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- Exciting News for Factors
with Trucking Clients
- Recent Industry News
- Fraud Corner
- IT Corner
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Monitoring Insurance and Authority is a difficult and inexact science. However, Freight Bills that are generated while a Client's insurance is expired can literally be worthless! Further, knowing that a Debtor's insurance has expired can allow you to drastically reduce credit losses.
You can now be alerted to changes as reported by the DOT on all your carriers AND brokers, both Clients & Debtors, automatically! The CarrierGuard web-based compliance monitoring system performs 3 weekly auto-updates by MC/DOT# to maintain current information for a total of 156 updates per year. You receive change alerts online as well as by fax or email. This closed-loop system reports both the lapses in coverage (or suspension of authority) and the reinstatements (assuming the problem is subsequently cured).
CarrierGuard also gives you Extra Fraud Protection! CarrierGuard allows you to:
• Identify other carriers using that same MC/DOT number • Find companies using the same or similar name • Locate other registered firms at the same or similar address • Discover other registered firms using the same or similar phone number
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Many times, when transportation firms go out of business, it is common for them to start right up again under a new (or similar) name and new MC/DOT number. Most times the new firm is set up even before the present firm shuts down operations. CarrierGuard helps you identify these situations at the click of a button!
This service is amazingly inexpensive. It costs only $2,000 per year to monitor 250 or fewer MC/DOT numbers. As the number of firms monitored goes up, the cost per firm monitored goes down to as little as $1 per Year!
PROTECT YOUR ASSETS and sign up for CarrierGuard Today! The new CarrierGuard website debuts August 1, 2005 at www.CarrierGuard.com.
Call us at (972) 231-6572 or email us today to learn more.
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Fortis (www.fortis.com) and Atradius (www.atradius.com) have entered into an agreement in which Fortis will acquire the Factoring operations of Atradius. Fortis intends to integrate the Atradius Factoring Units, which are located in Denmark, Sweden, France, Germany, and Italy into its Fortis Commercial Finance Division (FCF).
Fortis and Atradius also announced that they have entered into an agreement that will allow them to share each other's European networks. Co-operation will focus on Factoring and Credit Insurance.
Karel De Boeck, Fortis's Commercial and Private Banking CEO said: "The acquisition of the Atradius Factoring units marks a major step towards achieving Fortis's ambition to be among the top five European factors. It will give us the market-leader position in Denmark and reinforce our operations in Italy, France and Germany. The Atradius Factoring units will add to our know-how and distribution capacity in the markets where they are present."
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Capstone Business Credit, LLC (www.capstonetrade.com) a merchant banking firm has signed a two-year project financing agreement with Monarchia Matt International (MMI), an importer, exporter and distributor of fine wines from the leading world wine regions. The Capstone funding includes over $1 million in purchase order financing and nearly $2.5 million of Factoring services. The accord will allow MMI to increase inventory and to promote the solidification of infrastructure for its global distribution business.
Factorhelp offers a complete suite of Investment Banking Services for companies in the Factoring Industry. Call, email, or visit our website today for all of your Capital Raising (debt or equity), M&A and/or portfolio brokerage needs!
Thomas G. Siska, Managing Director,
(847) 498-9136 or tsiska@factorhelp.com.
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You have a complete package from a Prospect. As part of that package, the Prospect submitted an A/R Aging and complete Customer List. They only have 8 to 10 Customers but they generate a nice $500K per month in potential Purchases. You're Salesperson has done a great job getting the pricing you need AND Full Verification & Notification. The proper returns with the proper controls, what more can you ask for?
Your underwriting department completes the Due Diligence process and the deal looks as good as or better than most you've seen recently. The Prospect isn't Factoring so much because of problems, but more because it is less than a year old and growing fast. Ahhh, the best situation possible. The Debtors are all household names, Texas Instruments, SBC, Bank of America and the like.
All that remains is to Notify and then Verify each of the Debtors. Even these processes go smoothly and you fund it as fast as possible to get the deal off the street. Job well done… at least for the fraudulent Client! A quick half-million dollars and you never saw it coming.
What happened? Complete Customer Lists are nice to have, BUT NOT TO BE USED FOR NOTIFICATION & VERIFICATION. Customer information is to be used strictly to run Credit Reports. The information on the credit reports or other public sources (directory assistance, websites, your own past files, etc) is what you use to Notify & Verify.
In this case, the Fraudulent Client purchased phone numbers in the city where the real debtors actually reside. He then had these numbers, both phone (for Verification) and fax (for Notification), forwarded to his office where his cohorts proceeded to relieve you of that pesky half-million dollars you had clogging up your bank account.
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He also set up physical addresses in the same locations where the real debtors actually reside (most on the same street!) at Postal Centers like Mailboxes ETC. The invoices and notifications you mailed were then also forwarded to your Fraudulent Client. It was mighty nice of you to oblige.
This was an actual occurrence. While cases like this, with 100% of the Debtors falsified, are rare, single "fake" Debtor cases happen with much greater frequency. Obviously, these single Debtors tend to be the larger ones.
Many Factors have Policies which require Debtor information be verified by a secondary source. This certainly should do the trick. However, keep in mind that people usually try to do what is expected, but almost always do what is inspected. Policy & Procedure compliance must be reviewed if you are to feel truly secure. Spot Reviews should be done Quarterly to ensure that what is written is what is done. Third Party Reviews are best because you not only have a different set of eyes keeping things in order, but you also get an impartial, independent qualification.
Did you know that FactorHelp conducts complete Portfolio and Policy & Procedure reviews? Recently, many Factors, as well as their Investors and Lenders, have been engaging us to provide not only complete account and legal file reviews, but also policy and procedure benchmarking with respect to their current portfolio composition. Additionally, FactorHelp now has expanded expertise and capabilities with the Creditor Services Division of Credit Support International.
Call or email us today to learn more. Jon Eckhouse, Vice President, (972) 231-6572 or jon@factorhelp.com
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The 18th century poet Alexander Pope called ORDER the "eternal fitness of things." Now whether you refer to it as eloquently as that, ORDER is what imbues the imagination and its first expression, CREATIVITY, with their true impact and power.
A more common term for order is design, and its absence or relegation is one of the first casualties of many modern businesses. Image isn't everything, but try doing something with out it. A cogent and commanding sense of design is among the many things that separate "the best" from "the rest."
The First Impression - First impressions are, like organ transplants, largely non-refundable. If the look of your company says $1M, and you are a $40M company, you are actively devaluing your brand image. From logo design, business collateral, advertising, to website development, your design should be consistent, symmetrical and singular: neglecting your image invariably costs one more than one ever hopes to save by it.
Business Collateral Symmetry - When the company website doesn't look anything like its printed materials, its logo, or its advertising, the result is an amateurish blend of incomplete commitments to design.
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The best are the best and they look the best. They invest in their image. They know the cumulative nature of the branding process requires coordination across all media formats. However helpful, excellent design is not a cure for poor customer service, bad products or unprofessional pursuits - those are separate issues.
Dress for Success - Design is the purest form of visual communication, and says volume long before you ever open your mouth, or the brochure. What is your corporate dress code? Meaning, how is your company dressed? With the lasted design and contemporary media?
Do your printed materials say "2005" or "1973, when our company was founded?"
DTCS offers a best-in-class creative platform, with web design, print media, flash and video production, that will help you stand out from the rest!
Visit our website at www.dtcs.net to learn about the breadth of our service offering or contact Jon Eckhouse directly at (972) 231-6572 or jon@factorhelp.com.
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