ARTICLE...
One Clear Voice
Peter Wallwork, the new chief executive at the CSA has outlined how he will lead the organisation – and the industry – with a single, focused voice and discuss the important issues with government and regulators.
Peter was speaking at the CSA's half yearly event, where the association was planning how to tackle the loss of repaying debt as a moral obligation. This is something Tessera – particularly through Leigh Berkley, its Chief Executive and DBSG Chair – has been keen to address.
The outlook isn't promising. In the last six months 31,000 individuals in England and Wales have gone bankrupt, 20,000 have entered into IVAs and 12,000 have become the subject of debt relief orders.
But in the face of this environment, the CSA knows it needs to be more vocal and more effective than ever before.
This has been particularly important in the face of increasing government bombardment of consultations, which need one clear voice to help steer the industry towards better standards.
Roger Lucas, president of the CSA, added that he will continue to work with regulators, politicians and the media to explain the association's position. However he tempered this with: "While we might all be doing our best none of us really knows if we are doing enough."
He also called on the government to grant access to the full electoral roll for tracing and debt collection purposes. Without replacing the edited register with the full roll morality would be badly damaged.
"In the context of 15 million trace requests every year this is clearly not a small problem or an itch to be scratched. Indeed it may well be the symptom of developing a culture of non-payment and damage to that precious 'moral obligation'."
Roger went on to add that 'won't pays' of society were of the most concern: "They are also often the most vocal in trumpeting their success in evading their debt, and unfortunately the current economic, political, and to some extent the regulatory environment is adding to the problem."
And more members need to be involved. When the CSA requested input from members against the abolition of the edited electoral register only 10 members replied. Peter Wallwork said that more members need to get involved and 'defend our corner'.
Peter has added that the use of methods of communication to stay in touch with members of the credit industry – from Twitter to blogs. But they will always be relevant to the industry: "They'll be professional tweets with updates for the industry – not about what I've had for dinner."
He also wants smaller debt collectors and start-up firms to make themselves heard – something that can be difficult when companies can't let a representative go to a national conference due to limited resources. Smaller, regional meetings are being considered as a way of combating this. Peter added: "There's something like 80% of our members with less than 20 people working for them."
In addition, Dr Lucas also introduced new industry-wide accreditation for all collectors: "My idea is that the CSA accreditation will be accessible to an achievable by any and all of our members. The online test will accredit the knowledge and implementation of both the CSA code of conduct and OFT guidelines.
"It will be both accessible and affordable and in the interests of maintaining standards in a rapidly changing regulatory environment."
And Peter is clear that this one voice is vital for the industry, adding: "We need to talk about all these things, but at the same time, not get too caught up with the excitement of everything and forget what we are actually here to do – and that is to collect money."
Original article courtesy of Credit Today.
