Credit Management magazine October 2017

INTERVIEW
FECMA Country Profile
In the second in our series of profiles on FECMA members,
Sean Feast spoke to Robert Dyrcz, Founder of the Polish
Institute of Credit Management (PICM), a foundation
registered in the country’s national court register.
Robert Dyrcz
The Neptune, bronze
statue of the Roman
God of the Sea Poseidon.
Located in the Old Town
of Gdansk (Danzig),
Poland.
How many members do you have?
Because the PICM is a foundation, by law
it has no membership as such. However,
the statute allows for such a possibility
to happen, and currently we have two
members working as PICM development
coordinators for various regions in the
country. We are building a network of
Credit Managers based on regular meetings
called CREDIT CLUB PICM.
How is the PICM structured?
Being only a very recent foundation, we do
not have any branches yet, but we do have
our headquarters in Krakow, a major city
in southern Poland, and we held our first
ever national conference in June which will
be repeated next year. We also hold regular
meetings (every quarter) of the CREDIT
CLUB PICM.
What learning and development does
the PICM provide?
The PICM currently delivers one-day or
two-day training courses, to give delegates
a basic understanding and knowledge of
Credit Management. A more in-depth, full
qualification programme is planned to be
started next year.
What is your country’s cultural
attitude to late payment?
Payment defaults are still a major issue
in Poland. The concept of modern Credit
Management is barely known in the
smaller and mid-size companies. Average
payment terms allowed to the customers in
Poland are 20 days. The average time taken
by the customers to pay, however, is 30 days
longer, i.e. 50 days. Some small business
can wait for up to three months to be paid.
According to the latest reports, the cost
of late payments in Poland for businesses
is around US$30 billion every year, even
though the domestic regulations on late
payments are more demanding than EU
Standards.
Legal action is an option in Poland,
but the process is long and unpredictable;
formal proceedings should only commence
when all other pre-legal collection
opportunities have been exhausted.
Collecting debt from insolvent debtors is a
particularly challenging task.
Are there any specific laws/policies
to protect businesses against late
payment?
The EU Directive 2011/7/EU which stipulates
that payments in the EU must be made
within 60 days was transposed into Polish
law through the new Act on Payment Terms
in Commercial Transactions of March 8th,
2013 (Journal of Laws Dz.U. 2013 item 403).
The rules in Poland are, however,
stricter than the EU requirements: as a
rule, business-to-business transactions
must be paid within 30 calendar days,
although payment terms may be extended
by contract to 60 days if they do not become
unfair to one of the parties.
Unless the parties agree on a higher
interest rate by contract, the creditor is
entitled to receive late payment interest
calculated on the base of the National
Bank of Poland reference interest rate plus
eight pp (now: 1.5 percent + 8 percent = 9.5
percent).
What support does the PICM provide
to fellow FECMA members?
There is little in the way of support at
present but then the PICM is still very early
in its development. I foresee, however, that
in 2018, as the PICM network grows, we
could see some interesting international
initiatives from our institute.
In the meantime, every FECMA member
is welcome with all kind of requests and
questions regarding payment practices
and credit issues they may have regarding
our economy. The growing PICM
network covers more and more local and
international companies seated in Poland.
I will be happy to assist any credit manager
in the FECMA network!
Contacts for further information:
Robert Dyrcz, PICM Founder
Mobile: +48 600 09 33 72
e-mail: rdyrcz@picm.pl
The Recognised Standard / www.cicm.com / November 2017 / PAGE 27