Canadian Lenders Association Webinar - How to Collect in a Downturn

Amir Tajkarimi, Andrew Mulroy, and Tony Pampena offered key industry insights and advice in their respective areas of expertise in the Canadian Lenders Association webinar "How to Collect in a Downturn".

Moderated by Jon Castellano, VP of Chapter Law Professionals, this was a fascinating round-table discussion on where the economy is heading and what strategies to leverage in collections to navigate these uncertain times.

The webinar explores these four key areas as conversation topics:

• What are key identifiers or characteristics of a downturn?
• How do economic or financial downturns affect the consumers that we deal with on a day to day?
• How does an organization adjust to the downturn and find creative ways to recover losses?
• What does the future hold for debt collections and recoveries after the downturn?

Andrew Mulroy from iA Auto Finance shares his views on the indicators of a downturn and that consumer spending drawbacks have a negative impact on the economy. Within the auto finance industry, they're seeing non-sufficient funds, bounced payments, and rising delinquencies. The non-prime sector is especially seeing lower-income families struggling to service debt due to higher interest rates and inflation impacting their basic needs. These interest rate hikes are the primary driver for challenging profitability. 

Tony Pampena and Amir discuss how it's a race against getting paid in a downturn and how leveraging technology is critical to reach and engage past-due customers. 

Watch until the end for some valuable takeaways as they field over an open Q&A session from the attendees.

About the speakers:

Amir Tajkarimi - CEO & Co-Founder, Lexop

Before co-founding Lexop, Amir was a practicing banking lawyer at renowned firms, including the National Bank of Canada for several years. In addition to his professional successes, he is also a published author and has contributed to publications like Doing Business Report by the World Bank Group.

Andrew Mulroy - VP of Operations, iA Auto Finance

For over 25 years, Andrew has been a highly regarded leader in the credit and collections lifecycle, specializing in risk, default, and recovery areas. Much of his time has been spent in the auto finance industry, developing and leading successful collections and customer service teams. Andrew's logical approach and focus strategies on mitigating loss and improving effectiveness and efficiency metrics have earned him high respect amongst his colleagues and team members.

Tony Pampena - SVP Operations, CBV Collections Services

Tony is a seasoned executive with incredible passion and commitment to the receivables industry for the past 25 years. Tony's experience falls in all areas of receivables management, including operations and business development. Tony exhibits a pragmatic management style, his greatest strength, characterized by his ability to think outside the box and challenge the status quo.