Data updates
By Kai Greenspan, Founding Editor · Last updated: October 6, 2026
Update log
October 6, 2026: Market data refreshed
Texas figures are now as of 2026-10-05: 2,144 companies hold a bond in force on the Secretary of State's live portal, every known filing checked, the ones its bulk read does not serve looked up one at a time, accounting for 99.3% of the records the portal reports. The median company has been continuously bonded for 13 years. 298 filings have been made since the classic register stopped updating, 290 of them in force. Refreshed automatically; generated by scripts/build-indices.mjs version 2026-09-23.2. Source.
September 24, 2026: Company facts cite their own page, and "verified" means one checked fact
Two changes on every profile. First, headquarters, year founded, company type and debt types now each cite the page of the company's own website where that fact was confirmed, with the date it was, instead of one source line for the whole profile; for most Texas profiles that line had been the classic Secretary of State register, which holds no founding year, company type or debt types. Where no page has yet been found, the previous source line remains while the gap is closed. Second, the site no longer calls a whole profile, company or directory "verified": profile titles now read "Public Record Profile", the facts table is headed "Public-record facts", and listings say "register-checked". The word now describes a single public-record fact checked against its register, and the "Verified page" badge a company receives when it claims its page. No company's register record or position in the rankings changed. Source.
September 23, 2026: Market data refreshed with September register data
The /data/ figures now come from September 2026 data instead of August. Who counts as bonded in Texas is read from the Secretary of State's live TPDC portal, as of 2026-09-16: 2,147 companies hold a bond in force. The portal serves only part of its records to a bulk read, so every other filing we know of was then looked up one at a time; together they account for 99.3% of the records the portal reports. A first version of this refresh, published earlier on 23 September, counted only the bulk read and gave 1,976, missing 171 companies; it has been replaced. The earlier figure of 1,955 came from the classic register, whose status field has not changed since August 2025, so it described a year earlier than its date suggested. The classic register's own count at its freeze, 1,863, is now published separately as a historical figure. Median continuous bonding is 12.9 years across the currently bonded companies. Post-freeze filings rose from 258 to 285, of which 278 are in force. The New York City figures were rebuilt from a full new snapshot of the city's three license datasets and are dated by the city's own last update of its issued licenses, 2026-08-20: 990 companies hold a live license, median 9.2 years continuously licensed. The city's revocations dataset has not been updated since 2023-10-11, and the page says so. Generated by scripts/build-indices.mjs version 2026-09-23.2. From October these figures refresh themselves each month. Source.
September 3, 2026: Illinois added as the fifth state
Illinois now has its own pages: the state hub at /illinois/, the verify guide, the buyer guide, and two law subpages (is a debt collector legitimate, and wage garnishment), all built from statutes captured at source and quoted verbatim. Illinois licenses collection agencies under the Collection Agency Act, 205 ILCS 740, and the register is the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation's own license records, published by the state as open data and read every week. A license is treated as in force only when the register records it as active or on probation with an unexpired term. No Illinois agency is published yet: the hub renders its holding state until the first profiles pass verification. The methodology page now names all five instruments. Source.
September 2, 2026: California added as the fourth state
California now has its own pages: the state hub at /california/, the verify guide, the buyer guide, and two law subpages (is a debt collector legitimate, and wage garnishment), all built from statutes captured at source and quoted verbatim. California licenses debt collectors under the Debt Collection Licensing Act, and the register is the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation's own list of licenses currently in force, read every week. No California agency is published yet: the hub renders its holding state until the first profiles pass verification. The methodology page now names all four instruments and explains why every California license is young by design. No market-data index was generated for California, because the register holds nothing before 2023 and no continuity can be computed from it; the coverage table gains a row when the first agency publishes. Source.
