Aside from the debt owed to the Government in the form of taxes and miscellaneous debt by individuals, banks are owed the largest amount of money in the UK, a sum of around £8 billion. This is significant for companies like Wescot as large financial institutions such as these already have a competent and capable, long running debt recovery process. It is a large portion of the market share that independent debt management companies like Wescot cannot break into, and as such is putting pressure on the industry. The upshot of the current economic climate however, is such that despite the market share being comparatively small there is still a large amount of private debt owed to other companies, that Wescot can take advantage of, recovery rates are in fact the highest that they have been in six years since the recession.

Banks are very efficient at recovering their debts, with a working model that they have operated for decades, coupled with a mean debt of many thousands of pounds they can quickly persuade customers to part with their cash and begin repayments. However, despite recovery rates being high, independent debt management companies such as Wescot are facing another dilemma. Average people simply do not have as much money to pay back their debts on a weekly basis. The average person only has £139 to spare once essentials have been paid for, so it is taking Wescot longer to close each client’s account. Wescot has to come up with more efficient strategies given the difficulty of closing an account during this recession.

A major difference to the economic outlook today as compared to six years ago at the height of the credit crunch is that mainstream banks have long since stopped unsecured lending. So for the last two and a half years the collections flow, stock and impairments rate has decreased. Looking ahead for companies like Wescot, who rely on creditors to lend money, it is necessary that those in charge come up with another solution to unsecured lending. In this way, they will provide further business to debt recovery companies such as Wescot.

Despite the changes that Wescot and other debt management companies face in the coming years, the UK’s biggest debt recovery company is adapting and overcoming the problems they might come across to maintain their lead.

The premise of Money Advice Scotland (MAS) is to provide help with those struggling with the burden of debt or general financial trouble, including which companies are the best to approach with everyday queries. Originally, the charity was set up in the late ‘80s to provide help to the people of Scotland but the organisation has grown significantly since then, and they are open to questions from anyone living in the UK. Each year MAS holds a two day conference that brings together people from both sides of the tracks, creditors and the general public that MAS provide help to on a daily basis. This two day event is a significant day in the credit industry’s year as it gives ample opportunity for companies to find more business as well as opportunities for individuals to ask important questions to a representative face to face instead of over the phone or via email. While MAS receives a large amount of funding from the Scottish government, they also find sponsorship from many of the companies represented at their conference. Amongst high street banks and loan companies, Wescot is a debt management firm with offices in Hull, Glasgow and Saltcoats that has recently given MAS vital sponsorship money to continue their good work.

Wescot is committed to providing the best service to their customers while protecting the needs of the customers themselves. In a world where money is harder and harder to come by, this debt recovery company with offices in Hull, Glasgow and Saltcoats recognise the factors that contribute to someone struggling to repay their credit. By sponsoring MAS’s two day conference they are not only providing the charity with essential funds to keep operations going, but the debt recovery company are also able to help people directly when they attend the conference.

Throughout Money Advice Scotland’s conference, there are workshops and seminars that cover a wide range of topics with regards to finances. Issues such as bankruptcy, taxes, interest rates and general borrowing queries are covered over the two days. In addition to these formal events, there is plenty of opportunity for individuals to approach the sponsors of the events and seek advice directly from them. The conference has been successful year on year, and it is hoped that by receiving sponsorship from businesses like Wescot, the attendance rates will continue to grow.

Many employers in the UK make a lot of noise about training and development. They talk about investing in staff, and people being their most valued asset. Yet in many companies, the rhetoric is unsupported by action. Not so at Wescot Credit Services. One of the UK’s primary collection and recovery companies, Wescot has weathered more than forty years in a highly competitive industry.  It has achieved this in part because at Wescot, learning and development are taken very seriously indeed.

Wescot employs more than 650 people across three key sites in the UK. Each individual is given specific Wescot induction training in relation to their job role, but at Wescot the story does not end there. Throughout their career at Wescot every employee is given regular opportunities to discuss their performance with management, and identify areas for improvement. Wescot then provides training that is tailored to the needs of person, their job role, and the clients and customers they are engaging with.

Wescot places a high degree of focus on ensuring that its staff appreciates the needs and rights of the customers with whom they are dealing, and the principles of Treating Customers Fairly, or TCF, underpin every aspect of internal training that is provided at Wescot.

Wescot’s commitment to the continuing professional development of its staff is not limited to internal training programmes. Alongside these invaluable business-focused courses, employees are actively encouraged to engage in training outside of Wescot in general areas of study that are relevant to their role and the financial services industry, such as nationally recognised qualifications.  Wescot have a dedicated policy for granting time off for study and training in support of this.

Wescot promotes a culture of learning and training, and takes a long-term view in relation to staff development. Investing now provides employees with the necessary skills to develop their careers within Wescot, to the ultimate benefit of all concerned. It is the right of the majority of members of the Wescot team to submit requests for time off to study, and provided they can illustrate that the associated learning will enhance their effectiveness at work, such applications are generally viewed positively.

