Encore Capital Group, Inc. is a publicly traded

debt buyer Debt is an obligation that requires one party, the debtor, to pay money or other agreed-upon value to another party, the creditor. Debt is a deferred payment, or series of payments, which differentiates it from an immediate purchase. The de ...

based in the United States. The company is headquartered in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

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

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

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

Russell 2000 The Russell 2000 Index is a small-cap stock market index that makes up the smallest 2,000 stocks in the Russell 3000 Index. It was started by the Frank Russell Company in 1984. The index is maintained by FTSE Russell, a subsidiary of the Lon ...

, the S&P SmallCap 600, and the Wilshire 4500.

History

Encore Capital Group's subsidiary company,

Midland Credit Management, Inc. Midland Credit Management, Inc. is an American debt buyer and debt collection company headquartered in San Diego, California, and has offices throughout the United States as well as in India and Costa Rica. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of ...

, 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 Fund Management, an alternative investment management fund based in New Yo ...

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 securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

, 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 investme ...

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 in the U.S. state of Michigan. The 2020 Census places the city's population at 139,387, making Warren the largest city in Macomb County, the third largest city in Michigan, and Metro Detroit's largest suburb. ...

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

New York State Attorney General The attorney general of New York is the chief legal officer of the U.S. state of New York and head of the Department of Law of the state government. The office has been in existence in some form since 1626, under the Dutch colonial government ...

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 years ...

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 de ...

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 Recess ...

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 agency of the United States government responsible for consumer protection in the financial sector. CFPB's jurisdiction includes banks, credit unions, securities firms, payday lenders, mor ...

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 ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', 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