CreditAssist In the News

The founders of CreditAssist, Rick Wittwer and Carmine Dorio are highly recognized and respected Financial Services and Collection Industry veterans who are regularly featured speakers at Credit and Collection and Debt Settlement Conferences nationwide.

Why CreditAssist was founded

After creating a debt settlement collections group at Washington Mutual/Providian to optimize settling accounts with debt settlement customers, CreditAssist's founders began a process of evaluating debt settlement companies for compliance with state and federal regulations and treatment of consumer's private financial information. Subsequently, an industry recognized certification process was implemented to help qualify credible debt settlement companies.

What they found was extremely alarming. The industry wide debt settlement practice managing consumer's financial information was in disarray, not maintained securely, and unauthorized users were given free access to the information.

It was also found that the fees that the debt settlement companies were charging were exorbitant and in many states illegal. In addition, most debt settlement companies sought to receive payment of the fees before any work for the customer was performed.

CreditAssist's founders felt if a new debt settlement company was formed that provided its service at a fair price with affordable payment terms and operated in a safe and secure environment; troubled customers would have a better option to turn to.

News

March 05, 2008: Rick Wittwer was a featured panelist at the National Collections and Credit Risk Conference

Mr. Wittwer's presentation concentrated on the topic "Outsourcing: The Globalization of Collections". In the session, he educated attendees on the how to properly access offshore outsourcing opportunities. Topics included, investment required, country risk assessments, selection of accounts to outsource, training and quality monitoring, data security, and cultural challenges faced in each country.

February 05, 2008: Carmine Dorio was the Keynote speaker at the "TASC" - The Association of Settlement Companies.

Mr. Dorio's presentation addressed the evolution of the bankcard issuer's lending and collection practice over the past 40 years. The challenges by both issuer and consumer. How debt settlement is changing the bank's internal processes and why it's gaining industry acceptance.

January 28, 2008: Rick Wittwer was the featured speaker at the CarVal Debt Buyer's Conference

Mr. Wittwer's presented to debt buyers on two topics; "An Issuer Perspective", and "Debt Settlement - Friend or Foe" In the "An Issuer Perspective" presentation, he educated attendees how the current economic conditions are impacting major credit card issuer's collection and credit risk strategies and how debt buyers should react. In the "Debt Settlement - Friend or Foe" presentation, he educated major debt buyers on why they should cooperate with debt settlement companies, and what to look for when evaluating which debt settlement companies to do business with.

October 14, 2007: Rick Wittwer was a featured panelist at the Collection and Credit Risk Conference

Mr. Wittwer's presentation concentrated on the topic "Hot Topics in Collections: Issuer and Agency Roundtable". In the session, he educated attendees on the link between originators, agencies, and the debt buying process, what to look for in a collection agency, debt buying market pricing trends, and servicing strategies

Biographies:

Rick Wittwer
CEO and Co-Founder CreditAssist Financial Services

Rick Wittwer is a founder of CreditAssist Financial Services. Together with Carmine Dorio, they recognized a need in the Debt Settlement industry for a company that provided its debt settlement services at a fair price with affordable payment terms and operated in a safe and secure environment.

EVP - Washington Mutual Card Services
Rick Wittwer was a senior executive in Washington Mutual's Credit Card business. He had financial and operational responsibility for all Collections and Recoveries of $26B credit card portfolio ($60M budget, $3B in delinquencies, $1.5B NCL, 750 employees, on/offshore collections, and $1B - $3B in charge off asset sales). He was also the first Card Services manager in Providian/WAMU's history to receive an outstanding rating by the OCC.

Prior to managing collections and recoveries, he was a SVP at First Select (a Providian Financial company). At First Select, a top 3 debt purchasing company, he was responsible for purchased portfolio profitability ($150M in annual revenues), portfolio acquisitions ($100M/year investment), portfolio analytics (buy/sell), and portfolio sales. While at First Select, he developed relationships and consummated long term purchase agreements with most major financial institutions (Citi/Associates, Discover, MBNA, BofA, Wells, Chase, and Fleet).

Prior to First Select, Rick was Vice President of Partnership Marketing at GetSmart, an internet start-up acquired by Providian Financial. For this market leading internet start-up, he was responsible for all sales and partnership marketing related activities and grew revenue to $22M and profitability. At GetSmart, he developed significant experience managing highly efficient internet marketing campaigns driving over 100,000 visitors per day. The company was sold to LendingTree.

In earlier years, Rick started 2 technology companies, and managed manufacturing, technology services, and publishing companies.

Carmine Dorio
EVP and Co-Founder CreditAssist Financial Services

Carmine Dorio's credentials span over 40 years in the credit and collection industry. His employers encompass some of the most elite lenders in the business:

• CitiGroup
• American Express
• Bank of America
• Washington Mutual

He has managed many large call centers for these financial institutions and is widely recognized as an industry expert.

Mr. Dorio's insight into a bank's lending and collection practices makes him a "natural" for the debt settlement business. Understanding their practices as well as he does and the ability to call upon an industry contact when appropriate adds tremendous value to the CreditAssist mission of exemplary customer service and results.