ARTICLE...
New Traces 'Validation' Welcomed
The credit industry has welcomed and thrown its full support behind the recent CSA guidelines on the Tracing Code of Conduct - where, ideally, all traces should be validated.
However, it's definitely worth taking another, closer look at this new policy.
First of all, validation will not be possible when two separate parties have used the same information via different sources. This is not validation. This is repeating the same original data, just taking it from two different suppliers. It might sound obvious, but this scenario occurs more often than you'd think.
You can't even rely on using more than one reference agency as every bureau receives identical data from an equally identical source. Even comparing data from two or three bureaux would only be comparing the same information from two or three different routes that lead back to the same source.
Secondly, when someone states over the phone that 'Person X doesn't live here and never has', but your data suggests otherwise, who is right?
Historically, the person on the phone is assumed to be telling the truth, with tracing agents very sensitive to the possibility of a mis-trace resulting in a retraction of the collection enquiry.
This has been shown, time and time again, to be unproductive and the degree of such referrals can often depend on the quality and skills of the tracing agents.
So, for a true validation process, you need two process reviews.
The first is to use data close to the original source and ensure a number of distinct sources can always be identified and verified.
The second is to ensure all agents dealing with the public are trained and have the right data to help validate the information over the phone. This will help them to distinguish between genuine mis-traces and evasive debtors.
These two steps would help to remove doubt and would help make everyone's job much, much simpler.
Original article, by Steven Preston, courtesy of CCR. For further information visit www.ccrmagazine.co.uk