August 26, 2026: Multi-state coverage page retired
The /multi-state/ comparison table has been retired and its address now redirects to the agency directory. Every fact it showed remains published: each state record appears on its own state page, worded in that state's instrument and verified against that state's register, and a company holding records in more than one covered state appears on each of those state pages. Nothing about any company changed. The page was removed because its one-column-per-state design could not grow with the directory, and its summary sentence had fallen out of date when Florida joined. The redirect also serves as the measured test of how AI engines treat a moved address, logged in the weekly citation kit. Source.
August 18, 2026: Florida goes live: the third state, on the Office of Financial Regulation's consumer collection agency register
The directory now covers Florida, verified against the Office of Financial Regulation's register of consumer collection agencies, the instrument Florida uses in place of a bond or a license. The state hub at /florida/, the law page, the verify guide, the buyer guide and two law subpages (is a debt collector legitimate, and wage garnishment) shipped on 18 August, each built from Chapter 559 Part VI captured at source and quoted verbatim; the no-bond claim was read against all 21 sections of Part VI before it went live. On 19 August ten Florida registrations were added to agencies already verified for Texas or New York, so those profiles carry the Florida record beside the others, and on 20 August the first Florida-only agencies were published. Florida renews the whole industry in one shared window each year, so every current registration shows the same expiration date; a registration is in force only where its status is Approved and its term has not yet ended, neither half alone. Source.
August 14, 2026: Market data section launched
New /data/ section publishing original market statistics computed from full register snapshots: the bond continuity distribution across all 1,955 currently bonded Texas companies (median 13.3 years continuous coverage), the post-freeze filing tracker (258 filings verified since the classic register stopped updating in August 2025, collected by exact-lookup walks), and the enforcement activity count. Aggregates only, method stated on every figure, generated by scripts/build-indices.mjs version 2026-08-14.1. Source.
August 12, 2026: CFPB complaint counts refreshed
All-time CFPB debt-collection complaint totals re-read from the CFPB Consumer Complaint Database for all 250 published agencies; 63 counts changed. 22 were held back for human review rather than written, because the company name did not resolve to exactly one CFPB record or the movement was too large to be ordinary drift. Counts can fall as well as rise because the CFPB removes complaints that fail its own publication criteria. Source.
August 11, 2026: CFPB complaint counts refreshed
All-time CFPB debt-collection complaint totals re-read from the CFPB Consumer Complaint Database for all 250 published agencies; 185 counts changed. 25 were held back for human review rather than written, because the company name did not resolve to exactly one CFPB record or the movement was too large to be ordinary drift. Counts can fall as well as rise because the CFPB removes complaints that fail its own publication criteria. Source.
August 5, 2026: New York goes live: the second state, 18 companies verified on the city license register
The directory now covers New York, verified against New York City's Debt Collection Agency license records (Department of Consumer and Worker Protection), the register that matters because New York has no statewide collector license. Fourteen agencies and four collection law firms were published with their New York license histories, led by I.C. System and Sunrise Credit Services at 31 years continuously licensed (the city's records reach back to 1994). Thirteen of the agencies and all four law firms were already verified for Texas, so their profiles now carry both records side by side; Afni, Inc. is the site's first New York-only profile. Every license was checked twice against the live register, chains across replaced licenses were verified at the joins, and complaint counts were re-pulled from the CFPB on the day of publication. One agency, NCB Management Services, was deliberately held: its claimed 27-year history rests on pre-2014 records the live register can no longer witness, and it will not publish until that history can be verified twice. Band boundaries are identical in every state; only the instrument wording changes, as the methodology's one-standard-two-instruments section discloses. Source.
August 5, 2026: Multi-state coverage page: both registers side by side
A new page lists every company verified on more than one covered register: 17 at launch, holding both the Texas surety bond and the New York City license. Each record is shown separately in its own state's instrument, and no combined figure exists because no register asserts one. Multi-state coverage is a coverage fact, not a ranking: companies are listed alphabetically and no band anywhere changes. Source.
