SquareTwo Financial Partners With Oracle to Successfully Implement Exadata and Exalogic Technology for Superior Performance

SquareTwo and Oracle technology teams successfully completed an aggressive 35-day implementation of Oracle's Exadata and Exalogic technology at SquareTwo Financial's headquarters in Denver, CO. The new Exa technology not only doubled the performance of SquareTwo's innovative asset recovery application, but also provides SquareTwo a scalable solution that will support their quickly growing business over the long term.

Click here to watch a video about the project.

ColoradoBiz Magazine Publishes Article by Paul A. Larkins on the Importance of a Strong Company Culture

Culture: The soul of your company
Nurturing it should be a priority
By Paul Larkins

The start of a new year is a time of reflection for a lot of individuals, but it is also a good time to evaluate whether the culture of your company will help you be more successful over the months and years ahead. Although intangibles like creating and maintaining a strong corporate culture and helping employees achieve peak performance often fall by the wayside at busy companies, the truth is, every company has a culture; shaping and nurturing it should be a priority.

Culture: The Soul Of The Company

Culture is more than just a buzzword used in employee satisfaction surveys; it is the multifaceted personality, soul and character of a company. A company's culture includes concrete aspects of work life, such as compensation, benefits and career development, as well as less tangible aspects like the attitudes, values and behaviors of employees.

So why is culture important? Because together with great operations, a great culture is what contributes to a happy, healthy work environment and helps employees throughout the entire organization reach their peak performance. Importantly, a company's culture is also an extension of its brand and reputation, and it impacts how clients, partners, investors and other stakeholders perceive the company.

Recipe For Strong Culture
The secret to developing a strong corporate culture is two-fold, equal parts tight-knit community and employing a team of "A" players. Establishing a close community of colleagues creates a sense of camaraderie and belonging and is vital to employees feeling eager to go to work each morning. At the same time, top performers are driven, ambitious, innovating and hard working, and typically excel at working together strategically toward a common goal.

Great cultures are also made up of diverse individuals with different viewpoints, experiences and talents. In fact, recent studies have shown that diversity inspires innovation, drives productivity and increases creativity, all of which help contribute to a strong corporate culture.

Culture: How Companies Get Things Done
Every organization has a culture, whether or not it is created on purpose. Too often, companies are so focused on operational excellence - what they achieve, they lose sight of cultural excellence, or how they achieve it. Because culture defines how employees think, act, work together and what people perceive their roles to be, in essence it determines how people get work done. Ultimately, great culture combined with great operations is the key to corporate success.

Building a strong culture isn't easy, and it doesn't happen overnight. Developing a corporate culture is an active process that is the responsibility of every employee. The culture of the company cannot be "handed down" from the top, it must be developed with the participation and engagement of the entire workforce. That said, without strong endorsement by the organization's leadership a culture cannot survive and thrive.

At the same time, one of the most important aspects of a strong culture is a great work environment. It is the responsibility of the management team to provide employees with the tools needed - from health insurance benefits and fair compensation plans to the right technology and resources to do the job at hand.

A company's values aren't just words to recite, but principles to live by that are deeply ingrained in everything everyone associated with the organization does. Once every individual understands and identifies with the company's values and strategic priorities, you're well on your way to having values that serve as guideposts to achieving peak performance, both for individuals and for the company as a whole.

Paul A. Larkins is president and CEO of SquareTwo Financial (www.squaretwofinancial.com ), a leader in the $100 billion asset recovery and management industry. He has more than 25 years of experience in the financial services industry and was named a finalist in the 2011 ColoradoBiz CEO of the Year mid-sized company category. He can be reached at 303-296-3345.

Paul A. Larkins, President and CEO, Shares Strategies for Driving Technological Advances in Chief Executive Magazine

Seven Strategies for Driving Technological Advances

December 14 2011 by Paul A. Larkins

More companies these days, whether they develop, manufacture, manage or sell, correctly view technology as the connective tissue that keeps all parts of the business working together in a unified system so it can not only survive, but also thrive.

