insideARM’s Inaugural First-Party Outsourcing Summit Begins

Over 200 ARM industry professionals gathered in Minnesota today for the opening session of insideARM’s inaugural First-Party Outsourcing Summit. The mix of credit grantors, collection agency, call center, and BPO executives as well as other ARM industry experts were universally excited at the prospects for the conference. Representatives from financial institutions, wireless providers, cable and satellite providers, retail, healthcare, marketplace lenders and more are in attendance.

To ensure the freedom of participants to engage in candid discussions of the issues, the event is closed to the press, even to insideARM reporters. Thus there will be no coverage of the specific discussion content on insideARM.

In light of the specific subject matter of the conference, the event kicked off with a session discussing the infamous 2002 FTC Opinion letter to Richard deMayo that set out ground rules for first party outsourcing.  The session was led by Attorney John Rossman from the law firm of Moss & Barnett, and features Tom Pahl, Managing Regulatory Counsel, Office of Regulations, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) CFPB and Chris Koegel, Assistant Director, Division of Financial Practices, Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The event features approximately 50 session speakers or facilitators.  The format focuses primarily on small breakout sessions designed to encourage collaborative dialogue amount the participants. There are only two general sessions during the entire conference.

Among the many topics to be addressed over the next 48 hours are:  Selection of an Outsource Partner, Labor and Employment Issues, Effectively Integrating the Outsource Partner, Engagement Model for a Successful Partnership, the Merger of Care and Collections, Unique Healthcare Outsourcing Considerations, and Defense Strategies for High Exposure Litigation.