NCO Group Looking to Grow in Philippines: Paper

The head of NCO Group’s Philippine operations told a local paper that the accounts receivable management and business process outsourcing giant was looking to add two more call center locations in the Pacific island nation in the next 12 months.

NCO Group, based in Horsham, Pa., is one of the largest debt collection firms in the world. The company currently has three call center sites in the Philippines.

Elek Toth, country manager for the Philippines, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that NCO was considering two specific locations for new call centers. One would add 500 seats in Marikina City and another would add 730 collection personnel at an undisclosed location.

During its quarterly investor conference call in August, NCO noted that it was readying plans to fully leverage its operations in the Philippines. On the call, management noted that if the current facilities were expanded to capacity and a fourth came online, NCO could employ as many as 8,000 in the country by the end of the first quarter of 2009 (“NCO’s Quarterly Loss Widens on $24.6 million Portfolio Impairment,” Aug. 12).

NCO has been talking about the Philippines for much of 2008. In April, NCO Vice President of Investor Relations Brian Callahan told insideARM that the company was targeting the Philippines for growth this year (“NCO Group Planning Huge Growth in Philippines,” April 4).

Much of the work that NCO has sent to the Philippines has been customer relationship tasks associated with the company’s BPO business. But Callahan noted that NCO is increasing the ARM work it sends to the country as training picks up.