ECPG

Encore Capital Group, Inc.

A specialty finance company that buys up defaulted consumer debts—credit card and other unpaid bills banks have written off—for pennies on the dollar, then collects them through call centers, mail, and legal channels. It runs its U.S. business through Midland Credit Management (founded in 1953) and its European arm through Cabot Credit Management, which it fully acquired in 2018. In 2011 it introduced a Consumer Bill of Rights, pledging to waive fees and interest on consumer balances and stop reporting negative credit information after two years.