this article appears to have a close connection with its subject . it may require cleanup to comply with wikipedia s content policies particularly neutral point of view . please discuss further on the talk page . march 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message encore capital group type public nasdaq ecpg industry financial services debt buyer debt collection founded 1953 headquarters san diego california united states key people kenneth a. vecchione president & ceo products specialty finance services collections and recoveries revenue us 467.4 million fy 2011 1 number of employees 5 000 ye 2014 1 subsidiaries midland credit management inc. website encorecapital.com encore capital group inc. and subsidiaries form the largest publicly traded debt buyer by revenue in the united states . 2 3 235 4 they purchase portfolios of defaulted consumer receivables from major banks credit unions and utility providers 5 and recover collectable debt from these accounts . jake halpern author of bad paper described encore capital as a behemoth in the american debt industry complex . 6 at the corporate level debt collection is highly profitable and encore capital enjoyed soaring revenues from 316 million in 2009 to 773 million in 2013 . 6 the firm is a publicly traded nasdaq global select company a component stock of the russell 2000 the s & p smallcap 600 and the wilshire 4500 . 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 dodd frank wall street reform and consumer protection act 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 . 4 u.s. federal regulators consumer financial protection bureau imposed an enforcement action on encore for pressuring borrowers to pay with false statements with lawsuits and with the use of using so called robo signed court documents . 7 according to the new york times encore must pay 42 million in consumer refunds and a 10 million penalty and an injunction to stop collections on debts totaling more than 125 million . 7 in new york state encore and other debt buyers were filing lawsuits against customers to collect debts in hundreds of court cases which included generic testimony or relied on robo signed bogus affidavits compared to the robo signing controversy in the 2010 united states foreclosure crisis . at the same time preventing those same consumers from using the courts to challenge the companies tactics . 8 in response to the enforcement action imposed on encore capital group by the ceo kenneth a. vecchione claimed that its debt collection practices were not improper and that the c.f.p.b. was subjecting companies to its own interpretations that have never been codified or adopted . 7 their business model is highly lucrative as debt collectors buy huge swaths of soured bills from lenders for pennies on the dollar . 8 from 2007 to 2012 in new york state alone encore capital and its subsidiaries filed more than 239 000 lawsuits and in 2013 alone collected 564.7 million in legal collections . 8 contents 1 history 2 business 3 locations 4 leadership team 5 financials 6 litigation practices 6.1 january 2015 7 robo signing lawsuits 7.1 context 8 subsidiaries 9 references 10 external links history edit encore capital group s wholly owned operating subsidiary midland credit management inc. was founded in 1953 and was incorporated in kansas in september 1953 . in 1998 an investor group led by nelson peltz and peter may members of triarc companies inc. management and kerry packer of consolidated press international holdings limited acquired a majority interest in its operations . in 1999 the group formed a holding company mcm capital group inc. later renamed encore capital group inc. in april 2002 . the company was incorporated in delaware in april 1999 as mcm capital group inc. and changed its name to encore capital group inc. in april 2002 . the company completed its initial public offering of 2 250 000 shares of common stock in july 1999 . 9 in june 2013 encore acquired asset acceptance corporation nasdaq aacc another large publicly held debt buyer based in warren michigan . this increased the size of encore capital . 10 in 2013 encore began a series of acquisitions of international debt buying companies . these include cabot credit management in the u.k. and ireland refinancia s.a. in colombia and peru mexico with other latin america locations and baycorp holdings in australia . business edit according to their 2012 sec filing encore purchases portfolios of defaulted consumer receivables at deep discounts to face value and uses a variety of channels to maximize collections from these portfolios . in addition the firm provides bankruptcy support services to some companies in the financial services industry ; through their wholly owned subsidiary ascension capital group inc. ascension . 11 in 2009 encore capital filed 448 000 lawsuits . 3 235 12 39 locations edit encore capital group is based in san diego california with additional sites in arizona minnesota texas michigan india and costa rica in addition the international subsidiaries operate in their own countries . it employs about 3 400 people as of december 2015 across these locations and also has a large third party network of collection agents and litigators in the united states . leadership team edit kenneth a. vecchione is encore capital group s president and chief executive officer . financials edit in 2010 the firm paid 362 million to purchase 10.9 billion in face value of debt . in 2011 it paid 386.9 million to purchase 11.7 billion in face value of debt 1 of this 386.9 million 346.3 million was credit card portfolios 1.6 million consumer bankruptcy accounts and 38.9 million telecom accounts . the company s revenue increased 22.5 % in 2011 to 467.4 million . 