Of the top 50 creditors named in consumer bankruptcy filings in the first full week of July, 16 were accounts receivable management firms. Combined, collection agencies and debt buyers were named in 20 percent of filings attributed to the top 50 companies.

The data comes from bankruptcy account management firm American InfoSource and covers consumer bankruptcy filings from July 7-13, 2012.

When consumers file for bankruptcy protection, they must list creditors to whom they owe debts. With debt volumes and ARM placements coming off of all-time highs a few years ago, it makes sense that collection agencies and debt buyers would be heavily represented in the filings.

The most commonly-named creditors in filings are large consumer lenders and credit card issuers, with the IRS also prominently placed.

Debt buyer Encore Capital Group was the highest-ranked ARM company, named in 4,447 filings in the week. NCO Group was next with 3,441 mentions and Portfolio Recovery Associates came in third named in 2,762 filings. Consumers can, and typically do, name multiple creditors in filings.

Interestingly, Encore recently divested its Ascension Capital Group bankruptcy servicing business, with the buyer being American InfoSource, the publisher of the bankruptcy data.

Below is a table with the Top 50 creditors named in filings for the week of July 7-13, 2012. ARM companies are in red.

Creditor Named in Filing # of Filings Named
Citibank 9,362
Chase 9,058
Capital One 8,719
General Electric GE (Retail) 8,236
Bank of America 8,163
HSBC 7,339
Internal Revenue Service 7,249
Wells Fargo 5,665
Encore Capital Group 4,447
Discover Financial Svcs 4,126
GE Money Bank 3,890
Government (Non IRS), State & Local 3,517
NCO Group 3,441
CompuCredit 3,237
Target 3,133
American Express 2,997
Alliance Data Systems 2,786
Portfolio Recovery Associates 2,762
US Bancorp 2,690
Verizon 2,683
World Financial Network National Bank / WFNNB 2,486
Resurgent / Sherman / LVNV 2,429
AT&T 2,351
Enhanced Recovery Corporation 2,216
Kohls 2,132
Sallie Mae 2,108
First Premier 2,096
Asset Acceptance 2,015
Anderson Financial Network, Inc. (Afni) 1,862
Cavalry Portfolio Services 1,681
GMAC 1,503
IC System 1,496
AT&T Wireline 1,446
Sprint 1,321
Santander Consumer USA 1,315
Barclays Bank 1,233
Credit One Bank 1,197
Northland Group 1,131
SquareTwo Financial 1,112
T-Mobile 1,109
Allied Interstate, Inc 1,099
Capital Management Services 1,003
Credit Protection Association 964
Client Services Inc. 955
RJM Acquisitions 950
Comcast 944
Dell Financial Services 920
Direct TV 899
Citi Mortgage 888
Ford Motor Credit 885

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