The ARM industry had its most active quarter in nearly a year during the first three months of 2018 for merger and acquisition deals, according to data released last week by Corporate Advisory Solutions.
There were 10 deals completed during the first quarter of 2018, representing $1.4 billion in enterprise 
value. That is just the second billion-dollar quarter in the ARM industry in the past three years, according to CAS’s data.
“2017 saw many business owners taking a wait and see stance,” wrote Michael Lamm, the firm’s managing partner. “The early activity of 2018 would indicate CEOs who want to sell, or build their business by way of acquisitions, are waiting no more.”
A shifting regulatory landscape, with an expected pullback of enforcement activity from the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection has provided the ARM industry with some good news, but the flip side of the CFPB’s pullback is that states are ramping up their interest in regulating the collections industry.
The “hands-off” approach from the CFPB should lead to an increase in the sales of debt portfolios, especially from payday lenders, CAS wrote in its quarterly newsletter. Also helping debt sales is a spike in the number of smaller subprime auto lenders that have been exiting the business, CAS noted.
