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Report: #16096

Complaint Review: LEASECOMM - Nationwide

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  • Reported By: Fremont CA
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  • LEASECOMM Nationwide U.S.A.

LEASECOMM INFORMATION - KNOW the BEAST

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The Company's corporate headquarters and operations center are located in leased space of 34,851 square feet at 950 Winter Street, Waltham, Massachusetts 02154. The Company's telephone number is (781) 890-0177.

PETER R. BLEYLEBEN has served as President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of the Company or its predecessor since June 1987. Before joining the Company, Dr. Bleyleben was Vice President and Director of the Boston Consulting Group, Inc. ("BCG") in Boston. During his more than eight years with BCG, Dr. Bleyleben focused his professional strategic consulting practice on the financial services and telecommunications industries. Prior to joining BCG, Dr. Bleyleben earned an M.B.A. with distinction and honors from the Harvard Business School, an M.B.A. and a Ph.D. in Business Administration and Economics, respectively, from the Vienna Business School in Vienna, Austria and a B.S. in Computer Science from the Vienna Institute of Technology.

The president of Leasecomm address and number is: Mr.
Peter Bleyleben (peterbley@aol.com) 1-617-277-8279.
Address: 66 Norfolk Chestnut Hill MA 02467-1832

-----------------------------------------------
MICROFINANCIAL INCORPORATED NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS -- (CONTINUED) (tables in thousands, except per share data)

Investment in Service Contracts The Company's investments in cancelable service contracts are recorded at cost and amortized over the expected life of the service period. Income on service contracts from monthly billings is recognized as the related services are provided. The Company periodically evaluates whether events or circumstances have occurred that may affect the estimated useful life or recoverability of the investment in service contracts.

The Company, which operates primarily through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Leasecomm Corporation, is a specialized commercial finance company that leases and rents "microticket" equipment and provides other financing services in amounts generally ranging from $900 to $2,500, with an average amount financed of approximately $1,400 and an average lease term of 45 months. The Company pioneered the use of proprietary software in developing a sophisticated, risk-adjusted pricing model and automating its credit approval and collection systems, including a fully-automated Internet-based application, credit scoring and approval process. This has enabled the Company to better service its dealer network, to develop economies of scale in originating and servicing over 200,000 leases, contracts and loans and to operate on a nationwide basis in a historically fragmented market. The majority of the Company's leases are currently for POS authorization systems. The Company continues to develop other product lines, including leasing other commercial products and acquiring payment streams from service contracts.

The Company targets owner-operated or other small commercial enterprises, with little business credit history and limited or poor personal credit history at the owner level.

The Company provides a convenient source of financing to these lessees who may have few other sources of credit. The Company primarily leases and rents low-priced commercial equipment with limited residual value which is used by these lessees in their daily operations.

The Company does not market its services directly to lessees, but sources leasing transactions through a nationwide network of over 1,100 Dealers. The Company's ability to approve applications quickly for a wide range of credit profiles facilitates Dealer sales, thereby enhancing the Company's relationships with its Dealers.

The Company capitalizes on its unique understanding of its lessees, underwriting higher risk credits with a multi-dimensional credit scoring model that generates risk-adjusted pricing. Additionally, the Company maintains a disciplined and persistent approach to collections which enables the Company to collect delinquent amounts that it believes its competitors often would not pursue due to the perceived high costs of collecting relatively small monthly payments against equipment with low resale value. In each of these areas, the Company has focused on the application of technology to execute its operating strategy by designing proprietary software and systems to operate its business and achieve economies of scale.
Efficient Collections. The Company's technology and its disciplined and persistent approach to collections enable it to collect delinquent amounts, even several years after the account originally became delinquent. The Company believes that, as a result of the small payments associated with microticket transactions, the credit performance of its customers is driven by factors beyond merely an ability to pay.

Therefore, it is the Company's policy to pursue virtually all delinquent accounts in a lawful, reasonable and timely fashion and in many instances, to recover amounts due under the Company's leases, contracts and loans through litigation. The Company maintains a highly structured, well-defined and automated system that enables a minimum number of personnel to maximize the collection of delinquent payments.

