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Posts Tagged ‘debt recovery’
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
Late invoice payment and outstanding debts is an issue that continues to cast a shadow over many parts of the UK Business Community with some alarming figures being released relating to the number of companies that are being forced into liquidation and administration despite being owed considerable sums of money. Yet this need not be the case providing expedient and cost effective steps are taken to recover outstanding debts.
One Company that has an excellent reputation for dealing with serious matters such as the Collection of outstanding debts is Federal Management. This Lancashire based Business has their Head Office in Skelmersdale as well as offices in London, and operate their renowned Debt Collection Services across the UK & EU, recovering Millions of Pounds every year for their clients. They are only too aware of the problems facing UK Businesses with regards to late payments and outstanding invoices etc as well as the need to maintain existing business relationships where possible.
Federal Management began life in 2004 by initially delivering their Debt Collection services to predominantly small businesses up and down the UK but their growth quickly gathered momentum as word spread of their low cost services. A development of existing services along with continued internal development has seen them emerge as one of the UK’s Leading Commercial Debt Collection Companies.
One of the key elements to Federal Management’s success has been the high level of internal investment. Thousands of pounds have been spent on cutting edge technology that gives them the edge over their competitors as well as the ongoing training of existing personnel ensures that they deliver a service that is professional and quickly gets results. Attention to detail and highly diligent staff ensure the potential of recovering monies owing is at a much higher level than normal. The professional management systems they employ saw them awarded the ISO9001 accreditation in January.
They boast a highly experienced and dedicated Collections Team that deal solely with the pursuit of outstanding Debts and are relentless in their efforts. In addition to the Collections Team, they also have an Internal Legal Team to deal with disputed Debts and have Professional Collection Officers to visit Debtors who ignore demands for payment.
Such has been the success of Federal Management, in early 2009 they were awarded a place on the High Growth Programme, a Government backed scheme led by the North West Development Agency to aid the growth and development of ‘High Growth’ Businesses. This will aid their expansion and growth as they continue to go from strength to strength.
Marc Curtis-Smith, Managing Director of the Company says “At Federal Management, as members of the Credit Services Association, we pride ourselves on delivering a highly professional service to our clients and coupled with our High Collection rates, has been the main reason for our success. We have literally hundreds of clients that benefit from the services that we offer, from Large PLC’s to local small Businesses.”
“Quite simply, the service that we offer is unrivalled as we provide a low fixed cost service that delivers results and is one of the reasons why we have been so successful. We even have a considerable number of Law firms that use our services to recover their debts and this gives good testament to our ability to deliver a highly professional service at a fraction of the time and cost one would normally associate with recovering bad debts”
Concludes Marc “We are proud to say that the greatest form of advertisement for our services is simply ‘word of mouth’. Our services are designed to maximize the prospect of a successful collection of Debts whilst minimizing the cost to our clients. Anybody that is experiencing debtor or late payment problems should contact us sooner rather than later.”
For further information on Federal Management and how they can help your business, simply call them free on 0800 043 6922 and take the first steps to recovering your money back.
Tags: Commercial, debt collection, debt recovery, federal management
Posted in Debt News, Financial News | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
Federal Management, the UK’s leader for Private & Commercial Debt Collection has been awarded certification by the British Standards Institution (BSI) to the quality management standard ISO9001.
Marc Curtis-Smith, Managing Director of Federal Management commented “We are a very focused and professional organization with the interests of our staff and clients at heart. The ISO9001 certification is very important on many levels. Not only does it demonstrate that we are a hugely professional organization but it gives a reassurance of quality to our clients, old, existing and new.”
The ISO9001 accreditation is the most established and internationally adopted standard relating to quality management. Federal Management decided to implement ISO9001 to review client perceptions of the business and also to review all systems and practices to ensure they are well managed, maximizing productivity and achieving the right results.
Federal Management are continuing to push the standards of service within the Debt Recovery industry and act as pioneers with their hard working and diligent approach to their work. 2010 and will see the continued expansion of the company and big things are expected by them and their partners as they continue to develop their services.
Tags: commercial debt collection, debt recovery, federal management, ISO
Posted in Debt News, Financial News | No Comments »
Monday, January 11th, 2010
Contrary to their requests for banks and creditors to help companies stay afloat, the government are heading the pack in issuing court petitions to wind companies up.
The details show a dramatic u-turn on the goverment’s calls for creditor groups, such as banks, to do everything in their power to help companies who are struggling to keep operating.
