ARTICLE...
Good Collections Behaviour
The Financial Services Ombudsman is showing optimism - albeit tempered - on debt collection and the good behaviour being displayed by many companies in the industry.
Jane Hingston, lead ombudsman for banking and credit, is eager to point out that, whilst many queries concerning debt collection do arrive at FOS head office, only a relatively small number of those translate directly into complaints.
Jane explained: "It's reassuring, it tells me that hopefully, debt collection businesses understand their responsibility to deal properly with complaints and resolve them in-house."
The statistics released by FOS certainly back this up.
Between 1st December 2007 and 30th November 2008, 10,200 initial complaint enquiries were received by FOS relating to Consumer Credit Jurisdiction (CCJ). However, only 2,249 - roughly a quarter - of those translated to complaints needing to be looked at by adjudicators.
Of the 10,200 initial CCJ enquiries roughly a quarter, 2,606 cases were recorded as involving debt collection. Again, out of those cases, only 326 - around 12% - translated into actual complaints needing further investigation.
These sorts of figures are reflected in the CSA's own complaint statistics, where issues are referred directly to the Association. In 2006, the CSA received 423 formal complaints. In 2007, this rose to 452 whilst, in 2008, the CSA received 442 from a total of 1088 initial complaint enquiries.
The following PDFs help illustrate the CSA's findings:
- FOS Complaint Enquiries Received 1st Dec 07 - 20 Nov 08
- FOS Complaint Enquiries Involving Debt Collection
- FOS Debt Collection Complaints Referred to Adjudicators
- CSA 2008 Complaint Statistics
Original article courtesy of Credit Today. For further information visit www.credittoday.co.uk