Some leaders however, still consider the IT department a separate “island” visited only for isolated business functions or speeding up processes. Such consideration, however, is antiquated and puts a company at risk for falling behind the competition. Why? This way of thinking about IT departments and investments does not capture the powerful competitive advantages that come from factoring technology into almost every business decision.

At SquareTwo Financial, the shift toward total IT integration took time, analysis, investment and measurement of outcomes to ensure effectiveness. Today, technology is woven into the very fabric of our corporate culture. It fuels our data analysis capabilities, allows our employees to solve problems and share best practices, and drives our growth in the $100 billion asset recovery and management industry.

In 2011, we made a critical technology decision. Before reaching it, we had identified two options, each with very different future prospects: Seek a less-expensive, in-house solution to improve the core system that runs our business, or, invest meaningful capital in a new technology platform that had yet to be deployed by its vendor in the commercial marketplace. This latter option offered what appeared to be significant value, but it had yet to be battle-tested. We took the bolder road and became the first production customer in the world for Oracle’s Exalogic Elastic Cloud and Exadata Database Machine. And it turns out we made the right, calculated call.

Since our rapid (134-day) implementation, our new platform has generated meaningful performance gains involving user response times, and critical data table builds, all while we dramatically increased (as in doubled) the number of users who accessed the system. Said another way, our aggressive approach is paying off, and we are encouraged that we placed our capital against this opportunity.

Regardless of any company’s focus, a relentless commitment to technology is vital in today’s business climate. Leaders can and should make technological innovation a driver of business decisions within their organizations through these seven strategies.

Be a student of technology best practices in your industry.

CEOs should strive to understand their industry’s best technological practices so they can combine their knowledge with that of their CIO for greater impact and decision-making.

Connect weekly with your CIO.

Some CEOs are reluctant to delve too deeply into the day-to-day details of their CIO’s world. A constant dialogue with your CIO or chief technologist, however, ensures you are always viewing business decisions through the technology lens.

Encourage constant learning in the IT department.

The shelf life of any technology tool is short, and what works today may be obsolete tomorrow. That’s why it’s important to make constant learning a focus of your IT department. This means providing the structure and resources necessary for ongoing training and staff development.

Communicate and share best practices through technology.

No matter how large or small, a company-wide intranet is one of the most powerful communications tools available in this constantly connected world. Think of the power of Facebook in the public arena and strive to harness similar technology in house so your employees and partners can retain institutional knowledge and best practices.

Think benefits, not features.

A technologist loves to talk about features, but a CEO is more interested in benefits. Constantly frame your technology decisions in terms of benefits, and you will make wiser choices.

Prepare to invest.

Technology is a fast-burning fuel. It’s important to be realistic about how much investment is required to drive beneficial technological advancement within your business.

Establish meaningful metrics for your CIO and yourself.

This is one strategy that can get sidestepped because it takes time, effort, and analysis on an ongoing basis. It might be easier to simply implement a new technology platform or software system and wait for signs that it’s working. It’s much more effective, however, to measure the technology in a meaningful way and hold your team accountable to the results.

Originally published by ChiefExecutive.net

Paul A. Larkins, President and CEO of SquareTwo Financial, Named CEO of the Year Finalist by ColoradoBiz Magazine

CEO of the Year: Medium Company Finalists
Paul Larkins, president and CEO, SquareTwo Financial

SquareTwo Financial, a leader in the $100 billion asset recovery and management industry, uses award-winning technology to create effective ways for companies and consumers to resolve their debt.

Paul Larkins has more than 25 years experience in the financial services industry. Before joining SquareTwo, he served as president and CEO of Key National Finance.

Under Larkins’ leadership in 2011, SquareTwo has a new business model, nearly half a billion dollars in new capital and 50 new employees. The company also became a publicly reporting entity after completeing a $490 million recapitalization package
“I believe the area where I have been able to enhance value involved forming and focusing an outstanding leadership team,” Larkins said. “We have brought together a very strong and committed leadership team to work collaboratively building our values-based culture and executing against our strategic initiatives day in and day out. Additionally, I have provided this executive team with the resources required to operate optimally. My Scorecard for measuring the effectiveness of our team involves not only the demonstrable evidence of our culture expanding, but most importantly, our bottom-line financial results.”