Figures released by accountancy firm UHY Hacker Young show that in the last six months HM Revnue and Customs (HMRC) were behind 43% of all creditor petitions seeking to wind up companies for debt collection purposes that were lodged.
Nick Hancock, a partner at UHY Hacker Young said “The most important message for businesses is that they cannot fall behind with tax payments and then hope for HMRC’s good will. Despite the government’s sympathetic stance towards businesses during the recession, HMRC’s priority remains to maximise debt recovery,” he said, warning that he expected tax officials to toughen “time to pay” agreements as pressure to restore the public finances mounts after the general election.
“If this is HMRC in ’soft touch’ mode, businesses will be concerned about Revenue & Customs turning the screw after the election … Company directors who can’t come to a workable agreement with the taxman or who break the terms of an agreement, will find that HMRC will be very quick to push the button on their business.”
HMRC had been offering companies who were struggling “time to pay” agreements if they were provided with an advance warning of likely payment problems by the company in question, but it would seem that these arrangements were a lot harder to come by once the firm had fallen into arrears on payments.
The political tension between recovering tax arrears and offering temporarily stretched businesses some lenience echoes the government’s equivocal guidance to state-supported banks Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group. They have been under pressure to both rebuild their capital bases while also continuing to lend to struggling small and medium-sized businesses through the recession.
Tags: debt recovery, goverment seeking court petitions, revenue and customs, tax payment arrears
Posted in Debt News, Financial News | No Comments »
Thursday, November 12th, 2009
A Suffolk warehousing and distribution company is looking forwards to a new future after an overwhelming approval by Creditors to back a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA.)
With an approval ratio of 98% the CVA will enable LM Logistics, based in Felixstowe, to secure new investments from Merchant Corporate Recovery PLC, based in London, who will effectively take control of the company as they now own 51% of the companies shares.
Dependent on the success of debt recovery methods, creditors of LM Logistics will receive a payout of between 27p and 41p in the pound.
Tony Barnes, managing director of LM Logistics, who previously held a controlling interest in the business, said the outcome was “testament to the belief in the company by all parties, suppliers, clients, shareholders and in particular the staff who have all played their part in helping the company through this difficult time”.
“The suppliers have been extremely understanding and the company will endeavour to support all those in the years ahead and wherever possible enable them to recover any losses they have suffered. “The clients have by and large stayed loyal to the cause which I believe is a tribute to the staff and high level of services we provide, and also indicates that people realise that our difficulties were not the result of poor management but that we were purely victims of economic situation that has caused so many problems to so many companies over the last 18 months. All our staff agreed to an 8 % reduction in their pay earlier in the year with a couple of people taking voluntary redundancy – I can’t praise the staff highly enough for the support and commitment they have shown in helping to secure the long term future for all concerned.”
Mr Barnes said the manager-shareholders had probably lost the most, having not only given up the majority shareholder and but agreed to write off £192,000 owed to another group company as well as taking pay cuts along with the staff.
He added: “Hindsight is a wonderful thing and looking back maybe the company did expand a little too quickly too soon, but like everyone else we just couldn’t envisage the economic downturn that followed.
“We have spent enormous sums over the last three years to ensure we can provide the highest levels of service and due to the downturn we have not managed to recover these costs through increased rates from our clients.
“Going forward the infrastructure is still in place to benefit our clients for years to come and our quality control systems, integrity of staff, security systems, vehicle fleets and IT Systems keep us well ahead of our local competitors.”
When news of the company’s difficulties first emerged last month, Mr Barnes warned that the agreement of a CVA was vital to securing the new investment and that, without it, the firm would probably face administration.
LM Logistics, based in Parker Avenue, Felixstowe, employs a total of 143 people and operates a fleet of about 30 vehicles. It has a total of 310,000 sq ft of warehousing space, although this is leased rather than owned.
Associated company Syntex Logistics, which was acquired by LM in 2006 and specialises in container haulage, is not involved in the CVA.
Tags: cva, debt recovery, LM Logistics, Merchant Corporate Recovery PLC
Posted in Debt News, Financial News | No Comments »
Monday, November 9th, 2009
Pioneer Drilling posted a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss as a bad debt recovery helped cushion the impact of lower utilisation rates for its rigs.
For the third quarter, the company posted a net loss of $9.2 million, or 18 cents per share, compared with earnings of $24.2 million, or 48 cents, a year ago.
Revenue fell about 57% to $74.4 million.
