expand the Synapse fintech suite to follow a customer from loan origination to application and all the way through to collections, if needed. Additionally, TrueAccord’s Retain solution for early-stage delinquencies will be available on a referral-basis to the fintech partners in the Synapse ecosystem as an option to help get customers back on track with payments before being sent to collections.

“As a fintech company itself, TrueAccord knows the fintech business and customer better than most, especially in debt collection,” said Mark Ravanesi, CEO of TrueAccord Corp. “We speak the fintech language of consumer communication preferences, data and machine learning-driven technology, and no credit bureau reporting, offering customers a streamlined and hassle-free way to settle their debts and get back on track with their finances.”

With open banking on the rise, more companies will look for ways to incorporate collections into their service offerings. TrueAccord’s industry-leading Collections-as-a-Service product will enable  fintech innovators to scale their businesses and offer best-in-class recovery with a customer-centric approach.

To learn more about TrueAccord, its API and built-in collections solutions, click here and follow @TrueAccord on Twitter and LinkedIn.

About TrueAccord

TrueAccord is the intelligent, digital-first collection and recovery company that leaders across industries trust to drive breakthrough results while delivering a superior consumer experience. TrueAccord pioneered the industry’s only adaptive intelligence: a patented machine learning engine, powered by engagement data from over 16 million consumer journeys, that dynamically personalizes every facet of the consumer experience – from channel to message to plan type and more – in real-time. Combined with code-based compliance and a self-serve digital experience, TrueAccord delivers liquidation and recovery rates 50-80% higher than industry benchmarks. The TrueAccord product suite includes Retain, an early-stage recovery solution, and Recover, a full-service debt collection platform.

TrueAccord Announces Organizational Changes to Executive Leadership Team

By on August 3rd, 2021 in Company News
TrueAccord Blog

Digital-first debt collection fintech readies for continued B2B and B2C expansion with strategic leadership reorganization

TrueAccord Corporation, a debt collection company offering digital-first and consumer-centric solutions for resolving debts, today announced changes to its executive leadership team to support a planned expansion of products and services. The changes include Sheila Monroe, who previously served as CEO, moving to a new role as chief growth officer for TrueAccord’s parent company, One True Holding Company, with Mark Ravanesi, formerly chief revenue officer (CRO), filling the role as newly appointed CEO of TrueAccord. One True Holding Company also named a chief marketing officer (CMO), Naama Bloom, to drive integrated marketing as the company looks to engage new and different clients.

After two and a half years building and growing TrueAccord as CEO, Monroe takes on a new strategic role as chief growth officer for One True Holding Company, allowing her to tap into her vast global network and industry knowledge. She will focus on strategic opportunities to grow the organization through partnerships, regional expansion and other tactics. With more than 20 years of financial and recoveries experience, along with her ability to navigate complex regulatory environments, Monroe has been a key driver of TrueAccord’s growth and execution. 

Assuming the role of CEO at TrueAccord, Ravanesi will manage overall operations and resources while leading the development and implementation of the company’s strategy and mission. Since joining TrueAccord in 2019, Ravanesi has served as vice president of client success and CRO, playing integral roles in growing the sales organization and leading the company’s analytics and client-facing teams. He is a seasoned industry leader with more than 20 years of experience in the collections space, focusing on strategy, analytics, policies and strategies. Ravanesi’s previous roles include director and leadership positions at Barclays Bank, Discover Financial Services and GE Money.

“​​This is an important step in the evolution of TrueAccord and the whole OTHC group of companies. We will leverage Sheila’s industry expertise in a new, strategic capacity to continue our overall growth trajectory,” said Ohad Samet, co-founder and CEO of One True Holding Company, TrueAccord’s parent company. “Second, we get to apply and expand Mark’s successful mission- and results-oriented leadership in sales to the larger TrueAccord organization, accelerating the tremendous growth we’ve seen in the past years.”

One True Holding Company will continue its long-term success with new products and services targeted to a broader client and customer base, offered by TrueAccord’s sister companies. In alignment with its growth plan, One True Holding Company named Bloom as CMO to create and oversee a comprehensive marketing strategy that will promote brand recognition and deliver offerings that have value for customers, clients and business partners. Bloom brings more than 20 years of marketing experience as a brand builder, entrepreneur and business leader for Fortune 500 companies and startups.

“One True Holding Company has introduced best in class machine learning and digital-first debt collection solutions that consumers love with TrueAccord. Adding a marketing leader to our organization is an important step in doubling down on our trusted brand with clients and consumers alike,” added Samet. “Naama has tremendous experience building marketing teams and building iconic brands that consumers can trust as part of their everyday lives. I am thrilled about bringing in her leadership and expertise to connect the TrueAccord brand, among others, to our business as we move into new verticals and markets.”

The One True Holding Company leadership team also includes Gene Linetsky (chief technology officer), Noah Barr (chief financial officer), Laura Marino (chief product officer), Courtney Graham (chief people officer) and Nadav Samet (chief innovation officer), with Charles Deutsch serving as general manager of the financial services subsidiary True Life Solutions, which launched the game-changing consumer product, Engage.