To read the entire article, click here.

Mark Erickson, Senior Vice President of Commercial Funding, Discusses Key Considerations for Selling Charged-Off Equipment Leases and Loans with World Leasing News

Key Considerations For Selling Charged-Off Equipment Leases and Loans

By Mark Erickson, SquareTwo Financial

For many asset managers, it may not seem worth the time and effort to ready a portfolio of charged-off accounts for sale to a debt buyer when those assets might generate cents on the dollar.

But take into account the reasoning of the largest commercial banks and credit card issuers, who regularly sell charged-off accounts to debt buyers, and the strategy may have beneficial applications for equipment lessors as well. In fact, more banks, bank-owned leasing companies, captives and independent lessors are discovering how to bolster their bottom lines by wrangling the trickiest of assets in their debt portfolios – those stagnant equipment leases and business loans – and selling them at the right time to a debt-buying partner.

In most situations, when a credit-issuer more closely examines – possibly through a net present value analysis – the liquidation assumptions of its charged-off portfolio (segmented by age and prior collection efforts), it may often find a debt buyer’s offer price to be higher than the company’s net recovery through internal and third-party liquidation efforts over time.

Further, the sale of distressed debts to a debt buyer can provide additional benefits as well:
• Lessens reliance on third-party agencies.
• Reduces costs associated with internal collections and management of third-party agencies.
• Generates revenue now vs. waiting months or years for collection efforts to yield value.
• Protects your brand – the effect of a debt buyer owning the purchased accounts outright, having a longer time horizon, and therefore, a strong incentive to work well with debtors and issuers for repeat business.
• Eliminates months or years of waiting without a guarantee of a return – a major benefit when factoring in the time value of money and economic cycles.
• Creates immediate liquidity from the sale of the charged-off debt portfolio.

One Perspective: Q&A With Asset Manager Of Top 5 Bank

Consider the reasoning of a senior asset management executive for one of the nation’s five largest banking institutes, which has regularly sold distressed commercial and consumer debts to a debt buyer for more than 10 years:

Q: How do debt sales fit into your overall recovery strategy?
“Debt sales typically are the end strategy for us. We start by trying to collect it in house, then we send it to an agency, and once it’s returned we sell it.”

Q: What is the timeline for these steps?
“For us, by the time they come back from the collection agency, they are approximately 12-to 18-months past charge-off date. It’s a 12-18 month life cycle within our recovery unit.”

Q: What factors drive your decision to sell debt?
“It’s strictly financial, quite frankly. If we thought we had the resources to work them and get a higher return than selling them, then we would do that. But we have finite resources internally, so it’s financially advantageous for us to sell them, take the cash and let someone else deal with collecting the debt.”

“We could place them with another level collection agency, but the net return on that — because the commission goes up with each level of agency you go to — doesn’t outweigh the price we could get to sell in the market straight out.”

Q: What are the most important things to consider when engaging with a debt buyer for the first time?
“You have to have a comfort level that the individuals with the debt-buying company are going to conduct themselves professionally and not cause any undue risk to the seller. We can write all kinds of indemnity agreements into the contract, but if things go wrong and customers decide they want to sue because they think the new owner of the account has wronged them, they’re going to sue the issuing bank along with the owner.

“When we’re considering selling debt we treat the relationship with the debt buyer like a partnership, because you have to really understand whom you are working with. In most cases, the issuing bank is going to have much deeper pockets than the debt buyer, so if someone’s going to hire an attorney and file a lawsuit because of actions by the debt buyer, they’re going to sue the issuing bank. You have to be very careful who you partner up with.”

Q: So you are also factoring your company’s reputation into your decision?
“Yes. I think people should consider what the buyer is going to do with the debt. Ideally, you want to sell to somebody who is going to work the debt and not flip it and resell it multiple times, which ultimately has an impact on our reputation with our customers. It’s important to understand the debt buyer’s strategies.”

Q: What do you look for in a debt-buying partner?
“We look for stability. We look for how long they’ve been in business and what their strategies are. We try to understand whom we are dealing with as individuals, so we always meet the principal folks.