Analysts, on average, expected the company to post a loss of 22 cents per share, excluding items, on revenue of $67.8 million, according to Thomson Reuters.
Quarterly utilisation rate for the company’s drilling rigs averaged 35%, down from 96% in the year-ago period.
Pioneer said its results were boosted by a bad debt recovery of $1.3 million.
Utilisation is showing modest improvement at 38% in the current fourth quarter, the company said.
Shares of the San Antonio, Texas-based company closed at $6.86 yesterday on the American Stock Exchange.
Tags: debt recovery, Pioneer
Posted in Debt News, Financial News, International Debt News | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
Consumer debt is at an all-time high. As a result of this, officials of CRM and other business technology vendor SAS are claiming that financial institutions are reportedly being pressured to recover unpaid debts in an attempt to rebuild cash reserves in a tightening market.
Debt collection itself requires resources to execute the recovery process. And it’s not as easy as sending the lads round around to inquire about the health of someone’s knees and use the opportunity to show off their nice new cricket bat. Things are much nicer these days. And probably as effective.
“Financial services institutions must re-gear their analytic techniques to adapt to a new playing field,” said Brian Riley, research director of bank cards at TowerGroup. “Rising unemployment, coupled with a protracted recession and increased credit costs make existing tools obsolete. Successful lenders that apply advanced analytics to optimize their strategies experience particularly strong results.”
Debt collection, according to SAS (News – Alert) officials, is “delicate. Customers are sensitive to how, when and why they are contacted.” In their view, most debt collection approaches fail to identify who best to contact or which channels to use.
First Coffee knows what you’re thinking: “Call centers.” Yes, that is often the most effective communication method – are also the most expensive. SAS said using predictive analytics helps debt recovery companies make effective use of their call centers and alternative methods of communication, such as SMS, IVR, e-mail that may also achieve successful results at low costs.
SAS officials said that using their approach, collection managers can plan and prioritize outbound communications, “balancing the organization’s capacity with the likelihood that customers will respond.”
Cary, North Carolina-based SAS’s officials said at the time that the marketing software was expected by HF Holidays officials to create better targeted direct mail campaigns and e-newsletter offers to its customers, based on accurate customer data.
Tags: debt collection, debt recovery, sas
Posted in Debt News, Financial News, International Debt News | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009
Are debt collection agencies getting back on track after the recent financial downturn?
In short, the answer would appear to be yes. In an industry survey by ARM, debt recovery agencies have tended to experience a stronger third quarter in the year than for the second quarter.
The Accounts Receivable Management Industry also has companies claiming stronger third quarter performances and all are expecting a brighter fourth quarter as the economy begins to move forwards again.
The early results for insideARM’s quarterly Credit & Debt Collection Industry Confidence Survey for Fall 2009 show a slight turnaround from the gloomy results seen in Summer 2009.
Most ARM survey takers reported better performance than in the last few quarters. When asked to rate their firm’s performance in the third quarter of 2009 on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best, collection agency participants reported an average score of 3.21, compared to the 3.08 reported for the second quarter. Likewise, debt buyers reported an improved average performance rating of 3.13 in Q3, compared to 3.03 in Q2.
Despite the increase in performance ratings, ARM firms are still reporting a historically challenging collection environment. In comments encouraged on an open-ended question about performance, many survey participants struck a familiar refrain:
“COLLECTION RATES CONTINUES TO BE WELL BELOW 07 & 08” – Collection Agency participant
“Accounts are not as collectable, probably 60% of what they used to be.” – Collection Agency participant
“Consumer recoveries are down 20%.” – Collection Law Firm participant
“Liquidation rates are down 25-40%.” – Debt Buyer participant
Placement volumes, however, are way up, according to the survey participants so far. More than 55 percent of collection agency participants said that placements were up “moderately” (40 percent) or “significantly” (15.8 percent) from the second quarter.
Tags: debt collection, debt recovery
Posted in International Debt News | 1 Comment »
Monday, August 17th, 2009
With the economic downturn in full swing, small businesses are finding it hard to cope with unpaid invoices and overdue accounts. As a direct result, debt recovery is becoming a more and more frequent requirement and small businesses are feeling the pinch as they having to spend time chasing debt.