July 27, 2026: 31 records added and one bond history corrected
Publishing batch 11 took the directory from 214 to 245 verified records (231 agencies and 14 collection law firms). Three of the new agencies carry 25 or more years of continuous Texas bond coverage, led by Tulsa Adjustment Bureau (32.2 years, bonded since 1994). Every bond filing was verified twice against the Secretary of State register with direct file-number lookups, identities were settled at primary sources, and complaint counts were read live from the CFPB database on exact registrant names. One incoming record was found to combine two different companies (HF Holdings of Orlando and Hunter Warfield of Tampa) and was split before publication so each carries only its own complaint history. Source.
July 27, 2026: Optio Solutions: bond history corrected, 30 years reduced to 19
A review of the Texas bond register found that four filings previously counted in Optio Solutions' bond history belong to two unrelated companies (Option One Mortgage Corporation and Option Card LLC) and were attached by a name-similarity error. They have been removed. Optio Solutions' own filing (file 20070130, active since June 2007) gives 19 years of continuous coverage, and the profile now reflects that. Verified against the register on July 27, 2026. Source.
July 24, 2026: Security Credit Systems: specialty granted on own-site evidence
Security Credit Systems (Buffalo, NY) now carries the specialty Student & Education, Healthcare and Commercial, and Commercial was added to its debt types. Basis: the company’s own homepage identity statement, which says it focuses its efforts on a few key economic sectors and lists exactly three: Education, Medical and Commercial. The sentence was read at the source on July 24, 2026. Our previous entry had recorded the own-site reading as pending; this completes it.
July 24, 2026: Wakefield & Associates: 2025 merger with Revco Solutions now disclosed
The Wakefield & Associates profile now states that in February 2025 the company and Revco Solutions announced a strategic merger, and that Revco’s own announcement says the combined business operates under the Revco Solutions name. We had recorded the merger internally on July 20 but it was held in a field that is not shown to readers, so it was not visible on the profile until today. The Texas bond for Wakefield & Associates, Inc. was re-checked at the Secretary of State on July 24 and remains active (file 950101, in force since October 1995), so the listing stands and the profile continues to record the bonded entity and its complaint history under both registrant names. A previously recorded merger date of June 2025 was corrected to February 2025 at the same time.
July 22, 2026: Batch 10: seventeen new records, one specialty, three enforcement disclosures
Seventeen third-party agencies were added in demand order, taking the directory from 197 to 214 records. Davis & Jones (Debt Recovery Resources) received the Commercial specialty on its own exclusivity language ("commercial-only collections... built for B2B"). Three profiles disclose California DFPI actions read in full at the source: Saturn Systems (a February 2025 consent order for unlicensed collection involving 572 California consumers, a deceptive IRS-related letter and missing consumer notices, with a $90,000 penalty), and Financial Asset Management Systems and Compass Recovery Group (April 2025 late-annual-report orders settled for $2,500 and $2,000 respectively; paperwork violations, licenses continue). Two long-running worklist buyer hints were refuted by primary evidence (FAMS and Bilateral Credit are contingency agencies, not buyers). Eight candidates were excluded on their own evidence: three mortgage lender-servicers (Planet Home Lending, Caliber Home Loans, RoundPoint), two proven debt buyers (ASTA Funding per its own SEC filings; JTM Capital per the CFPB's complaint), one probable payday-paper buyer (Lela Mae), and two creditor-side loan servicers (ZuntaFi, Universal Account Servicing). Two of the seventeen (Commercial Trade, BYL Collection Services) publish without website links because their sites are dead or parked; their claims are sourced to archived captures and live BBB records, with operational re-checks queued.
July 22, 2026: New: plain-English enforcement records
A new Enforcement records section went live, linked from the footer and from each affected agency profile. Where a regulator has taken a resolved action against a listed agency, we now explain it in plain English on its own page, drawn from the regulator’s own document, with every finding attributed to the regulator, the resolution stated, and the primary source linked and dated. The first four cover Transworld Systems (a 2017 CFPB consent order), Saturn Systems (a 2025 California DFPI order), Todd, Bremer & Lawson (a 2011 Idaho order) and Global Solution Biz (a 2024 Idaho order). Minor administrative matters, such as a late annual report, remain noted on the agency profile rather than given a page. Agencies may respond through the corrections policy.