“We don’t always sell to the highest bidder. If the highest bidder is someone we think is going to create for us additional risk, we’ll take a few less dollars to have someone who gives us a higher comfort level.”

Q: What else would you like to add?
“I would say that selling debt is certainly a very viable recovery strategy, but it’s only viable if you have a product you can get the right price at and if selling the debt isn’t going to cause any undue risk.”

The Debt-Selling Application For Equipment Lessors And Other Credit Issuers
When it comes to selling distressed assets to a debt buyer, the key drivers for commercial banks and credit card companies also apply to smaller banks, lessors and other credit issuers. They include:
• Accelerating income and cash flow.
• Satisfying cost-reduction objectives.
• Coping with limited in-house staff and time to manage bad debt portfolios.
• Benchmarking market conditions (debt buyer prices) against their own recovery results.

Currently, credit-card debt comprises about 70 percent of the accounts sold to debt buyers, with the remainder made up mostly of automobile loans, retail accounts, personal loans, utility bills, telecommunications debts, medical bills, and primary and secondary mortgages, according to published industry reports. Commercial equipment leases and business loans are a smaller but rapidly growing segment for major lenders and lessors as well.

How does the strategy apply for equipment lessors? Generally speaking, debt buyers will purchase equipment loans and leases with or without collateral still in place, although prices will vary dramatically depending on collateral status. This also means prices paid for debt will vary, but in general, expect the debt to garner anywhere from 2% to 12% of the debt’s face value. To come up with an offer price, the debt buyer will compute an anticipated recovery rate for the debt that depends on the age, remaining balance, prior collection efforts, collateral status, and credit scores or other debtor profile data.

It’s important to note: If a leasing and finance company averages a 20% net recovery on all charged-off accounts across a three-to-five year period, a debt buyer’s price to purchase the distressed assets today may be equal to or better than the recovery when considering the time value of money.

As familiarity with the debt-selling process grows within the leasing and finance industry, more lessors are likely to make sales of charged-off assets a regular practice, one that will generate a new revenue stream, ease the burden of managing distressed debt and provide brand protection in the process.

About The Author

Mark D. Erickson is senior vice president and commercial business leader at SquareTwo Financial, a Denver-based leader in the $100 billion debt-purchasing industry. Prior to joining SquareTwo, Erickson held positions of increasing responsibility at Key Equipment Finance during his 15-year tenure with the company. Most recently, he served as senior vice president and general manager of Key Equipment Finance’s government and healthcare finance businesses. Through a distinguished career with Key he also held roles including vice president of sales for information technology, managing director of KEF Australia-New Zealand, vice president of U.S. and Canadian portfolio client service, and manager of credit and debt syndication for Leasetec Corp. (which was acquired by Key). Erickson began his career in business banking at US Bank. Reach him at merickson@squaretwofinancial.com or 303-713-2005.

Paul A. Larkins, President and CEO, Gives Insights Into Economic Outlook for Denver Business Journal

As we approach the final quarter of 2011, the Denver Business Journal asked top executives in metro Denver to share their insights about the future of their industries:

Q. Has your business met your performance expectations thus far for the year?

A. Through the first two quarters of 2011, we have exceeded our planned expectations.

Last year, as a part of a comprehensive multiyear plan, we recapitalized the company, enabling us to invest in people, advanced technologies and a vastly improved infrastructure. This year we are aggressively executing against our plans, and I like what I see in terms of results.

That said, like all businesses, we’re looking forward to seeing improvements in the job market, the housing market and the overall U.S. economy.

Q. What is your business doing to attract new clients or customers?

A. The majority of our business comes from banks and commercial finance companies, so we remain laser-focused on ensuring that SquareTwo Financial remains well known by the banking community.

For starters, banks have to be sure they’re working with financially secure, trustworthy companies, so we’ve put a real spotlight on our financial performance and operating stability.

Both Moody’s and S&P have evaluated our company and provided us ratings, and we achieved SAS 70 compliance for our technology platform, both of which are strong testaments to our security and financial strength.

We’ve also made significant investments in both business development and marketing, and we are continually improving our technology infrastructure, all of which is helping us attract new clients and grow our relationships with existing ones.

