Debt collection practices

• US 20030078881A1
• Filed: 11/05/2001
• Published: 04/24/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 10/12/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Services GmbH (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Elliott, Michael B., Nocedal, Jorge, Fourer, Robert, OʼNeill, Patrick G.
• Granted Patent: US 7,403,923 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/39
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof

Abstract

A method of optimizing debt collection attitudinally classifies debtors into one of several attitudinal segments. The approach uses an assessment of current attitudes rather than past behaviors as to predict future behavior. Each segment can be addressed with an offer, which is a combination of attributes which together, have an expected, measurable, and predictable response from the debtor. Debt collection requires the expenditure of resources, at least one of which the availability of a relatively small number of debt collectors. The offers that can be extended to debtors are identified on a debtor-by-debtor, offer-by-offer basis to identify the best offer to propose to each debtor by the limited number of debt collectors in order to maximize the economic return from all debtors.

Claims

1. A method of collecting debt from a plurality of delinquent debtors comprising the steps of:

identifying a set of debt collection strategies which can be employed to recover debt from said plurality of debtors, at least one strategy of which can be offered to each debtor;

for each debt collection strategy of said set of strategies and for each debtor, determining a first debt collection strategy which when offered to a debtor, optimizes the economic recovery from all other debtors;

attempting collection of said debt from at least one debtor of said plurality of debtors using said first debt collection strategy.

5. The method of claims 1, 2, 3 or 4 wherein at least one debt collection strategy is comprised of the steps of:

assigning to at least one debt collector or a group of collectors of a predetermined skill level i, the task of attempting debt collection from a predetermined debtor;

said at least one debt collector or said group of collectors contacting said predetermined debtor; and

propounding a predetermined debt re-payment offer to said debtor, said offer being at least part of said first debt collection strategy.

6. The method of claims 1, 2, 3 or 4 wherein at least one debt collection strategy is comprised of the steps of:

assigning to at least one debt collector or a group of collectors of a predetermined skill level i, the task of attempting debt collection from a predetermined debtor;

said at least one debt collector or said group of collectors contacting said predetermined debtor at a first predetermined time of day; and

propounding a predetermined debt re-payment offer to said debtor, said offer being at least part of said first debt collection strategy

10. The method of claims 1, 2, 3, or 4 wherein said expected economic recovery is expressed by:

τ

_{i, j, k, p}=c(i, j, k, p)·

x(i, j, k, p)

where;

p is a debtor from whom a debt is to be collected;

c(i, j, k, p) is an expected collection amount;

i is the skill level of a particular debt collector;

j is a time period in a day;

k is a particular debt collection strategy chosen to be used on a particular debtor and

where for each i, j, k, p, x(i, j, k, p) can take either the value 0 or 1 and is determined by optimally selecting i, j and k for all p'"'"'s and where c(i, j, k, p) represents the expected value of money recovered from debtor p.

11. The method of claims 1, 2, 3, 4 or 7 wherein the skill level of a debt collector is expressed as a number of promises kept by debtors divided by the number of promises made to a debt collector.

2. A method of collecting debt from a plurality of delinquent debtors comprising the steps of:

classifying each delinquent debtor into at least one debtor category of a plurality of debtor classification categories;

for each category, identifying a set of debt collection strategies that can be employed to recover debt from debtors in the category;

for each category, for the set of identified debt collection strategies, identifying at least a first debt collection strategy for each debtor such that the total expected value of all prospective debt payments that is expected of all debtors is optimized;

attempting collection of said debt from said debtor according to said first debt collection strategy.

3. A method of collecting debt from a plurality of delinquent debtors comprising the steps of:

identifying a set of debt collection strategies which can be employed to recover debt from debtors;

for each debt collection strategy of said set of strategies, determining a first economic risk value R, and an expected debt recovery value, that each debt collection strategy in said set of strategies creates when it is offered to each debtor;

for the set of identified debt collection strategies, identifying at least a first debt collection strategy for each debtor such that the total expected value of all prospective debt payments that is expected of all debtors is optimized and the total risk attributable to all debtors is within a second economic risk value R;

attempting collection of said debt from said debtor according to said first debt collection strategy.

4. A method of collecting debt from a plurality of delinquent debtors comprising the steps of:

classifying each delinquent debtor into at least one debtor category of a plurality of debtor classification categories;

for each category, identifying a set of debt collection strategies which can be employed to recover debt from debtors in the category;

for each category, for each debt collection strategy of said set of strategies, and for each debtor in the category, determining a first economic risk value R, and an expected debt recovery value, that each debt collection strategy in said set of strategies creates when it is offered to each debtor;

identifying at least a first debt collection strategy for each debtor in each category such that the total expected value of all prospective debt payments that is expected of all debtors is optimized and the total risk attributable to all debtors is within a second economic risk value R;

attempting collection of said debt from said debtor according to said first debt collection strategy.

7. A method of collecting debt from a plurality of delinquent debtors comprising the steps of:

identifying a set of debt collection strategies which can be employed to recover debt from a plurality of debtors,

identifying at least a first strategy of said set of strategies, which when offered to a first debtor, is likely to optimize the economic recovery from all debtors;

assigning the task of attempting debt collection from said first debtor to at least one debt collector or a group of collectors, of a predetermined skill level i, using said first strategy;

said at least one debt collector or said group of collectors contacting said predetermined debtor at a first predetermined time of day; and

propounding said first strategy to said debtor;

such that each debtor in a set of all debtors, is assigned to at least one debt collector or group of debt collectors, each debtor is assigned a time of day to be contacted and a debt re-payment offer selected so as to optimized the economic value of all prospective debt payments that are expected of all debtors.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein said step of identifying at least a first strategy of said set of strategies, includes the step of:

identifying strategies having an economic risk value R that is determined from at least one of;

the outstanding balance of a debtors account;

the debtors risk score;

the change in duration of an original loan term.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein said step of identifying at least a first strategy of said set of strategies, includes the step of:

identifying strategies having an economic risk value R is determined from;

the outstanding balance of a debtors account, multiplied by a risk score, multiplied by the change in duration of an original loan term.