ARM Industry Association Responds to Collector-Bashing Article

You may remember (from yesterday) that article we ran about several negative news stories targeting the ARM industry. In case you don’t, here it is: National Media Spends Holiday Bashing Debt Collectors.

The most scathing article in our roundup is currently running in Newsweek. Turns out, DBA International – the association for debt buyers – spent quite of bit of time being interviewed for that article, and most of what they said did not make it into the story. So they wrote a letter last night to the magazine’s editor explaining how DBA felt the finished article got it so wrong.

The letter also lays out the value debt buyers deliver to their clients and the broader economy.

Below, you can read the letter in its entirety. This is another great way of dealing with negative press attention:

To the Editor:

When Newsweek contacted DBA International, the trade association for America’s debt buying industry, several months ago, DBA welcomed the opportunity to explain the debt buying industry to the magazine’s readers. We understood then, as we do now, that often articles about our industry may dredge up negative and unfair portrayals of debt buyers. But we hope that the media will also provide context to explain what we do and why we do it. Unfortunately, the article in this week’s edition fails to accomplish that goal.

We spent several hours meeting with your reporter in the hopes to educate the American public about our industry, and how in many cases debt buyers and collectors help consumers to resolve their debt commitments. While the article did capture the personality of one of DBA’s volunteer board members, David Paris, it did little to explain our industry and its role in the credit cycle. In that spirit, DBA International would like this opportunity to share a message that was clearly left out of the story. The debt sales cycle provides significant benefits to consumers, banks and the overall economy:

• Every day, debt buyers work to offer discounts, settlements and payment arrangements to consumers. These settlements save consumers tens of millions of dollars a year in the form of lower interest payments and the individual delinquent consumer thousands of dollars while helping restore their ability to borrow. Debt buyers are able to set up long term payment plans that meet each individual’s budget as well as settle accounts at deep discounts.

• By creating a market for severely delinquent receivables, debt buyers provide capital to the original lenders, easing their losses, improving shareholder value and creating capital that can be used to support additional lending to other consumers.

• The debt buying industry employs tens of thousands of people throughout the United States. The economic cycle is complex, but it is critical to insuring that the United States economy, based on credit, continues to operate efficiently.

The bottom line is that the debt buying process protects the availability of credit that so many consumers use to maintain and improve their quality of life. Consumers would be faced with higher prices and lack of available credit if businesses were unable to recoup losses resulting from bad debt.

We understand your publication’s responsibility to its readers to educate and inform. However it is very unfortunate that Newsweek chose to ignore these messages that we believe would have helped your readers better understand the debt buying process and instead portrayed the industry by examining an extremely small segment of people who do not fairly represent the good this industry provides.

Sincerely,

Jan Stieger
Executive Director
DBA International