Accounts Placed with Collection Agencies Set A New Record

The Commercial Collection Agency Association (CCAA) reported that its members received a record volume of business-to-business accounts for collection in 2009.

Emil Hartleb, Executive Director of CCAA reported that in 2009 CCAA members received $17, 762,139,514 in accounts placed for collection.

This represents an increase of 33.4 percent over 2008.  Account placement in 2008 held the previous record, $13,311,932,553.

Hartleb pointed out that the gain in placement for the Fourth Quarter of 2009 compared to the same quarter in 2008 was particularly strong registering a gain of over 48 percent.

He indicated that the problems in the economy’s business sector are not behind us yet, particularly for small and medium sized businesses.

In addition to reporting their account placement statistics, members are surveyed quarterly on their outlook for account placement and the collectability of that placement.  Hartleb stated that in the survey conducted for the Fourth Quarter of 2009, 70 percent of CCAA’s membership believed that a lackluster economy, marked by high levels of account placement and declining collectability, will continue for at least the next six months.  This is an increase of approximately 27 percent from the Third Quarter Survey where 55 percent of the CCAA membership believed that account placement would continue to rise and collectability decline.
 
The Commercial Collection Agency Association (CCAA) is an association of 115 commercial collection agencies that have been CERTIFIED by the Commercial Law League of America.  They represent the leaders in the commercial collection or business to business collection industry, handling about sixty-five percent of the commercial accounts placed for collection.  The Commercial Law League of America is the nation’s oldest creditors’ rights organization, founded in 1895.

Members of the CCAA subscribe to a strict Code of Ethics and undergo an intensive and continuing certification process.  For more information on CCAA, the certification process and its members, go to the Website: www.ccaacollect.com or call Emil Hartleb at (973) 239-0721.

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