AZ InfoCollection is a Group focused in Credit and Anti-fraud services.
It is also active in the intelligence & security market and heritage protection working in all the Italian market. Clients are the major national financial institutions, international funds, utilities companies, retail companies and SME’s.
The AZ approach in the credit management is unique. Thanks to the deep expertise in NPL individual infoproviding and the proprietary database, the Group is able to target excellent recovery performances in all asset class (Secured-Unsecured/ Individual-SMEs-Corporate).
Founded in 1974 by Antonino Restino, the Group is organised into specialised operating companies located at the offices in Milan, Rome and Naples. Its clients are Italy’s leading insurance firms, banks, consumer credit companies, credit servicers, financiers, legal firms, large corporations, utilities companies and SMEs.
Each sector/market where AZ operates has specific features in which the Group management has invested resources, rethinking and redesigning the existing structure with a disruptive logic.
AZ: sectors of activity and competitive edge
- Infoproviding is the information production and profiling sector supporting loan supply and/or debt collection activities; it also assists in classification of risk for credit protection and protection against insurance fraud;
- The fraud sector, where the Group has been present for decades, is currently a best practice in the sector.
Know-how, organisation and centralisation of the complex network of information sources and processing phases are three factors which give the group its competitive edge and guarantee service performance and quality.
Consolidated processes, highly efficient Kpi and a consolidated nationwide presence are competitive advantages which are hard to beat for smaller players or newcomers.
The Group’s debt collection activities range across substandard and doubtful loans originating in various sectors which potentially cover the entire spectrum of distressed assets.
Technology and the proprietary database guarantee efficiency and performance which, together with the high costs of purchasing infrastructures, are a barrier to entry into the sector.
The strengths of the AZ Group
The Group’s competitive edge derives from its huge proprietary database, to which thousands of pieces of information are added every single day; centralisation and control of information sources and processing phases, know-how, technology, a nationwide presence and decades of experience have been transformed into the ability to create flexible processes and solutions. The licences the Group holds and its ISO 27001 certified data protection and security system (it is the first Italian company in the sector to have obtained it) are further points of strength ranging across all Group activities.
These are the principal reasons behind the rapid growth of AZ over the last two years and the consolidated credibility it has gained over time.
Growth strategy and plans
Future growth is planned both by strengthening the physical channel of business development and – above all – by using the digital channel, which is destined to become the means of dialogue between the company and its market, for delivery of services and also in assisting clients and discovering their needs.
The proprietary database and the data it contains will be further improved by enhancing instruments such as analytics and business intelligence.
The database will be a SIC (Credit Information System) which, with use of web interfaces created using the most advanced user experience know-how, will be accessible to the various contributors (banks, financiers, credit management companies, bad banks, etc.) to check the risk profiles of a single or multiple positions. Various dossiers for acquisition of one or more companies to prompt growth in external activities are also being examined.
Financial profile and shareholders
Shareholders
- 92.50% Antonino Restino
- 7.50% Riccardo Restino
Top Management
- Carmine Evangelista – CEO
- Antonio Orefice – CFO
Principal financial data 2013
| 2013 | /000 |
| Total revenues | 5.781 |
| Operating Profit | 877 |
| EBIT | 696 |
| Net profit | 442 |
| Financial position | 1.637 |
| Shareholders’ equity | 2.633 |
| Revenues by business sector | |
| Infoproviding | 40% |
| Insurance fraud | 40% |
| Asset protection | 12% |
| Intelligence | 8% |
Sector of reference
The sector of reference is an infoprovider and credit bureau for financial and insurance services, financial and economic big data analysis and clustering aimed at a credit information system (SIC) for financial and insurance risk scoring.
