According to Kaulkin Media’s latest executive brief, Data Security: Complexity, Cost, and Potential Legislation, the problem of identity theft is having a growing impact on debt recovery for creditors and collection agencies in the accounts receivable management industry.

To keep customer information secure, credit and collection professionals in the accounts receivable management industry must contend with increasingly complex regulation, but not all costs are easily measured. The report finds that software expenses for maintaining compliance for collection agencies can get as high as $500,000. Not maintaining compliance can result in a huge cost in both cash and in reputation. The cost associated with a single data security breach was, in one case, $118 million in fines alone. Harder to measure is the potential loss of business, for example, when creditors can no longer work with preferred agencies because they do not meet minimum standards for data security.

This research report provides an overview of the current difficulties faced by the financial services firms and collection agencies in their continuing efforts to safeguard personal financial information during debt recovery. The executive brief covers current data security requirements, their failings, and potential legislative changes that could further complicate the already challenging task of data security compliance.

Kaulkin Media Consumer Finance Analyst, Dimitri Michaud, said: “Data security continues to present a vexing problem for creditors and their ARM agency partners. There currently exists no uniform standard for reaching data security compliance”. “Given the room for interpretation currently in place when dealing with compliance, and no less than thirteen bills introduced in the 110th Congress to address data security with the potential to further complicate this already fractious landscape; data security will remain a primary topic of discussion for some time. It is our hope to further the discussion around and understanding of this challenging issue area.”

Data Security: Complexity, Cost, and Potential Legislation is available through Kaulkin Media’s online library and for more information please visit http://www.insidearm.com/go/free-reports .