BUSINESSES of every sort have been sucker-punched by the recession, but at least one enterprise has continued to grow through the downturn: auto repossession.

More than 1.9 million cars were recovered on behalf of lenders in 2009, a jump of 90,000 over the previous year and the latest in a decadelong string of annual increases, according to Tom Webb, chief economist of the consulting arm of Manheim Auctions.

But even in this boom, recovery businesses are trying to do more with less, taking advantage of computers and digital imaging. They are improving efficiency and reducing the need for tedious legwork in tracking skips – those delinquent borrowers who are the hardest to find – using technologies like automatic license plate recognition, which allows them to troll city streets and instantly identify cars whose loans are in arrears.