Over the past year, One True Holding Company and its subsidiaries added more than 200 new hires with plans to continue expanding through 2021, with open positions across engineering, product, sales, client services, marketing, legal and operations. See all open positions and apply here: https://www.trueaccord.com/about-us/careers/  

About TrueAccord

Founded in 2013, TrueAccord’s data-driven debt collection platform is disrupting the collection industry by helping businesses collect more debt online than traditional methods. TrueAccord’s platform is powered by machine learning with a decision engine that analyzes consumer behavior and delivers personalized and empathetic consumer experiences. By communicating at the right time in the right channel with payment options that meet consumer needs, TrueAccord provides exceptional recovery rates for top 10 financial institutions, debt buyers, lenders and technology companies. TrueAccord empowers many of the estimated 77 million consumers who are in debt every year to get on a path to better financial fitness. To learn more, go to http://www.trueaccord.com.

About One True Holding Company

One True Holding Company is a technology company providing business- and consumer-facing solutions in the consumer debt space. Subsidiaries include TrueAccord, which offers machine learning-based, digital- and mobile-first servicing for debt in collections and recoveries, and True Life Solutions, which offers a SaaS platform that consumers can use to contact collectors and creditors digitally.

TrueAccord Talks: Fintech Disruption in 2021

By on July 15th, 2021 in Industry Insights, Industry Interviews

Halfway through 2021, e-commerce and consumer spending continue to see the impact of government stimulus payments while consumers look for new ways to invest and leverage their money. Simultaneously, all sectors of fintech grew during the pandemic, and this growth has not shown signs of stopping. Investment and lending platforms have grown in users by the highest percentage during the pandemic — with increases of 23 and 25 percent, respectively (McKinsey).

With the digitization of banking and financial services now firmly part of our new normal, is “disruption” still possible in fintech in 2021? TrueAccord co-founder and CEO, Ohad Samet, recently sat down with Julie VerHage-Greenberg of Fintech Today to discuss what the next horizon of fintech disruption will look like — and how financial institutions of all types can stay ahead of the curve and create groundbreaking solutions this year.

Watch the full “TrueAccord Talks” episode for more insights, but key trends to watch in fintech disruption in 2021 include:

  1. Solving “structural problems”: Fintechs, unlike many traditional financial services companies, are not just putting old products online and calling them digital, but rethinking the approach to existing problems and building new, better solutions.
  2. Digitization for customer experience: While many companies have focused on digitizing the customer experience, those that haven’t may begin to feel the pressure to adapt. With digitization increasingly being driven by consumer demand and expectation, financial service providers that don’t integrate the consumer experience into their offerings will lose out to those that do.
  3. Affordable financial services: With so many new fintech players in the industry, competition and innovation continue to spur more efficient and affordable services for consumers. Old products will be replaced with new banks, payment options and wage access, and more will focus on credit care and access to cater to consumers.

TrueAccord Featured in Aite Group’s Spotlight on Disruptive Fintech

By on July 1st, 2021 in Company News, Industry Insights
TrueAccord Blog

In a recent report by the Aite Group, TrueAccord was featured in the inaugural edition of the “Retail Banking & Payments Fintech Spotlight”, which highlighted disruptive fintechs with a strong focus on technologies that improve the customer experience. Analysts from Aite Group selected the six featured fintech vendors exclusively based on their level of innovation and their interesting approaches to wider business challenges facing the retail banking and payments market from both bank and customer perspectives.

The key differentiator making TrueAccord an innovative fintech disruptor? Not just taking an old system and making it digital, but using a customer-centric approach and machine learning engine that caters to each individual’s needs and seeks to fundamentally change the way consumers manage their debt. 

TrueAccord directs consumer focused messages to their preferred communication channel at the right time, all in line with federal and state requirements. With automated communications and the consumer’s ability to self-serve, TrueAccord collection agents can service 80,000 accounts at a time, compared to the typical 1,000 to 2,500 accounts that a traditional agent manages on behalf of the financial institution client. In addition, TrueAccord has found that allowing the consumer to propose their own payment arrangements within the institution’s approved parameters makes it 50% less likely that they will break that payment agreement. 

“Taking an existing process, especially one that is historically not consumer-friendly, and overhauling it from the ground up to actually benefit consumers is disruptive in the best way,” said Leslie Parrish, Senior Analyst, Aite Group. “While many companies focus on the consumer experience during the loan application process, very few bring that same attention to providing a consumer-friendly digital-first experience to the collection of that debt. TrueAccord’s unique approach to debt collection serves as a catalyst for transforming the collections industry.”

Excerpt from “Retail Banking & Payments Fintech Spotlight”:

The process of collecting on consumer debt is in need of a serious update, and TrueAccord distinguishes itself as a true stand-out in this industry. Together, the company’s three offerings provide a comprehensive solution set for both financial institutions and consumers. Consumers have significant pain points in dealing with unwanted collector calls and would much prefer to deal with these unpaid debts without having to speak with an agent. TrueAccord’s Recover and Retain platforms collectively provide financial institutions with a way to effectively communicate and collect on accounts at varying stages of delinquency in a way that is hospitable to consumers.

To read the full TrueAccord spotlight, download a copy of the report here.