201503 CM March
THE CICM JOURNAL FOR CONSUMER AND COMMERCIAL CREDIT PROFESSIONALS
THE CICM JOURNAL FOR CONSUMER AND COMMERCIAL CREDIT PROFESSIONALS
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CSA STATS<br />
DEBT VALUES ON<br />
THE DECLINE<br />
<br />
In a Credit Management exclusive, John Ricketts, Vice President of the CSA,<br />
looks at the latest DGI statistics for commercial debt recovery.<br />
THE value of commercial debt<br />
outsourced to members of the<br />
Credit Services Association (CSA) is<br />
falling, having dropped by almost a<br />
quarter in a like-for-like comparison with<br />
2013.<br />
In the latest statistics generated by the<br />
CSA’s quarterly Data Gathering Initiative<br />
(DGI) and released exclusively to Credit<br />
Management, members reported that they<br />
held £811.9 million of debt for collection<br />
in Q3 2014 – a fall of 23 percent on the<br />
same period in 2013 (£1.052 billion). This<br />
is despite the fact that membership of the<br />
CSA has remained constant.<br />
Volumes of debt have decreased even<br />
more markedly with a 41 percent fall. In<br />
Q3 2013 there were more than c668,000<br />
accounts for collection and this total<br />
had fallen to c395,600 accounts in Q3<br />
2014. Perhaps surprisingly, however, the<br />
average balance has risen by almost a<br />
third (30 percent), increasing from £1,573<br />
to £2,052.<br />
In terms of the actual balances<br />
successfully collected, values have also<br />
fallen by some 40 percent from £113<br />
million (in Q3 2013) to £67 million (Q3<br />
2014), a steady quarter-on-quarter fall over<br />
five consecutive quarters.<br />
Although it may be unwise to draw any<br />
definitive conclusions from these results,<br />
it may imply that UK PLC is in a period of<br />
transition, making debts more difficult to<br />
collect. The fall in volumes may suggest<br />
that businesses are choosing to pursue<br />
outstanding payments more rigorously<br />
in-house prior to outsourcing to a third<br />
party.<br />
£<br />
Value of commercial debt outsourced<br />
Debt for collection held<br />
by CSA members:<br />
£1.052bn<br />
Q3 2013<br />
Volume<br />
Volume of debt held by<br />
CSA members:<br />
c668,000<br />
Q3 2013<br />
Collected<br />
Balances successfully<br />
collected:<br />
£113m<br />
Q3 2013<br />
£811.9m<br />
Q3 2014<br />
c395,600<br />
Q3 2014<br />
£67m<br />
Q3 2014<br />
23%<br />
fall<br />
Average balance:<br />
£1,573 (Q3 2013)<br />
£2,052 (Q3 2014)<br />
+30% increase<br />
41%<br />
fall<br />
40%<br />
fall<br />
Source: CSA Data Gathering Initiative<br />
22 <strong>March</strong> 2015 www.cicm.com<br />
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