SSDA Meet ACA

By Catherine LaCroix

A leading South African debt collection agency, Shapiro Shaik Defries & Associates (SSDA) recently acquired membership with the Association of Credit and Collection Professionals (ACA). Daniel Shapiro, Group MD for SSDA, says about the recent membership, “With our extensive collection work in South Africa we are firm believers that we can assist the U.S. local market with our professional and highly advanced systems. We have been market leaders in our sector for years and believe that with the COVID-19 unemployment numbers, U.S. financial institutions will need to increase capacity to companies who can deal with their customers in a professional matter. SSDA is well suited for this. For the last three years, we have been working on this expansion with numerous trips and conferences and the time is now right for us to get involved.”

So, what does a membership with the prestigious ACA include? From ACA’s website, “ACA brings together third-party collection agencies, law firms, asset buying companies, creditors, and vendor affiliates, representing more than 230,000 industry employees. ACA establishes ethical standards, provides a wide variety of products, services and publications, and articulates the value of the credit and collection industry to businesses, policymakers, and consumers.” In short: more value for both the employees of SSDA as well as its clients. Their international division serves as a network between non-U.S. collection companies and U.S.-based industries to assist in building standards and improving performance metrics. SSDA began with four collectors in 2004 and at present, employs over 800 collectors and is still growing. Additionally, the group has over 400 agents servicing the USA BPO market in the Inbound Customer Service space under the brand iContact. Importantly, all agents within the group are sourced through Impact Sourcing channels.