Close Connections with All Parts of the Industry
In order to continue to make sure that individuals have access to the best advice possible, and to continue to get the most appropriate solutions for all parties concerned, Clear Start works with various public and private organisations throughout the Financial Services industry.
Working with Banks, Credit Card Companies and Other Major Creditors
The national rise in personal indebtedness is the cause of some concern with the major lenders and utilities in the UK. Many of them are putting significant effort into rethinking their collections strategies, and are going so far as to change their organisational structure such that the implications of risk and debt are better understood right from the first point of contact with their customers.
Clear Start is working with a number of lenders to help them understand how these trends in debt and insolvency will impact their performance over the coming years, and how they need to modify their practices in order to best deal with their customers.
The Insolvency Service and other Government Organisations
The Insolvency Service is responsible for shaping and governing policy on individual insolvency and personal indebtedness in the UK. Clear Start helps to by giving input on proposed new policy, and attends review seminars as a consulted stakeholder.
For certain profiles of debt, there are organisations such as local Citizens Advice Bureaux who will be recommended as appropriate sources of support. Alternatively there are other organisations who operate as charities, and can provide, for example, no-fees debt management plans or templates for writing letters to creditors.
As a recent development, Clear Start is now also in conversations with SAFE (Services Against Financial Exclusion) in London to help them with their Debt Support Project. This initiative will look to provide materials and advisory support to local individuals. SAFE is part of the East London Debt Advice Consortium which feeds into the East London Debt Strategy, and has objectives to extend services across Central and West London during 2005.
Professional Service Organisations in Insolvency and Debt Recovery
When a particular individual moves into insolvency or bankruptcy proceedings a lender will often pass the case onto an accounting firm, or equivalent. In these circumstances there are a small number of these firms who represent the majority of unsecured debt in the UK .
Major names include PriceWatherhouseCoopers (PWC), KPMG, Grant Thornton, Max Recovery and Tenon Recovery.
As these companies will often represent the needs of the various creditors they work for it is important for Clear Start to stay in touch with them on an almost daily basis to understand what they are looking for and how best to interact with them.
Independent Financial Advisors and Other Financial Intermediaries
For years there has been a lack of good financial advice for those facing issues with debt. This is mostly because there has been no incentive for financial advisors to provide debt advice.
Although there is a vast network of IFAs (Independent Financial Advisors) and other Financial Advisory services, they only tend to specialise in the products where introduction fees are available, such as mortgages, loans, pensions and insurance.
Now, with the huge growth in personal debt in the UK, there are a number of products and solutions emerging which help the creditors to retrieve some of the debt they are owed in a way which can be affordable to the individual.
Financial intermediaries are able to earn fees from introducing and setting up individuals with the appropriate solution. The more work they carry out, for example filling in data and collecting evidence, the more fees are available to them.
As Clear Start grows one of its objectives is to provide best practice materials and tools to these intermediaries to enable them to reach more indebted individuals and to ensure that they are given best advice.
Commercial Organisations Who Offer Debt Solutions
Often an individual in debt will not know where to turn to first to get assistance. Their first instinct is often to attempt to re-finance their situation by searching for a consolidation solution or a re-mortgage. Clear Start is working with a growing number of mortgage and loan brokers to help their customers find a solution to their problems. For example,
There are also a number of Debt Management Companies who are able to identify that a better solution may be available elsewhere - again they work with Cleat Start to help their customer into a more appropriate scheme.
Equally, as Clear Start has placed thousands of customers into debt solutions it has built up a network of mortgage brokers, debt management organisations and insolvency practices. This is invaluable knowledge when it comes to helping individuals to find the right solution for their debt.