TERMS OF EQUIPMENT LEASES Substantially all equipment leases originated or acquired by the Company are non-cancelable. During the term of a typical lease, the Company is scheduled to receive payments sufficient, in the aggregate, to cover the Company's borrowing costs and the costs of the underlying equipment, and to provide the Company with an appropriate profit. Throughout the term of the lease, the Company charges late fees, prepayment penalties, loss and damage waiver fees and other service fees, when applicable, which enhance the profitability of the lease. The initial non-cancelable term of the lease is equal to or less than the equipment's estimated economic life. Initial terms of the leases in the Company's portfolio generally range from 12 to 48 months, with an average initial term of 45 months for leases originated in the first quarter of 1998.

The terms and conditions of all of the Company's leases are substantially similar. In most cases, the contracts require lessees to: (i) maintain, service and operate the equipment in accordance with the manufacturer's and government-mandated procedures; (ii) insure the equipment against property and casualty loss; (iii) pay all taxes associated with the equipment; and (iv) make all scheduled contract payments regardless of the performance of the equipment.

The Company's standard lease forms provide that in the event of a default by the lessee, the Company can require payment of liquidated damages and can seize and remove the equipment for subsequent sale, refinancing or other disposal at its discretion. Any additions, modifications or upgrades to the equipment, regardless of the source of payment, are automatically incorporated into and deemed a part of the equipment financed.

The Company combines its collection efforts with its general relations with obligors. A Lessee Relations Representative ("LRR") is assigned to each lease, contract or loan at the time of funding, giving each lessee or other obligor a specific customer relations contact throughout the term of the lease, contract or loan, including during delinquent collection efforts. The lessee relations department is organized under the Director of Lessee Relations, who manages 2 senior managers, 11 supervisors and 61 LRRs. LRRs are broadly classified as either "front-end" (43 LRRs) or "back-end" (18 LRRs), with the "back-end" LRRs servicing only very delinquent accounts. The "back-end" LRRs generally have several years of experience with delinquent accounts and are entirely dedicated to collections.

The Company takes a team-oriented approach to collections, with supervisors directly overseeing a team of five to six LRRs. Compensation at all levels of the collection effort is linked to the success of the entire collection team. LRRs are assigned daily productivity targets based on dollars collected, phone calls placed and phone calls fielded, with scrolling call lists reprioritized nightly.

If these targets are exceeded, LRRs receive a higher percentage of the amounts collected based on a tiered compensation scale. In order to be eligible for the highest scale of commissions, each team member must meet his collection target, providing an incentive to team members to assist in the servicing of each team member's accounts.

The Company's collection effort is a key component of its success. efforts commence immediately, with repeated reminder letters and telephone calls upon payments becoming 10 days past due, with a lawsuit generally filed if an account is more than 85 days past due.

Leases, service contracts, and loans are charged against the allowance for credit losses and are put on non accrual when they are deemed to be uncollectible. Generally, the Company deems leases, service contracts and loans to be uncollectible when one of the following occur: (i) the obligor files for bankruptcy; (ii) the obligor dies and the equipment is returned; or (iii) when an account has become 360 days delinquent.

---EXPOSURE TO CREDIT LOSSES -- MOST IMPORTANT PART---

The Company seeks to protect itself from credit exposure relating to poor quality Dealers by entering into recourse agreements with its Dealers, under which the Dealer agrees to reimburse the Company for payment of defaulted amounts under certain circumstances, primarily defaults within the first month following origination and upon evidence of Dealer errors or misrepresentations in originating a lease or contract. In case of Dealer ( THEMEWARE ) error or misrepresentation, the Company will charge-back the Dealer for both the lessee's delinquent amounts and attorney and court fees.

Dwayne
Fremont, California

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This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 03/06/2002 12:00 AM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/leasecomm/nationwide/leasecomm-information-know-the-beast-16096. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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