Q. Do you have any plans for hiring during the final quarter of 2011 or moving into 2012?

A. We currently expect to hire between 25 and 50 people over the next six months.

Additionally we are progressing nicely with our in-house University, which allows our current employees the opportunity to advance within their careers at SquareTwo Financial.

Q. In general, what changes do you foresee in your industry by this time nextyear?

A. Unfortunately, we anticipate that the economy will continue to struggle over the next year.

For us, that means banks and other creditors will continue to look to companies like SquareTwo Financial to help generate revenue and liquidate debt.

However, with a struggling job market, soft housing market and overall poor economy, it’s increasingly difficult for many people to make ends meet, let alone pay off debt.

We are currently building our business model anticipating slow growth where our operational excellence will allow us to continue expanding our bottom line.

Paul A. Larkins, President and CEO, Shares Personal Leadership Philosophy in Leadership Lattice Interview, Executive Interview Series

Paul A. Larkins, president and CEO of SquareTwo Financial, was recently featured in Leadership Lattice, an interview series conducted by Ann Spoor, CEO & Founder of Executive Lattice.  The Leadership Lattice focuses on leadership in the private & public sector.  In his interview, Paul talks about building a strong culture through value based leadership.  Click here to view the interview.

To read an excerpt from the interview, please click here.

Thomas Good, SquareTwo Financial General Counsel, Named Best Corporate Counsel Finalist by Denver Business Journal

Thomas Good, SquareTwo Financial General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, was named Best Corporate Counsel Finalist by the Denver Business Journal in the Private Company category. In addition to his responsibilities as General Counsel, Good is actively involved in his local community as a regular Sunday school teacher to 6 and 7 year olds, and an author of children's books.  In 2010, he published his first novel,  "West to the Sun," about one family's adventures on the Oregon Trail.  During his time at SquareTwo Financial, Good has acted as a trusted business advisor.  Key accomplishments include creating and managing SquareTwo's corporate governance structure, negotiating and closing strategic acquisitions, and playing a significant role in the company's successful completion of a $475 million financing package.

Thomas Good named Finalist

Thomas Good
Title: General counsel and corporate secretary
Company: SquareTwo Financial
Location: Denver
Phone: 303-296-3345
Website: www.squaretwofinancial.com

Thomas Good brought more than 25 years of experience in the commercial and consumer finance industry to Square Two in 2006. He was hired away from Michigan’s Asset Acceptance Capital Corp. (Nasdaq: AACC), an asset-recovery firm based in Michigan.

Before moving to Colorado, Good worked at General Electric (Nasdaq: GEC), John Deere Credit and Michigan National Bank. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a juris doctorate, both from the University of Michigan.

Kristin Dickey, SVP of HR and Organizational Development, Shares Importance of Investing in Employee Development with Denver Business Journal

Training & Career Development
Educating employees: Expense or investment?

Date: Friday, May 13, 2011, 4:00am MDT

In 2008, New West Technologies, an engineering and technical services firm in Greenwood Village, won a multiyear contract with the Department of Energy to support some new energy-efficiency programs. In less than a year, New West added 56 employees — doubling its staff.

“Growth like that is exciting for a small business, but it changes everything,” said Elizabeth Springer, manager of business operations and contracting at New West. “We realized pretty quickly we needed to move from a small, family-owned business to an enterprise with policies and procedures to support all the growth and our staff.”

New West knew it would need help with development and training, so it hired a consulting company to handle that job.

Zoe Training & Consulting, an organizational development company in Denver, helped New West develop policies, a new-hire orientation, and training on legal issues such as business ethics and compliance training.

Springer said that since 2009, New West has spent about $160,000 on training. And as far as management is concerned, it was money well spent.

“The training did wonders for our staff; it brought people together and laid the foundation for a company culture of collaboration, communication and opportunity,” Springer said.

Despite some obvious advantages of training, some in the field say that during the tepid economy, employee development has been an easy line item to cross off.