As a forward-thinking company, Wescot does not limit the training opportunities for its employees to their current job role. For those who show promise, and a willingness to progress their career within Wescot, the development of new skills through training is actively encouraged. With such a positive and proactive attitude to employee development, Wescot is sure to retain its position as one of the leading debt recovery agencies in the UK in the future.

No matter how large or small, businesses need to have a plan in place to deal with customers who default on their repayments agreements. Whether this is handled internally or externally, collections needs to be handled sensitively and by someone who you can trust, which is where Wescot Credit Services can help.

Wescot are the UK’s largest debt collections agency, with a portfolio of clients covering many big brand household names. With a strong workforce of 650 employees based across three offices in Glasgow, Hull and Saltcoats, Wescot’s team of experts are currently working to recover balances on well over five customers.

Whilst recouping funds for clients in a professional and fair manner is the core of Wescot’s business, they also provide additional services such as trace, trace & contact / cure. Trace refers to companies like Wescot utilising their verified database, and other in house resources to ascertain the correct contact details for customers, verifying key information in relation to them and then dealing with the contact in the most appropriate / agreed way.

Wescot Credit Services recently partnered with secured leading specialists Swift Advances, to provide a sublime trade support service which allowed Swift to fulfil their remediation plan. Swift Advances’ brief involved needing assistance to track down 2,000 ex-customers, and Wescot’s ‘Locate’ range of products fitted the bill perfectly.

This one-off project from Swift Advances posed an easy challenge for the Wescot team as they set about undertaking this remediation exercise in a professional and ethical manner. The purpose of this project from Swifts perspective was to gather ex-customer intelligence through Wescot, in order to issue small refunds to those who had overpaid on their loans.

Wescot’s process to gather this intelligence was highly efficient; they were able to trace 80% of the contacts required very quickly, which substantially exceeded Swift’s expectations.

Wescot have the skills and expertise to undertake trace activity and lead generation throughout client’s customer lifecycle. If for instance, contact is lost, Wescot are well equipped to source and verify new details because in this day and age, it is simply not viable for businesses to waste money on trying to get in touch using non-validated information.

Wescot fully appreciate that tracing and contact products are now a vital element of customer service, and in some instances remediation is required to resolve past process issues.

As Wescot Credit Services continues to lead the way in supplying high profile organisations with agency collections and tracing support services, they are keen to re-iterate the importance of place in client’s requirements as the heart of their business.

It has been some time since the start of the global economic crisis, and over five years on, agencies in many different markets are still dealing with the repercussions of irresponsible banking and lending. Banking debt is still the dominant force in the UK debt collection market, with average annual flows above $8 billion since 2008. Ask any senior banker and they will tell you how difficult the last four years have been.

The difficulty stems from both the management of debt, and ensuring stability for the future. There are shifts occurring and things are looking up for the better, though it is still the job of banks to take further measures for the benefit of themselves and the wider economy.

Raising capital and disposing unsecured debt

Some of the most important current priorities for UK banks are to raise capital, to improve the state of the balance sheet and to reduce leveraging. RBS’s post-meltdown actions are the perfect case study; they have reduced their balance sheet by a huge amount, and have disposed of many of their non-core assets.

RBS still have a great deal more to achieve however if they are to reduce the exposure of their balance sheet. The further disposal of unsecured debt may be good news for the debt management sector and agencies like Wescot Credit Services, but this alone will not raise the type of capital that the banks need. More significant in the improvement of the balance sheet is the disposal of divisions that are high risk, and addressing the very dangerous problem of secured consumer lending.

The management of lending debt is no longer a priority

Many would expect unsecured lending to register high on the agenda, but this would be an outdated opinion. Excessive and undisciplined, unsecured lending stopped very soon after the financial meltdown, and not too long after the financial meltdown collections for unsecured lending reached a peak. In the time between then and now, there has been a steady reduction in collections flow. Recovery rates have been steadily improving.

Now that consumer lending has recovered significantly, and has woken up to the realities of unsecured lending, lending divisions are now starting to participate in new lending to grow revenues once again. The important question for the divisions to ask themselves now is exactly how they should operate.

If your financial situation deteriorates and you find yourself unable to make the repayments on your debts, it can be a stressful and daunting position to be in. You may worry about the risk of your possessions being seized to recover the debt or the thought of having bailiffs coming to your door. However, it’s important to know the facts about failure to make repayments. In reality, if you take proactive action as soon as you realise there’s a problem, it’s unlikely that your situation will become extreme enough to warrant seizure of belongings.

Generally once you have missed around three to six payments, you will receive a default notice from your creditor through the post. The letter will formally explain to you how many payments have been missed, the steps you need to take to put your account in order and the measures the creditor will take if you fail to do this. Some of these measures may include preventing access to your credit facility, selling your debt to a collection agency or repossessing items as part of your agreement. The latter two generally only happen in more serious circumstances.

