Capital Club Radio - Back to the Future: Past Debt Buyer Association (DBA) Presidents discuss history and future of DBA
00:00 Announcer: On behalf of the Pro Business Channel, we're excited to welcome Michael Flock, the host of Capital Club Radio. Broadcasting on Pro Business Channel networks out of Atlanta, and on nine syndicated platforms including iTunes, Google Play and iHeartRadio. And recently interviewed on NPR. And now, live from the 20th annual DBA conference, please welcome Chairman and CEO of FLOCK Specialty Finance, Michael Flock.

[applause]

00:27 Michael Flock: Good morning, good morning. We at FLOCK Specialty Finance believe in the power of community, and that's why a little over a year ago we started a radio show called the Capital Club Radio Show, to build a community of thought leaders, of creative people in this industry who have made a difference for the Debt Buyers Association and others in the accounts receivable management sector. We talk about lessons learned, the successes and failures of the different companies, of the different leaders in this space, and we convert these broadcasts to podcast, which we distribute to the few thousand followers we have, and then we also distribute the podcast to our guests, and they can use the podcast as they see fit.

01:08 MF: This morning I am absolutely honored to be here today, hosting the Capital Club Radio Show, as we help celebrate 20 years of the Debt Buyers Association, or DBA. We're celebrating 20 years of connections, 20 years of trust, 20 years of building a new industry. And, if you're a Falcons fan like me, maybe you're celebrating 20 years of drinking.

[laughter]

01:36 MF: To be more serious, this has been an incredible roller-coaster of 20 years for all of us. There have been good times and bad times, we've seen periods of great supply, we've seen periods of very tight supply. Periods of low prices and high prices. Periods of loose regulation, and periods of very onerous regulation. So we've thrived and survived in large part, thanks to the leaders of the Debt Buyers Association, some of whom are sitting right here, and also the members and staff of the total Debt Buyers Association. DBA, I think, has been essential to this industry. It's been essential in defining it, supporting it, and helping grow, and helping legitimize it.

02:25 MF: In our company, FLOCK Specialty Finance, we talk a lot about the power and importance of passion and perseverance, which drive performance. And I can't think of five better leaders today who represent passion, perseverance, and performance than Walt Collins, Bob Morris, Mike Bendickson, Kaye Dreifuerst, and Todd Lansky. And we also wanna recognize, Dennis, sitting right here, who helped start this association. He had the idea for the Debt Buyers Association, I think, along with these folks. So it was his idea that brings us here today. So Dennis, thank you very much for that idea, and 20 years later we're celebrating it, it's now a reality.

03:17 MF: But without the passion and perseverance, there's no way this industry would ever have come so far from the gunslinger culture of the past, to the more professional, more consumer friendly culture, than the debt buying and collection industry that we are today. So, I think in general, the evolution of the past 20 years has been steady, but obviously not without its challenges, which we're gonna discuss here in a few minutes. And Jan Stieger shared with me some very interesting and positive statistics. According to Jan, our Executive Director, who you just heard from, there were only 60 members back in 1997, and today, there are 546. At our first annual conference, there were only 125 attendees, and today we're gonna be close to 900.

04:08 MF: So in spite of the recent consolidation in our industry, due to a drop of supply of consumer charged-off debt, and due to, obviously, the radical regulation that we've lived through,