What MB&W does

MB&W (legal name: McCarthy, Burgess & Wolff, Inc.) is a privately-held B2B receivables management company headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, founded in August 2000 by Steve Wolff and Freida Burgess. The firm operates across three US locations (Bedford Heights/Cleveland East, Middleburg Heights/Cleveland West, and Tulsa, Oklahoma) and is fully licensed, bonded, and insured to collect in all 50 US states plus Puerto Rico. MB&W has collected more than $1 billion for clients over the last decade and has 251–500 employees with average tenure exceeding five years.

The company's service portfolio spans third-party debt collection, first-party outsourcing/early-stage recovery, customer service call center operations, customer retention programs, litigation management, and best-practices consulting. Underpinning these services is an integrated technology stack consisting of a proprietary, fully customizable collection management platform, real-time speech analytics with 100% call recording, speech-to-text conversion, automated skip-tracing, predictive dialing, IVR, document imaging, and a proprietary legal forwarding management system. Clients access operations through the ORE (Open Receivables Environment) client portal for real-time reporting and integration, while debtors use a separate self-service payment portal. Compliance is positioned as a core feature, with CFPB/Regulation F itemization safeguards, ISO 27001, and SOC II Type II (SSAE 18) certifications.

MB&W's revenue model is contingency-based: clients place delinquent portfolios and MB&W earns transaction fees only on amounts successfully recovered, with no non-contingent suit fees in litigation work. Go-to-market is enterprise field sales, with each client paired with a dedicated Client Services Representative and management involved in custom onboarding (EDI protocols, portfolio treatment strategies, reporting cadence). The customer base is horizontal across B2B commercial creditors, supplemented by first-party outsourcing engagements and customer-care/retention engagements that use the same call-center infrastructure for non-collection purposes.

Name

MB&W

Legal name

McCarthy, Burgess & Wolff, Inc.

Website

https://mbandw.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2000

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

251–500 employees

Short description

MB&W is a privately-held B2B receivables management firm providing third-party debt collection, first-party outsourcing, customer retention, litigation management, and consulting services to commercial creditors across all 50 US states and Puerto Rico on a contingency-fee basis.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Cleveland

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Others

Revenue model

1. Contingency-Based Collection Fees: MB&W charges fees contingent upon successful collection of debts. The litigation management services explicitly state 'there is no non-contingent suit fee – all legal work is handled on a contingency basis.' This indicates the primary revenue model is performance-based, where fees are earned only upon successful recovery of placed portfolios.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

MB&W is a B2B receivables management company that recovers outstanding debt on behalf of creditor clients through third-party collections, first-party outsourcing/early-stage collections, litigation management, customer service call center operations, customer retention programs, and best-practices consulting. Services are delivered on a contingency fee basis using proprietary customizable collection software, voice analytics, predictive dialing, skip-tracing, and EDI-integrated client reporting.

Product overview

MB&W (McCarthy, Burgess & Wolff) is a receivables management company offering a unified platform of collection and recovery services. The core offering consists of 3rd Party Collections and Outsourcing/1st Party Collections supported by proprietary customizable collection software and voice analytics technology. The ORE (Open Receivables Environment) client portal provides the primary interface for clients to access real-time reporting and system integration. Supplementary services include Customer Service Call Center, Customer Retention Program, Litigation Management Services, and Best Practices Consulting. Technology capabilities span automated skip-tracing, predictive dialing, IVR, speech analytics, and document imaging. The Online Customer Payment Portal enables debtor self-service payments.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• 3rd Party Collections
• Outsourcing / 1st Party Collections
• Customer Service Call Center
• Customer Retention Program
• Litigation Management Services
• Best Practices Consulting
• ORE (Open Receivables Environment) Client Portal
• Online Customer Payment Portal

Quantifiable outcome

• Collected more than $1 billion for clients over the last decade
• +2 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

AI capability5 records

Feature11 records

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Encore Capital Group: Publicly traded global specialty finance firm operating as both a portfolio purchaser and third-party collection agency (Midwest Recovery Systems, Propel Financial Services). Closest scaled comparable to MB&W in contingency-based commercial debt recovery.
• PRA Group: Publicly traded debt purchaser and servicer of consumer and commercial receivables. Competitor in the receivables management space with overlapping Fortune 500 creditor relationships and contingency-fee servicing offerings.
• Convergent Resources: Third-party receivables management and outsourcing firm providing B2B commercial collections, first-party outsourcing, and customer care solutions — closely aligned service mix and target buyer with MB&W.
• I.C. System: Long-established U.S. debt collection agency offering third-party collection, recovery, and accounts receivable management for healthcare, retail, and commercial creditors. Direct head-to-head competitor with MB&W in 3rd-party commercial collections.
• Frost-Arnett Company: Tennessee-based commercial collection agency serving creditors in healthcare, financial services, utilities, and government. Comparable B2B receivables model and customer segment as MB&W.
• GC Services Limited Partnership: One of the largest U.S. first- and third-party collection agencies, including managing bank-card, retail, telecom, and utility portfolios. Directly comparable scale, product scope, and contingency model to MB&W.
• Transworld Systems / TSI: National receivables management company offering first- and third-party recovery, AMS commercial collections, and caller ID skip-tracing. Direct competitor with a similar creditor-customer profile and contingency offerings.
• MRS Associates: U.S. third-party commercial collections agency serving creditors with early- and late-stage portfolio recovery. Closely comparable offering and target customer set to MB&W.
• Coast Professional: National contingency-based third-party collection agency serving higher education and commercial creditors. Similar product scope and contingency-fee revenue model as MB&W.

Emerging players

• National Credit Federation: Contingency-based collection and consumer-credit advisory firm serving creditors and consumers. Partially overlapping in the commercial collections space, though differentiated by a credit-counseling overlay.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Compliance5 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about MB&W