“Training seems to be one of the first areas to be cut when times are tough,” said Kevin Lombardo, owner of Summit Group Partners, a Littleton-based consulting firm that helps companies with growth, operations and change. “Yet, the time that a company will see the results of the investment in training is when times are the toughest.

“It’s amazing to watch a company that has invested in its employees, when those employees, at all levels, step up and figure out ways to cut costs, grow revenues and make the company even more productive when the economy or industry slows.”

Lombardo said he often sees companies that cite lack of money and time as reasons for not training employees.

“But that’s really short term-thinking,” he said. “They say training or development won’t help them reach their goals that month or quarter, but these reasons don’t have much validity when you look at the real impact of investing in training.”

Lombardo said training yields lower costs, higher productivity, better customer service, and more satisfied customers and stockholders.

And he said companies often can save money by promoting internally rather than bring in outside talent.

“Training helps employees move from workers to contributors and potential leaders. Companies should be looking to the future and identifying tomorrow’s leaders from internal sources, too. If an internal candidate is promoted, it reduces the cost of bringing on a new manager or executive.”

Ashley Andrus, president of Zoe Consulting, agreed. She heard Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz talk in Denver in April — and he said of all the departments that report to him, human resources was the most important.

“The problem is a lot of companies look at training as a cost and not as an investment,” Andrus said. “Howard is one of the few CEOs with an enlightened view of training and development. The truth is when you do it properly, it helps you align employee efforts with company initiatives, the same as you would build in marketing, sales, accounting or product development.”

Andrus said companies that aren’t investing in their employees may see a mass exodus of talent when the economy heals. She said she’s read that between 60 and 80 percent of U.S. employees say they’ll seek employment elsewhere as soon as the economy gets better.

“So training today relates directly to retaining those employees tomorrow,” she said.

Andrus said one local company, in its annual employee survey last year, found that two-thirds of its employees said no or gave a neutral answer to the statement, “I get the training I need to do my job well.”

“That set off a lot of red flags,” Andrus said. “And notice it’s not about training to get promoted or move up in a career, but training just to do their jobs. That’s pretty bad.”

He said that organization has since explored company-wide programming and encouraged individual departments to conduct a training-needs analysis.

SquareTwo Financial, an asset recovery and management company in Denver, has added training programs for its staff within the past year.

Last year, it created an internal school, called SquareTwo University, to help employees reach their professional goals. It includes online, virtual classroom and traditional instructor-led courses. Topics include leadership and presentation skills, introduction to the Internet, Microsoft Office software, global business communication, computer technology, professional development and compliance.

The company reports about 60 employees have taken more than 200 online courses. One is Isaac Rivera, senior manager of data processing management systems, who said he likes the school because it’s easy to use and free.

“Every course I’ve taken has given me more confidence in my work and has helped me move up the company ladder,” Rivera said. “It’s really exciting that SquareTwo gives me the opportunity to become a better employee and grow my career.”

Kristin Dickey, senior vice president of human resources and organizational development for SquareTwo Financial, said employees want to continue to learn and grow within the organization. “Square Two U is a key piece of the employee-development cycle that lets our employees improve their skills, and this in turn cultivates more expertise and insight throughout our business.”

New West continues its employee development. At the end of last year, the company began offering on-site training on Microsoft Office 2010. “We wanted to make sure our staff was comfortable working with the newer versions of the program,” Springer said.

Recently, New West announced a new career-development program that lets employees choose among three certificate tracks in leadership, business management and key competencies.

“We believe offering this kind of continuing education is vital to keeping our employees and higher job satisfaction,” Springer said.

This article can also be found on the Denver Business Journal website.

SquareTwo CFO, Heath Sampson, Recognized by University of Denver's Daniels Business Review

Heath Sampson, Chief Financial Officer at SquareTwo Financial, was spotlighted in the 2011 Spring edition of the Daniels Business Review for his accomplishments in the Denver business community. The Daniels Business Review is a bi-yearly publication published by the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver. To read the article, please click here.

Nate Stephens, External Sales Manager, Outlines Benefits of Buying Debt in Asset Finance International

Nate Stephens argues the case for purchasing debt on the re-trade market

The pricing for fresh credit card paper from the nation’s largest banks continues to climb. So what does this mean for regional and local buyers?

