U.S. Department of Education Taps IRMC for Major Collections Project

NEW YORK – Using rigid selection criteria that requires a proven track record of performance and national experience in collecting debt on a national basis, the Federal Student Aid (FSA) office of the US Department of Education announced that it has awarded IntelliRisk Management Corporation (IRMC) and its public sector collections company Allied Interstate Inc. the opportunity to participate in the department’s debt collection program.

“This is a big day for our company,” said Fred Lundquist, Senior Vice President for Business Development at IRMC. “We have been recognized by the US government for the excellent, results-oriented work we have done in the past for the US government and other government entities across the country. We aim to continue to provide the Department of Education with the best possible service and the best possible result for the taxpayer and loan holder.”

IRMC is a premier provider of customer management solutions specializing in collections, accounts receivable management, and customer retention services. Allied Interstate is a wholly owned subsidiary of IRMC, which specializes in the government marketplace and includes clients from across the government spectrum.

“Making the short list as a qualified vendor is only the first step in our commitment to serve the Department of Education,” said Michael Kendal, Senior Vice President for the Public Sector Group at IRMC. “The entire management of IRMC and Allied Interstate are committing the people and resources necessary to make this a winning enterprise for our client. We are making the investments to ensure that we deliver a reliable, dependable and productive result for the US government and the US taxpayer.”

There are billions of dollars in uncollected student loan debt. Since 1979, FSA has contracted out its debt collection activity. In FY 2004 alone, FSA collected more than $1.8 billion in defaulted student loans with private collection agencies accounting for over $1.2 billion.

According to the FSA, “the work performed under these contracts is performance-based and highly competitive. The contracts are contingency fee based and therefore result in significant savings to the federal government.”

IRMC utilizes several proprietary tools in its collections practice. Performance Engineering™1.0, a novel proprietary product designed and constructed to add strong analytics methods and systems to portfolio management and performance in the collections industry, is used by IRMC to increase efficiency of collections. IRMC has applied for a patent for the new offering with the Patent and Trademark Office in Washington, DC. In the patent application, the invention is described as providing “Performance enhancement methods and systems for designing and implementing collection agency strategies.”

PE™1.0 brings considerable power and performance enhancements to the IRMC client base. The science, analytics and business methodologies IRMC has developed to maximize portfolio performance for its client portfolios are enormous and are of particular relevance in the public sector marketplace.

IRMC employs state-of-the-art analytics and information to bring operations optimization and enterprise-wide performance engineering to all phases of business and operations including work allocation, scoring and segmentation, pricing, location advantages and reporting.

The Department of Education contract will be serviced out of the Minneapolis office of IRMC.

IRMC provides client solutions through its global call center network of nearly 6,000 employees. With an experienced management team and top-tier investors, including Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo Foothill and Harvest Partners, IRMC is a fast-growing company with expansion plans in North America, Europe and Asia.

The IRMC family of companies are united in a corporate vision and mission, while maintaining unique company names, including: Allied Interstate and First Contact in the United States; CBCL in Canada; and Legal & Trade Collections, Legal & Trade Financial Services, Reachflow and Revenues Management Services in the United Kingdom.