In the wake of the release of the July liquidations statistics by Stats SA,  Fin24.com reports:
“Payment defaults by debtors have been escalating sharply for almost two years, and there appeared to be no let-up in this trend, an economist said on Thursday.The 17.6% year-on-year increase in July liquidations to 320 was exactly in line with expectations of a 20% increase, said Luke Doig, senior economist at Credit Guarantee.
This followed the release by Statistics SA earlier of the latest liquidations and insolvencies data.
He added that the year-to-date (to July) increase in …

There was an interesting article across at The Practice of Leadership :
Whilst browsing a Slideshare presentation Inspiring Communication by werner.iucksch the following slide hit me between the eyes.

“The best teacher is the one who suggests rather than dogmatizes, and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself.”
Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

An article from Frank Knight at Debtsource :
Companies differentiate themselves from their competitors through strategic drivers. Price, quality, product and service are the usual candidates companies focus on to beat the opposition. Credit as a competitive advantage usually doesn’t make it to the agenda of the strategy session. But, is there more to credit than meets the eye, and can credit indeed be considered a competitive advantage?
In the world of consumer credit, credit as a competitive advantage is a very well established practice. Some of South Africa’s largest retailers do …

The debt counselling farce continues with the latest statement reported in the Business Report:
“Consumers will no longer have to carry any costs of payment distribution following an agreement between the National Credit Regulator (NCR) and credit providers.
“Currently, the cost of distribution is borne by consumers. Once this arrangement is implemented, it will ease the burden on over-indebted consumers,” said the NCR’s Peter Setou in a statement on Tuesday.
Credit providers agreed to carry the costs of distribution at a set fee per amount being distributed, he added.
The arrangement would apply …

Business Report‘s Mzwandile Jacks :
Absa’s impairment charges – bad debt write-offs and provisions – had surged by 121 percent to R2.1 billion in the six months to June as defaulters increased due to high interest rates and high inflation, Steve Booysen, the chief executive of Absa, said yesterday.
Booysen said the impairment ratios would increase by 140 percent in the next six months to about R5 billion because chances were that the current economic conditions were going to continue.
He said impairment charges had most affected Absa’s retail bank division.
Nedbank said in …