D&B - Competitors

D&B Competition

Now Viewing D&B's competition in: Credit Collections and Services

Recent Developments

Collection Industry Tries PR, Self-Regulation - Recent PR efforts by the debt collection industry emphasize a less adversarial and more helpful approach to getting consumers to pay their bills. The PR effort is partly to improve collection success rates and partly to ward off potentially stricter government legislation and regulation, according to <i>The New York Times</i>. Industry self-regulation is a stated priority for major professional organizations, including DBA International, ACA International, and the National Association of Retail Collection Attorneys.

Firms Adopt Alternative Credit Scoring Methods - Credit bureaus increasingly use alternative credit scoring methods to expand their markets to consumers with little or no credit, but with excellent bill-paying history. Experian will add bill payment history as a way to predict credit risk. TransUnion began using the method in 2007, following the lead of PRBC, which began business in 2003 as the first credit bureau to use bill payment for credit scoring.

Employment Rises at Collection Firms, Declines at Credit Bureaus - Foreclosures and the credit crisis have helped expand employment in collection agencies, and decrease workforce levels at credit bureaus. Annual US employment in collection agencies increased 1.6 percent in 2007 from year-earlier levels, with slower growth than in 2006, but reaching a record number of employees. Credit bureau employment, which has contracted yearly for over a decade, declined 3.3 percent in 2007.

Competitive Landscape

Demand for credit reporting and for collections services are driven by the volume of financial transactions, and by the health of the economy. The profitability of individual companies depends largely on efficiency of operations. The profitability of collections companies that buy receivables portfolios depends on their ability to assess recovery potential. Large credit reporting companies have significant economies of scale in operations. Small companies can compete successfully in the collections segment because of the labor-intensive nature of the work.

Full Industry Overview For Credit Collections and Services

Credit Collections and Services Industry Forecast

from Hoover's/D&B subsidiary First Research

The output of US credit agencies other than banks, which includes credit collections and services, is forecast to grow at an annual compounded rate of 5.7 percent between 2007 and 2012.

Credit Agencies Growth Even

First Research forecasts are based on INFORUM forecasts that are licensed from the Interindustry Economic Research Fund, Inc. (IERF) in College Park, MD. INFORUM's "interindustry-macro" approach to modeling the economy captures the links between industries and the aggregate economy.