Overdue accounts can be a nightmare to manage for small businesses. If a business is dependent on a regular flow of cash then the problem is greater than those who have an extended period of payment in their terms and conditions. Ensuring the cash flow continues to come in means that these businesses are able to pay their own suppliers and avoid bad debts of their own, not to mention their staff who also need to be paid which is why outstanding debts can be such a problem. The recovery of the debt, however, needs to be done as quickly and as smoothly as possible so that the business feels as little of the pinch as possible. Ensuring that the company takes the right steps from the outset can have a better chance of you recovering the monies that are owed, as well as maintaining a healthy business relationship with customers.
When setting about to recover an outstanding debt, the first port of call is to ensure that the terms and conditions are clear, so the customer knows exactly what is expected regarding payment. It is a good idea to ensure that these terms are on all invoices and if you are going to use an external debt collection agency to recovery the debt, then it is advisable to mention as such in the terms also. That way there can be no doubt as to payment terms.
Once the monies become outstanding then the need to collect them back as quickly as possible becomes paramount. A cost effective and expedient debt collection company, such as Federal Management, are an ideal solution for this. For some businesses, however, there is always the worry that chasing the debt could cause a business relationship to turn sour, and to lose future business. As the payment terms near their end or shortly after, a “friendly” phone call can often result in payment. And if not, you have the option to follow this up in writing to instigate a gentle reminder of the outstanding payment due and, to re-emphasise your payment terms.
What is not recommended for a small business is to continually chase the debt via telephone or through the post. This means that the business is directing resources elsewhere and not focusing on making money. There are companies who perform these tasks as part of their service and are more likely to have a greater success rate anyway in recovering the money in this format. It also elminates the stresses that can occur with having to chase a debt.
A lot of companies will choose to utilise a debt collection agency to recover owed monies as they simply do not have the time or the know how to do it themselves. Whichever way a business chooses to operate it’s debt recovery methods, making sure that the money owed is recovered is the key to a continual cash flow and to getting paid in tough times.
Tags: cash flow, debt collection, debt recovery, economic downturn
Posted in Debt News, Financial News | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 17th, 2009
An investigation into plans on how to share credit data across Europe has been published and it details a series of proposals to help improve credit checks.
The European Commission set up the Expert Group on Credit Histories (EGCH) as a means to identify and overcome the obstacles in sharing credit data across Europe and the ECFH’s report has revealed it is AGAINST the creation of a single pan-European credit register.
It is thought that if the move had gone ahead, the potential cost to UK banks could have been in the hundreds of millions of pounds each. Given the fact that UK banks are ahead of a lot of their European counterparts in credit data management, the report seems to have some valid points, particularly including the creation of such a register does not seem to be a realistic or effective option.
In a crucial move for the credit industry to promote cross-border responsible lending, the EGCH has proposed that access to credit data for the purpose of credit checks should be possible throughout the credit lifecycle and after the expiry of the credit agreement. This, the report states, would serve the purpose of risk assessment, account management, debt collection, debt recovery, fraud prevention and money laundering prevention.
The preliminary report, entitled Access to Credit Histories, recommends that creditors be given free choice between all access models available to them, depending on the business case and data protection rules. The EGCH said the indirect access model may be the most suitable, as a first step in generating a cross-border market.
In a significant move the group has also recommended that the Consumer Credit Directive could be used to ensure that foreign creditors get the same level of access to credit data as local creditors in that country, without barriers.
The report also recommends that national data protection authorities work towards more harmonization in the interpretation of data protection rules and in their practices in order to facilitate the process of cross-border credit data exchange.
The proposals also state that the use of data across borders should comply with the national rules of the country from where it is accessed. The EGCH has also recommended that action be taken to ensure a level of convergence, at cross-border level, over consumers’ access conditions.
Tags: credit checks, debt collection, debt recovery
Posted in Financial News | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 16th, 2009
From time to time almost all business owners will be faced with the issue of bad debt. As a result, it is imperative that plans are put into place should bad debts arise so that the business is able to receive payment as quickly and efficiently as possible.
For some business owners, writing off bad debt is all part and parcel of running a business. While, to a limited degree, this is true, it is imperative that a business doesn’t just write off a debt without pushing the debtors for payment wherever possible.
A study that was performed by Leeds University showed that 30% of bad debts came about because of issues with cash-flow or that systems and procedures were holding up payment. Keeping that in mind, often a single letter from a debt collection agency that advises the customer that there is an outstanding balance is all that is required to secure payment.
Also, appointing a debt collection agency for the purpose of debt recovery does not necessarily mean the end of a business relationship – most customers will understand that all you really want is payment for the goods or services that you have provided.
Tags: debt collection, debt collection agency, debt recovery
Posted in Debt News | No Comments »
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