Today's News

• PR - Lowell Group Named UK's Debt Purchaser of the Year
  Leeds, United Kingdom-based Lowell Group, has been awarded the coveted title ‘Debt Purchaser of the Year’ by an international panel of industry experts who said: “A very impressive range of results and developments at this innovative and growing purchaser wowed the judges and clearly wowed their clients too. Four of the top six retail banks supported this firm in a big way. On top of this the firm exemplified some truly mesmerizing HR practices that set the benchmark of where the industry should aim.”As a specialist debt purchasing company, Lowell Group purchases portfolios of consumer debts from a range of blue-chip organisations and then manages the recovery of those debts, working closely with debtors to help them resolve their financial difficulties and pay off what they owe. Formed in 2004, Lowell Group reported an annual turnover last fiscal year in July of £50m ($102.1 million) and after a strong first quarter is on target to exceed $153.1 million in 2008. Lowell employs more than 300 people at its state-of-the art HQ and customer contact center in Leeds. The Group’s operations division Lowell Financial is currently servicing more than two million consumer accounts with an asset value in excess of $4.7 billion. Earlier this year chief executive officer James Cornell was named ‘Young Director of the Year’ for the Yorkshire and Humber region by the Institute of Directors.
• PR - Lowell Group Named UK's Debt Purchaser of the Year
  Leeds, United Kingdom-based Lowell Group, has been awarded the coveted title ‘Debt Purchaser of the Year’ by an international panel of industry experts who said: “A very impressive range of results and developments at this innovative and growing purchaser wowed the judges and clearly wowed their clients too. Four of the top six retail banks supported this firm in a big way. On top of this the firm exemplified some truly mesmerizing HR practices that set the benchmark of where the industry should aim.”As a specialist debt purchasing company, Lowell Group purchases portfolios of consumer debts from a range of blue-chip organisations and then manages the recovery of those debts, working closely with debtors to help them resolve their financial difficulties and pay off what they owe. Formed in 2004, Lowell Group reported an annual turnover last fiscal year in July of £50m ($102.1 million) and after a strong first quarter is on target to exceed $153.1 million in 2008. Lowell employs more than 300 people at its state-of-the art HQ and customer contact center in Leeds. The Group’s operations division Lowell Financial is currently servicing more than two million consumer accounts with an asset value in excess of $4.7 billion. Earlier this year chief executive officer James Cornell was named ‘Young Director of the Year’ for the Yorkshire and Humber region by the Institute of Directors.
• PR - Austin Logistics, TransUnion Team on Skip Tracing
  Austin Logistics has integrated TransUnion’s Contact Locator into its OnQ software solution to more effectively automate skip tracing for outbound call campaigns in real-time. Austin Logistics’ patented OnQ software solution manages single or multiple dialers, automating and centralizing campaign and policy management to ensure call rule compliance. TransUnion’s Contact Locator verifies, corrects or appends name, address and phone number information from a comprehensive database of telephone company-sourced contact information that is updated daily with more than one million changes. Contact Locator uses proprietary analytics and matching logic to increase the speed of verifying or updating a debtor’s contact information from any portfolio at any stage of collections.“Many collections operations that rely on internal databases or phones appended from compiled contact sources find that much of the information is already outdated and inaccurate by the time it reaches their dialers,” said Jeff Brown, Vice President of Solutions Management at TransUnion. “By automating delivery of right party contact information through Austin Logistics’ OnQ campaign management platform earlier in the process, TransUnion Contact Locator helps collections call centers contact more debtors faster while reducing downstream data and labor costs associated with outbound calls to disconnected or incorrect numbers.” When a customer’s dialer attempts a call that results in a disconnected number or wrong-party contact, OnQ’s campaign management engine automatically contacts TransUnion’s Contact Locator in real-time to return the most up-to-date phone number. Austin Logistics’ OnQ then loads the updated phone number into the dialer. The entire skip solution is therefore completely automated end-to-end.“In the traditional dialer environment, skip tracing is often handled in a batch capacity overnight,” said Tom Miller, senior vice president corporate development for Austin Logistics. “By combining the powerful data and matching logic of Contact Locator with the precision and flexibility of OnQ’s campaign management, collections agencies can locate the right party contacts earlier than the competition, maximize recovery, and increase ROI.”
• PR - Austin Logistics, TransUnion Team on Skip Tracing
  Austin Logistics has integrated TransUnion’s Contact Locator into its OnQ software solution to more effectively automate skip tracing for outbound call campaigns in real-time. Austin Logistics’ patented OnQ software solution manages single or multiple dialers, automating and centralizing campaign and policy management to ensure call rule compliance. TransUnion’s Contact Locator verifies, corrects or appends name, address and phone number information from a comprehensive database of telephone company-sourced contact information that is updated daily with more than one million changes. Contact Locator uses proprietary analytics and matching logic to increase the speed of verifying or updating a debtor’s contact information from any portfolio at any stage of collections.“Many collections operations that rely on internal databases or phones appended from compiled contact sources find that much of the information is already outdated and inaccurate by the time it reaches their dialers,” said Jeff Brown, Vice President of Solutions Management at TransUnion. “By automating delivery of right party contact information through Austin Logistics’ OnQ campaign management platform earlier in the process, TransUnion Contact Locator helps collections call centers contact more debtors faster while reducing downstream data and labor costs associated with outbound calls to disconnected or incorrect numbers.” When a customer’s dialer attempts a call that results in a disconnected number or wrong-party contact, OnQ’s campaign management engine automatically contacts TransUnion’s Contact Locator in real-time to return the most up-to-date phone number. Austin Logistics’ OnQ then loads the updated phone number into the dialer. The entire skip solution is therefore completely automated end-to-end.“In the traditional dialer environment, skip tracing is often handled in a batch capacity overnight,” said Tom Miller, senior vice president corporate development for Austin Logistics. “By combining the powerful data and matching logic of Contact Locator with the precision and flexibility of OnQ’s campaign management, collections agencies can locate the right party contacts earlier than the competition, maximize recovery, and increase ROI.”
• Medical FICO Score to Judge Patient Payment Ability
  Hospitals could soon be using a financial tool to help determine whether a patient can pay his bill or is likely to default on the charge, according to several news reports. The medFICO score is being developed by a health technology firm with backing by Fair Isaac Corp., Tenet Healthcare Corp., a large for-profit hospital operator, and venture capital firm North Bridge Venture Partners, according to a report today in the Dallas Morning News. Each of the three partners has invested $10 million in the medFICO, the paper reports. Waltham, Mass.-based Healthcare Analytics is the developer of the medFICO, based on the FICO score that judges a consumers credit quality and ability to repay debts. Healthcare Analytics is in the research and development phase of the p