The Credit Services Association (CSA) has welcomed the Office of Fair Trading’s latest guidance for the debt collection industry.The OFT published its updated Debt Collection Guidance yesterday (19th October).
The new guidance warns against misuse of continuous payment authority to recover debts, such as making recurring attempts to recover a single repayment and highlights the responsibilities of all parties involved in the debt recovery process for the quality and level of information they maintain and exchange with others.
It also provides greater clarity on the OFT’s position on issues such as reasonably queried and disputed debt and statute barred debt; and makes debt recovery businesses aware that they should adopt appropriate practices and procedures for dealing with particularly vulnerable debtors.
Sara de Tute, president of the CSA, says: “We are pleased to see the particular emphasis given to the CSA and DBSG Standard Debt Collection Letter Guidance, which was produced in collaboration with the OFT and is already familiar to CSA members.
“We are also pleased to see that the OFT has taken on board a number of recommendations made during the review process, including our proposal to change the section headed ‘debt purchase’ to one of ‘data accuracy’, for the issue is not unique to any one part of the collections industry.
De Tute says the updated guidance acts as a reminder to debtors that they should take responsibility and must engage appropriately in the debt recovery process.
She added: “The Association will comment in more detail once the full implications of the Guidance have been assessed.”