1 gross collections increased to 761.2 million in 2011 a 26 % increase from 2010 . collection sites accounted for 336.0 million while legal collections accounted for 377.5 million . external collection agency forwarding accounted for 47.7 million in gross collections . encore s 2015 sec filings report revenues of 1.2 billion dollars for calendar year ending in december 31 2015 and 1.1 billion for 2014 . litigation practices edit the consumer financial protection bureau an official site of the united states government reported on september 2 2015 that the nation s two largest debt buyers encore and portfolio recovery associates violated the fair debt collection practices act the dodd frank wall street reform and consumer protection act 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 . 4 already by 2010 the wall street journal was investigating litigation practices as a business plan for large publicly traded debt buyers like encore . 2 journalist jessica silver greenberg reported that the modern debt buying industry was created in response to the savings and loan crisis . 2 lawmakers established the resolution trust corp. to shutter failed thrifts and auction other assets to buyers . by the mid 1990s the rtc sold more than 450 billion in these assets . over time some buyers of such assets shifted to a new source of profit charged off credit card debt and other consumer debt . wall street journal 2010 in 2009 alone encore capital filed 448 000 lawsuits 3 235 12 39 the most filed by any company in the united states that year . 2 encore posted 33 million in profit last year up 139 % from 2008 . while the standard and poor s 500 stock index rose 23.5 % in 2009 encore s stock soared 142 % . between 2007 and 2008 the company scooped up 20 billion in charged off loans for 695.9 million . in order to wring more cash from debt encore increasingly has turned to the courts . lawsuits are filed by a network of outside law firms . last year encore paid 112.6 million for legal collection which brought in 233 million . once encore sues it is virtually assured a win says mr. black the company s ceo . roughly 94 % of collection cases filed against borrowers result in default judgments in favor of the debt buyer according to industry estimates . the majority of borrowers don t have a lawyer some don t know they are even being sued and others don t appear in court say judges . wall street journal 2010 january 2015 edit new york state attorney general eric schneiderman sued encore midland s parent company over shoddy practices and forced encore to pay a 675 000 penalty and vacate more than 4 500 court judgments against borrowers . 8 mr. schneiderman added new york has laws in place to ensure no one can prey on consumers and debt collectors are required to follow those rules ... t oday s settlement ensures that thousands of new yorkers will see millions in relief from debts that were not enforceable in the first place . new york state attorney general eric schneiderman january 2015 robo signing lawsuits edit according to a new york times article in september 2015 u.s. federal regulators consumer financial protection bureau ordered the two big debt collecting agencies encore capital group and portfolio recovery associates to pay a combined 79 million in refunds and penalties to stop collections on debts totaling 128 million and to change their debt collection practices . 7 robo signing refers to the use of false and misleading affidavits signed by debt collecting agency staff claiming personal knowledge of an alleged debt that are then used in court . on august 11 2009 the northern district of ohio court issued a landmark ruling that robo signing affidavits in debt collection violates the fair debt collection practices act fdcpa . in the 2009 case the debt collector employees had been signing between 200 and 400 computer generated affidavits per day for use in debt collection actions without personal knowledge of the accounts . 13 the bureau said the companies bought the rights to collect debts that were potentially inaccurate lacked documentation or were legally unenforceable and tried to collect the money without verifying the debt . the bureau said the companies pressured borrowers to pay with false statements with lawsuits and with the use of so called robo signed court documents . new york times september 9 2015 context edit illegal robo signing tactics used by debt collectors were first uncovered through a 2008 affidavit signed by midland credit management debt collection agency employee claimed personal knowledge that andrea brent owed a debt of over 4 000 to midland funding . this affidavit was used to file a debt collection against brent . brent brought a class action counterclaim against midland alleging violations of the fair debt collection practices act fdcpa and state common law because the attached affidavit was signed without personal knowledge of the facts asserted . 13 by june 2008 the case was removed to the northern district of ohio . on august 11 2009 northern district of ohio issued a self described landmark ruling holding that robo signing affidavits in debt collection actions violates the fdcpa . the court found the affidavit to be false and misleading under the fdcpa due to the false attestation of personal knowledge . as it turns out midland employees had been signing between 200 and 400 computer generated affidavits per day for use in debt collection actions without personal knowledge of the accounts . 13 the 2013 case vassalle v. midland funding llc 11 3814 u.s. court of appeals for the sixth circuit cincinnati was held to determine if encore capital group used illegal collection tactics to collect funds from 1.44 million