Typically, they will no longer be able to compete with the capital spend it takes to pull down a fresh file from a national bank. In certain circumstances, the mid-sized buyer may partner with a larger buyer to increase their funding to competitive levels. What if they still want to remain autonomous and purchase their paper strictly on their own?

These buyers, both regional and local, will have a much easier time purchasing post prime, post-secondary and post-tertiary paper - but where do they find it?

Answer: the re-trade market.

An intimidating place
The re-trade market can be an intimidating place for buyers, due to the regulatory environment and the thousands of individuals and companies who operate in this space. How does a buyer ensure that the paper they are purchasing has the correct chain of title? How do they know that the paper was worked in compliance with state and national regulations? How do they know that the purchasing process will be secure and manageable?

The answer is simple: reputation.

By choosing a seller who’s been in the marketplace for an extended period of time, a state or regional buyer can be comfortable knowing that the seller understands the legal ramifications of dishonest that can bring down any ARM company. They will also understand the pricing trends in the small to mid-sized buying market.

Reputable sellers can be other mid-sized buyers who are looking to offload inventory to streamline their capacity or, more often than not, the most reputable sellers are the National Debt buyers – the handful of companies who can afford to purchase large national files directly from the largest banks in the country. These companies often have the largest amount of inventory available for sale, and it’s customizable to a local or regional buyer’s needs.

Due diligence
Local buyers should always be sure and complete their due diligence on potential sellers. Can the seller provide the chain of title? How does the seller handle the post-sales support process? How will the
transaction be handled, for example wiring of funds, downloading the file, etc?

Investigating your prospective seller and understanding their process from start to finish is critical to success. With prices rising for fresh- and post-prime paper across the country, local and regional buyers need to know that there are plenty of options out there to keep their inventory flowing. Thoroughly investigating re-sellers and understanding their process will ensure that companies are appropriately protected and profitable.

Any questions?

Holly Kerns
Internal Sales Manager
Sales & Acquisitions
SquareTwo Financial
hkerns@squaretwofinancial.com
www.debtjet.net
www.squaretwofinancial.com

Bill Weeks, SVP and CIO, Featured in Denver Business Journal as Acting President of Colorado SIM

Bill Weeks, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, was featured in, "SIM Connects Colorado Technology Executives."  Bill Weeks serves as president for the Colorado chapter of the Society for Information Management (SIM).

Brian Tuite, EVP and Chief Business Development Officer, Details Benefits of Selling Charged-Off Debt in Today's Economy for American Banker

Brian Tuite, Executive Vice President and Chief Business Development Officer, writes "Good Time To Unload Charged-Off Consumer Debt" for American Banker, the leading information resource serving the banking and financial services community.

SquareTwo Financial: A Hitachi Success Story

SquareTwo Financial continues to grow at a rapid pace as the largest purchaser of fresh debt in the United States. To remain at the forefront of our industry, we aggressively invest in technology.

Read about our successful partnership with Hitachi Storage Solutions by clicking the link below.  Together, our companies found cutting-edge, scalable solutions to efficiently use, store, and secure the vast amounts of data we require to be successful.

SquareTwo Finanical-Hitachi Success Story

Brian Tuite, EVP and Chief Business Development Officer, Shares What to Look For in a Debt-Buying Partner in Commercial Lending Review

Brian Tuite, Executive Vice President and Chief Business Development Officer, writes an overview of debt sales for Commercial Lending Review, outlining what to look for in a debt-buying partner.

To read the article, please click here.

Heath Sampson, SquareTwo Financial CFO, Featured Alumn in University of Denver Alumni Magazine

University of Denver Alumi Magazine chronicles how SquareTwo Financial Chief Financial Office--and DU hockey alum--Heath Sampson is scoring big in business.  To read the article online, please click here.

SquareTwo Financial's Success Profiled by Denver Post

The Denver Post profiles SquareTwo Financial’s success and cutting-edge business model.  To read the article, please click here.

Heath Sampson, CFO, Named Top 25 Most Influential Young Professional in Colorado

Heath Sampson, chief financial officer for SquareTwo Financial, was named one of the Top 25 Most Influential Young Professionals in Colorado by ColoradoBiz Magazine.  To read the complete story, please click here.

