PRAA Announces New Facility for Contingent Collection Operation

Portfolio Recovery Associates announced the scheduled opening of a new, 25,000 square-foot operations and administrative center on January 19, 2004. This facility will be located adjacent to Portfolio Recovery Associates’ existing headquarters in Norfolk. It will house the Anchor Receivables Management contingent-fee collection operation as well as various administrative and support functions.

The new facility has the capacity to hold about 250 employees, including approximately 120 collectors and their supervisors. The company expects that during January 2004 about 100 existing employees will transfer from other Portfolio Recovery Associates locations to the new office.

“This is a strategic move, designed to make our operations more efficient by placing working groups in closer proximity to one another while giving us additional space to accommodate the continued rapid growth of our Anchor operation. It will also allow us to add support and administrative personal as required,” said Kevin Stevenson, Chief Financial Officer.

Portfolio Recovery Associates will offset some of the cost of the new facility by declining to renew about 7,500 square feet of office space in Virginia Beach, Va., when leases expire in 2004. The lease for the new Norfolk facility was previously disclosed in the company’s June 30, 2003, 10-Q filing as an attachment.

About Portfolio Recovery Associates, Inc.
Portfolio Recovery Associates (NasdaqNM: PRAA) is a full-service provider of outsourced receivables management. Portfolio Recovery Associates purchases, collects and manages portfolios of defaulted consumer receivables. Defaulted consumer receivables are the unpaid obligations of individuals to credit originators, including banks, credit unions, consumer and auto finance companies, retail merchants and other service providers. The defaulted consumer receivables Portfolio Recovery Associates collects are either purchased from the credit originator or are collected on behalf of clients on a commission basis.