CRS 2018, a conference for the collection and recovery industries, was the center of attention for senior level creditors involved in collection, recovery operations and strategy on May 9 – 11, 2018 at the Four Seasons Hotel Las Vegas. The trade event featured workshops, keynotes, concurrent seminar sessions, round-table discussions, networking opportunities and an expo as well as a two-day pre-conference workshop (“Third Party Vendor Auditing”) on May 7 – 8.
CRS (aka Collection & Recovery Solutions) is produced by Resource Management Services, Inc., the provider of consulting services in the collection and recovery industries, and the organizer of the Recovery Management Network (RMN).
Attendees and Exhibiting Companies
CRS was attended by professionals working for collection agencies, investment firms, banks and credit unions, financial service companies, auto and education lenders, trade groups, government agencies, technology and data security organizations, law firms and telecommunication companies.
Exhibitors included representatives of the collection and recovery industries such as law firms, lenders, debt and receivables management companies, debt buyers, and financial service providers (compliance, Fintech, location services, telephony and analytics skip tracing, and software).
Among the exhibitors were Executive VP Todd Volkers and VP Ron Roonzani of Optio Solutions. The pair discussed the agency’s framework of compliance, certification, data security and collection technology. They had several meetings with large creditors and made a handful of observations.
“Compliance, brand protection and security still rank very high from the creditors’ perspective,” said Volkers. “The trend of creditor downsizing and consolidation continues, and naturally, everyone is still looking for differentiators among third-party agencies.”
Activities for the Collection and Recovery Industries
The RMN programming on May 9 featured an opening address by Shawn Spratte, the director of Loss Mitigation at Public Service Credit Union, followed by three seminar sessions, a networking luncheon, and the identification of hot topics related to collection and recovery solutions.
CRS 2018 continued with a series of events including the Poolside Networking Event, Millennial Peer Group, Credit Union Peer Group – Discussion of Critical Issues, a First Timer Orientation, and finally, an Opening Reception in the exhibit hall.
The May 10th events began with opening remarks from the conference producer, then a keynote session called “Next Generation Leadership/Collaboration: Keys to Engaging a Multi-Generational Workforce.”
Programming moved ahead with a pair of government updates: “What’s New at the CFPB” by John McNamara of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau and the “Washington Waterfront” panel.
The balance of the third day activities consisted of timely afternoon sessions (e.g. “Performance Management – Scorecards and Market Share”) before transitioning to a cocktail reception.
CRS continued on Friday where it left off the evening before with a breakfast offering sparkling wine, Bloody Mary cocktails and peer networking. Attendees quickly moved to more serious content by selecting three separate 30-minute roundtable sessions from a group of 10 timely topics such as “Lessons from Call Monitoring of Your Third Parties,” “Collection Strategies,” and “Hands-On Cybersecurity Risk Assessment.”
Additional Help for the Collection and Recovery Industries
Creditors looking for differentiators among third-party agencies would be well served to discuss their business needs with Optio. In addition to the framework mentioned above, the agency maintains an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau and Professional Practice Management System (PPMS) certification from ACA International (less than 2 percent of organizations in the USA have garnered this distinction.)
Contact us today to learn how a Optio can help your company achieve a favorable return on investment, brand protection and customer retention.
