As I have been looking at various articles on some South African companies and their credit policies and/or performances perhaps we should add the Business Report article on South Africa’s biggest clothing retailer ( although they are much more then just that ).
Edcon said “84 percent of the debtors book was current and able to buy, compared with 86 percent in June last year”.
In the year to March, Edcon, which owns Edgars and Jet, acquired 585 000 new account holders, bringing the total to 4.1 million.
This is not only a …

Business Report has an article highlighting the tougher credit policies introdcued by the biggest small loans provider, African Bank, which has had an impact on the bank’s earnings.
“Revenue slipped to R1.429 billion in the three months through June, from R1.432 billion in the comparable period for the year before, African Bank said in a statement to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Monday. The slowdown trimmed sales growth for the first nine months of its fiscal year to 16 percent, after rising 26 percent in the first two quarters.

Business Report has an article on Mr Price’s entry into the sporting goods market following their good performances in the clothing, homewear and now furniture markets.
From a credit mangement perspective its significant that ” the first of four Mr Price Sport pilot stores, a 1 500m2 outlet, opened in Boksburg on the East Rand, with a second one pencilled in to open in N1 City in Cape Town on Friday, August 4.” This positioning of the stores coupled with the introduction earlier in the year of credit to facilitate big …

Fin24.co.za reports that demand for credit by South Africa’s private sector rose by 23.89% in the year to end-June, official data showed on Monday, above expectations and accelerating from an unrevised 22.7% in May.
During the same period the broadly defined M3 measure of money supply grew by 23.07% – just below forecasts – after increasing by an unrevised 24.20% in May.
Consensus forecasts in a Reuters poll last week showed that private sector credit demand, which has helped drive a consumer spending boom, was likely to rise by 23% year-on-year.
Annual growth …

Previously we looked at what was needed in a debt collection agency attending to debt collection in consumer collections.
When it comes to commercial collections, that is collections from debtors who are businesses, the requirements are different. As a general rule the volume of the bad debt hand-overs is significantly lower then consumer collections but the size of the individual collections involved can be significantly higher. Therefore while in consumer collections the debt collection route with debt collectors charging a commission on the successfully collected debt as oppose to attorneys with …

For those creditors using credit bureau listing as a means of credit management ( that should be all good credit managers), you have probably been advised by your credit bureau of the new requirements before listing any debtor with adverse information on a credit bureau.
But in case they have not or you missed that particular informational brochure in the sea of information you have been receiving on the National Credit Act, then please note Regulation 19 (4) of the Act. This part of the Regulations provides:
“All sources of information as …

This posting is an update of an article which orginally appeared on the Bentley Credit Control Website.
The granting of credit by businesses in today’s economy is accepted as the norm. Flowing from this is the inevitable evil of bad debt, bad debt handovers and bad debt write-offs. While this evil can not be completely eradicated it can be controlled and reduced and you can ensure that bad debt recovery is effective.

The National Credit Regulator deals with the question of interest charged on debts which were governed by the Usury Act and the Credit Agreements Act and under the Exemption Notice to the Usuary Act ( the micro-lenders).

The Business Report comments on the press release from the Nomsa Motshegare, the National Credit Regulator (NCR)’s registration manager.
“According to the National Credit Act (Act No. 34 of 2005), all credit providers and credit bureaus must register with the National Credit Regulator within 40 business days from 1 June 2006.
“It will therefore be an offence for credit providers and credit bureaus to conduct any business after the closing date if they are not registered with the NCR,” Motshegare said in the statement.
Among other things, the NCR is responsible for the …

Yes believe it or not there is news and life in the world of credit management beyond the National Credit Act.
The question posed in this posting is what do you need in a debt collection agency to attend to your consumer collection needs?
Firstly we need to look at what we mean by consumer collections. Consumer collections is debt collections from individuals or the general public as opposed to a commercial collection which is debt collection from clients who are businesses.