July 20, 2026: Batch 9: seventeen new records, including a thirteenth collection law firm
Seventeen records added: sixteen third-party agencies and one collection law firm (Osborn Jacobs & Hartung PLC of West Des Moines, formerly Abbott Osborn Jacobs PLC; its Texas bond stands under the former name and the rename is documented on the profile, with all four attorneys verified in good standing at the Iowa Supreme Court lawyer register). Every bond chain was verified twice at the Texas register (38 direct file lookups, zero disagreements) and every complaint count is the all-time CFPB debt-collection total for the exact company name on the live API, with one attribution settled by the CFPB's own state distribution and one carrying a recorded caveat. Founding years publish only where sources support them: six were left blank because sources conflict. One record (Recuvery LLC) discloses a 2025 California DFPI action, read in full at the regulator: a late annual report resolved by settlement with a $2,000 penalty. Four researched candidates were held rather than published, three of them pending unread regulator documents; four were excluded as a debt buyer, a mortgage servicer, a payment processor and a credit bureau, each on its own website's evidence. Source.
July 20, 2026: Holds resolution: ten new records and four enforcement disclosures
The directory's held candidates were resolved after reading the underlying regulator documents in full. Ten records were added: seven third-party agencies plus three whose profiles disclose a regulator action read at the source (Todd, Bremer & Lawson, a resolved 2011 Idaho license-lapse order; Global Solution Biz, a 2024 Idaho cease-and-desist for unlicensed collection; Balanced Healthcare Receivables and National Healthcare Collections, 2025 California late-annual-report settlements), and Medical Business Bureau, which is listed as a collection agency with its separate debt-purchasing service disclosed under a newly published scope rule. Two candidates were excluded on their own evidence (a debt buyer and a company found insolvent by a state regulator). Two existing profiles were updated: Wakefield & Associates, whose complaint history is now attributed across the two company names SEC filings prove are the same operation and which notes its 2025 merger into Revco Solutions; and Williams & Fudge, which records its acquisition of the former RGS Financial. One further candidate remains held pending a company milestone. Source.
July 16, 2026: Batch 8: fourteen new records, including a twelfth collection law firm
Fourteen records added: thirteen third-party agencies and one collection law firm (Michael J Adams PC, San Antonio). Every bond chain was verified twice at the Texas register (104 direct file lookups, zero disagreements) and every complaint count is the all-time CFPB debt-collection total for the exact company name on the live API. Founding years publish only where the company's own pages state them: three were left blank because the sources conflict (BCA Financial Services, Alliance Collection Agencies, Keynote Consulting), and one record (Vengroff Williams) discloses a 2013 Connecticut Department of Banking consent order, verified at the regulator. Two researched candidates were held rather than published: one pending an unread California DFPI order, one pending a ruling on a hybrid collect-and-purchase model. Source.
July 15, 2026: 17 agencies added to the directory
Publishing batch 7 took the directory from 139 to 156 verified records (145 agencies and 11 collection law firms). Four of the new agencies carry 25 or more years of continuous Texas bond coverage, led by healthcare specialist North American Credit Services (31.7 years). Every bond filing was verified twice against the Secretary of State register (38 of 38 direct file-number lookups agreed), identities were settled by register address evidence, and complaint counts were read live from the CFPB database on exact company names, with name-variant checks that corrected two counts before publication. Source.
July 15, 2026: Collection law firms: a new, separately-labeled category
The directory now lists collection law firms: law practices that regularly collect debts, which makes them debt collectors under the federal FDCPA (Heintz v. Jenkins, 1995), each holding the same Texas surety bond the state requires of agencies. Because a law firm can also file suit, as the creditor's lawyer and in the creditor's name, they are published as their own clearly-labeled category on the new collection law firms page, banded by the identical continuous-bond-years rule, and excluded from every agency list. Eleven firms were verified and published, led by Patenaude & Felix (23 years continuously bonded) and Austin-based Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson. Every filing was verified twice against the Secretary of State register, and two same-name register entities were identified as different firms and excluded. The methodology page discloses the category rules. Source.