At this stage, it’s wise to take the necessary steps as directed in your default notice as soon as possible. If for any reason you are unable to do this, get in contact with your creditor. The worst thing you can do is to ignore your creditor’s correspondence.

If you fail to acknowledge notices from your creditor, it’s likely that they will enlist the help of a debt collection agency to recover the debt so you may receive a letter from an agency such as Wescot, who would encourage you to pay your debt. If your creditor has sold your debt to the agency then you would owe the agency rather than your original creditor.  At this point you are still able to negotiate repayment terms which work for you.

In extreme circumstances you may receive a visit from a bailiff who will recover items of value to cover your debt. However, this can only happen following a court order or if you have an unpaid council tax bill. It’s important to remember that a debt collector is not the same as a bailiff.

If you do find yourself missing payments, get in touch with your creditor as soon as possible. The sooner you address the issue the easier things will be in the long run.

If you are a business and are trying to recover a debt, it’s not unusual for the customer to disappear leaving you in a difficult situation. You may not know where to start when trying to trace a customer but there are steps you can take.

In most cases, the customer will leave an electronic trail. This can be through a variety of different ways such as depositing money into a bank account, paying income tax or even buying or selling a house. This can be extremely useful when trying to track down a customer.

You may wish to enlist the help of a professional tracing company who will know the best methods to use. Many will offer electronic tracking or even physical tracking if necessary. Some companies will also offer pre-legal financial checks. This is where the tracing company will investigate the assets of the customer and find out their real financial position before you embark on expensive legal proceedings.

Many tracing agents will have access to a variety of investigative channels such as the Land Registry, the UK Direct Enquiry Database, credit databases showing applications made for credit, insolvency searches, electoral roll information and birth, death and marriage records. All of these means can be helpful in establishing contact with customers.

However, trace exercises don’t just have to be used for recovering a debt. Recently, the debt collections agency Wescot provided trace support to Swift Advances as part of a remediation plan whereby it was required to offer small refunds to previous customers.  The company used lead generation and contact activity to successfully trace 80% of customers.

Tracing and contact services are becoming a vital part of customer service and remediation across a wide range of sectors. If your business is owed money, locating your customers is a crucial part of ensuring successful receipt of payments. There are many different techniques which can be employed to track down customers and achieve positive trace results. A professional tracing company will be able to advise you on which approach is best for your needs. With UK personal debt at a staggering high, it’s all the more important for businesses to recover funds as quickly and cost effectively as possible.

The UK debt collection market is currently dominated by the highly public news about staggering levels of banking debts, yet less widely known is that the government is owed even more than this by individual consumers. The good news is that managing such debt has long been a part of the banking remit, and the sector is geared-up to control this part of their business with a reasonable degree of efficiency. They attack the problem by a range of obvious methods seeking to stimulate business growth, and through investment in their people, yet other means at their disposal are just as valid, and can be equally effective in managing future risk.

Raising capital is one area that can deliver value directly to the balance sheet, but through disposal of risky assets, and non-profitable parts of the business instead of consumer debt. This particular issue has undergone a major period of change in the last 4 years. In arresting consumer lending so abruptly the market has been able to largely re-correct itself in this area, effectively allowing the risk to manage itself for a time, and giving the industry a temporary breather. Wescot Credit Services have seen that organisations can derive greater benefit by shifting assets in other areas.

A second area for focus in on compliance. In the wake of the banking crisis the spotlight has fallen on the concept of TCF, or Treating Customers Fairly. Internal and policies and practices in areas such as tracing, debt collection and debt purchasing need to be robust and not only meet but exceed regulatory expectations, to avoid costly financial penalties. Wescot Credit Services are pioneering a new approach to an FCA framework that is both fit for purpose and embraces TCF principles at its heart.

A third area for debt risk management centres on the requirements of Basel III. Whilst elements affecting sovereign debt are largely beyond control, ensuring that the correct spread of risk is applied across the banking business as a whole in terms of funding, lending and collection/recovery operations, demonstrates to the regulators that banks are establishing counter-cyclical buffers that are robust and effective.

Moving forwards, the purchase of unsecured consumer debt is certain to rise again, but in such a way that dovetails with the medium-long term strategies of the banks, thus making it a more sustainable and less risky proposition. Compliance is sure to figure high in the agenda too, and it is likely that standardised compliance procedures will eventually emerge. As the effects of Basel III really take hold, the demand for debt collection products and services will evolve, and the industry needs to be ready to respond.

Ultimately, if consumers suffering from debt issues can be rehabilitated and converted back to live and secure status, then the industry has done its job, and business across the board will benefit. Wescot Credit Services knows that continued strategic engagement from the debt collection community will be essential in delivering innovative solutions for client business models that support and embrace these changes.