Mikel Burroughs, President of SquareTwo Financial Healthcare Funding, Writes for Revenue Cycle Strategist

Mikel J. Burroughs, President of SquareTwo Financial Healthcare Funding, describes how selling debt can affect your healthcare organization's bottom line in Revenue Cycle Strategist.

To read the article, please click here.

Brian Tuite, EVP and Chief Business Development Officer, Shares What to Expect When Selling Distressed Assets in ColoradoBiz (Part II)

September 10, 2010

Brian Tuite, Executive Vice President and Chief Business Development Officer, writes for ColoradoBiz about how to pick a debt buyer and what to expect when selling distressed assets.

To read the article, please click here.

Brian Tuite, EVP and Chief Business Development Officer, Explains How to Pick a Debt Buyer for ColoradoBiz (Part I)

September 1, 2010

Brian Tuite, Executive Vice President and Chief Business Development Officer, writes for ColoradoBiz about the benefits of buying debt from a debt-buyer and the debt-buying industry.

To read the article, please click here.

SquareTwo Moves Well Beyond Square One

June 4, 2010

The Denver Business Journal interviews Paul Larkins, President and Chief Executive Officer, about SquareTwo Financial's recent developments and successes.

To read the entire article, please click here.

One Good Turn Deserves Another

There’s something about the holiday season that encourages people to help those in need, often in surprising and unexpected ways.

Kim Bingham, SVP of Human Resources and Organizational Development at SquareTwo Financial, experienced one of these opportune moments. Right before the holidays, Kim caught a news story that sparked a random act of kindness.

Kim saw a heart-warming segment about the elders at the Highline Long-Term Care facility. Throughout 2009, they held bake sales to generate money for a new television. The facility’s current one was in desperate need of replacement and difficult to view for many of the patients.

But in a last-minute change of heart, the elders decided to use their hard-earned money to buy and donate toys to the Toys for Tots program run by the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve.

An idea sprang into Kim’s mind as she watched the news story unfold. She wanted to reward the elders’ act of kindness with another one, from SquareTwo Financial.

The next day, Kim spoke to Founder and Chairman Scott Lowery about her idea to buy the elders a new television. It wasn’t a hard decision for Scott. A new 50” plasma TV was delivered to Highline on Christmas morning. The elders were delighted by the random act of kindness performed by the SquareTwo staff.

On January 12, a group of elders visited the SquareTwo office to share their gratitude. They brought home-baked cookies and a handmade card signed by all the seniors at the home, titled “Thank You Very Much.”

Scott took them on a tour of the SquareTwo office and shared information about the business. The elders thoroughly enjoyed the visit…and their new TV!

SquareTwo Financial Continues the Holiday Tradition of Supporting The Arc of Aurora

For the past five years, SquareTwo Financial employees have donated gifts to the families of The Arc of Aurora as part of its Holiday Project. This year is no different. The company is proud to sponsor five families this holiday season.

Relying solely on the generous donations of individuals and companies, The Arc of Aurora Holiday Project helps literally hundreds of children and adults with developmental disabilities to celebrate spectacular holidays with their families

In the weeks leading up to the holiday season, SquareTwo proudly displays a garland wreath with gift tags at its offices. Each gift tag identifies a specific gift item needed by a family. Employees can take one or more tags, and purchase the gift for a sponsored family. Cash donations are also collected as part of the program.

Each year the gift pile grows larger as employees catch the holiday spirit of giving. It’s a proud day when The Arc of Aurora picks up the bounty of wrapped gifts, ready to bring holiday cheer to the sponsored families.

Over the years, SquareTwo has donated thousands of dollars in gifts and cash to The Arc of Aurora.

For information about The Arc of Aurora, visit http://www.thearcofaurora.org/.  The Arc of Aurora provides individual advocacy services for children and adults with intellectual developmental disabilities who live in Aurora. The Arc of Aurora also provides information and referral services, public policy support, community education and more. It is a local chapter of The Arc of Colorado and The Arc of the United States.