July 14, 2026: 15 agencies added to the directory
Publishing batch 6 took the directory from 113 to 128 verified agencies, including five with 25 or more years of continuous Texas bond coverage (Collectech Diversified of Lubbock, Wakefield & Associates, S&S Recovery, AMCOL Systems and Nationwide Credit Corporation). Every new agency’s bond filings were verified twice against the Secretary of State register (a full-register pull plus a direct file-number lookup for each filing, 45 of 45 confirmed), register addresses and phone numbers were used to settle identities between same-named companies, and complaint counts were read live from the CFPB database on exact company names, with three same-name contaminations stripped. Source.
July 13, 2026: 19 agencies added to the directory
Publishing batch 5 took the directory from 94 to 113 verified agencies. Every new agency's Texas surety bond filings were verified twice against the Secretary of State register (wildcard search plus a direct file-number lookup for each filing, 53 of 53 confirmed), register addresses were matched against each company's own records to settle identities, and complaint counts were read live from the CFPB database on exact company names. McCarthy Burgess & Wolff's CLLA certification was also verified on the certifier's own published list and added to its profile. Source.
July 12, 2026: Public enforcement records added to profiles
Agency profiles now carry a Public enforcement record section when a regulator has concluded a formal action against the agency, reported neutrally from the regulator's own published documents and linked to them. The first two records are Transworld Systems' 2017 CFPB consent order ($2.5 million civil penalty, docket 2017-CFPB-0018) and Trident Asset Management's 2018 Connecticut Department of Banking consent order. Only adjudicated actions qualify, never allegations, and an enforcement record does not affect where an agency sits in the bands. Source.
July 12, 2026: Ranking bands simplified
The Verified Track Record bands were simplified from five bands (28+, 20-27, 10-19, 3-9, newly verified) to four (25+, 15-24, 5-14, under 5 years), and the top band's 'A+' letter label was dropped. The measure is unchanged: the same continuous-bond-coverage rule, computed the same way from the Texas Secretary of State register. The revision is recorded on the methodology page. Source.
July 12, 2026: Credit Solutions Corp added after review
Credit Solutions Corp (San Diego) was published following a manual review, taking the directory to 94 verified agencies. Its Texas bond history was corrected to its true 8.7 years of continuous coverage after a same-name mix-up in the source list, and its complaint count was set to zero: the exact company name carries no CFPB debt-collection complaints, and a similarly named Utah debt buyer's complaints were deliberately kept out. Source.
July 12, 2026: CFPB complaint counts refreshed
All-time CFPB debt-collection complaint totals re-read from the CFPB Consumer Complaint Database for all 93 published agencies; 79 counts changed. Counts can fall as well as rise because the CFPB removes complaints that fail its own publication criteria. Source.
July 12, 2026: 17 agencies added to the directory
Publishing batch 4 took the directory from 76 to 93 verified agencies. Every new agency's Texas surety bond filings were verified twice against the Secretary of State register (wildcard search plus a direct file-number lookup for each filing), and every industry claim is quoted from the agency's own website with a link and a checked date. Source.
July 5, 2026: All-time CFPB complaint counts adopted
Complaint counts across the directory were rebuilt from a full download of the CFPB Consumer Complaint Database: the all-time debt-collection complaint total for each agency, matched on the exact company name the CFPB records. This replaced the earlier mixed-window counts so every profile measures the same thing. Source.
How the data stays current
The site rebuilds from its verified database every night. Complaint counts are re-read from the CFPB Consumer Complaint Database on a recurring cycle, and each profile gives the date its count was read; the larger refreshes are also logged above. Bond filings are verified against the Secretary of State register when an agency is added and re-checked when its record is touched; each fact shows the date it was last checked where a check has run. Errors are handled under the corrections policy.