Encore Capital Group, Inc. is a publicly traded

debt buyer A debt buyer is a company, sometimes a collection agency, a private debt collection law firm, or a private investor, that purchases delinquent or charged-off debts from a creditor or lender for a percentage of the face value of the debt based on t ...

based in the United States. The company is headquartered in

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, and operates throughout the United States. The firm is a publicly traded

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Global Select company (ECPG), a component stock of the

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, the S&P SmallCap 600, and the

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History

Encore Capital Group's

subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...

company, Midland Credit Management, Inc., through which it purchases all of its debt, was founded in 1953 and was incorporated in Kansas in September 1953. In 1998, an investor group led by

Nelson Peltz Nelson Peltz (born June 24, 1942) is an American billionaire businessman and investor. He is a founding partner, together with Peter W. May and Edward P. Garden, of Trian Partners, an alternative investment management fund based in New York. He i ...

and Peter May and

Kerry Packer Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer (17 December 1937 – 26 December 2005) was an Australian media tycoon, and was considered one of Australia's most powerful media proprietors of the twentieth century. The Packer family company owned a controlling ...

of Consolidated Press International Holdings Limited, acquired a majority interest in its operations. The group formed a

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

, which it incorporated in Delaware in April 1999 as MCM Capital Group, Inc., later renamed Encore Capital Group, Inc. in April 2002. The company completed its

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

of 2,250,000 shares of common stock in July 1999. Encore Capital is the largest publicly traded United States debt buyer by revenue. Ashish Masih is Encore Capital's President and Chief Executive Officer. Masih joined Encore Capital in 2009. In June, 2013, Encore acquired Asset Acceptance Corporation, a debt buyer based in

Warren, Michigan Warren is a city in Macomb County, Michigan, Macomb County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An inner-ring Metro Detroit, suburb of Detroit, Warren borders Detroit to the north, roughly north of downtown Detroit. The population was 139,387 at the ...

. In 2014, Encore Capital acquired Virginia-based Atlantic Credit & Finance. In January 2015,

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Eric Schneiderman Eric Tradd Schneiderman (born December 31, 1954) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 65th attorney general of New York from 2011 until his resignation in May 2018. Schneiderman, a member of the Democratic Party, spent ten year ...

sued Encore Capital over unethical practices and forced Encore Capital to pay a $675,000 penalty and vacate more than 4,500 court judgments against borrowers. In September 2015, both Encore and Portfolio Recovery Associates, the United States’ two largest publicly held debt buyers, were charged with violating the

Fair Debt Collection Practices Act The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), Pub. L. 95-109; 91 Stat. 874, codified as –1692p, approved on September 20, 1977 (and as subsequently amended), is a consumer protection amendment, establishing legal protection from abusive d ...

and the

Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, commonly referred to as Dodd–Frank, is a United States federal law that was enacted on July 21, 2010. The law overhauled financial regulation in the aftermath of the Great Reces ...

by filing "lawsuits against consumers without having the intent to prove many of the debts, winning the vast majority of the lawsuits by default when consumers failed to defend themselves." The

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for consumer protection in the financial sector. CFPB's jurisdiction includes banks, credit unions, securities firms, Payday lo ...

imposed an enforcement action on Encore Capital for pressuring borrowers "to pay with false statements, with lawsuits and with the use of using so-called robo-signed court documents." According to ''

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'', Encore paid "$42 million in consumer refunds and a $10 million penalty" and an injunction to "stop collections on debts totaling more than $125 million." On June 6, 2017, Encore Capital announced the launch of its financial literacy program, Money Matters, which sends employee volunteers to teach high school and college students financial literacy. In 2018, Encore fully acquired British debt buyer Cabot Financial. In September 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau filed a lawsuit against Encore Capital and its subsidiary Cabot Financial. In October 2020, Encore Capital agreed to pay an addition $78,308.81 in consumer redress as well as an additional $15 million in civil money penalty as directed by the CFPB. Encore is subject to five years of monitoring, ending the consent order and resolving further litigation.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.encorecapital.com/ Financial services companies established in 1953 Companies listed on the Nasdaq Financial services companies based in California Debt collection Debt buyers 1953 establishments in Kansas 1999 initial public offerings