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CIF Call For Comment

 

The Credit Industry Forum have called for comment on this draft document about the court process for debt counselling:

DownloadDraft Debt Review Court Application Guidelines

 

The CIF have stated that this is simply the draft document for comment (as is evidenced by some spelling issues etc). They welcome comments from all parties (including those Debt Counsellors who are not members of the participating associations).

Who are the CIF?

The Credit Industry Forum is a group of industry parties that try to reach a consensus (100% between all members) on matters not directly covered by the National Credit Act in regard to debt review. They then make a formal proposal to the National credit regulator who consider and amend as they see fit and then publish guidelines (called non binding opinions int he NCA) for the industry. These are then hopefully seen as industry “norms”.

What is in it?

The document outlines the way debt review applications are done in terms of the 2009 Declaratory Order which insisted that the Magistrates Court Act Rule 55 application process be used. It references the new NCR Task Team guidelines recently issued by the NCR. It tries to address several key issues such as creditors and consumers agreeing to changed interest rates on accounts and what to do when creditors are too lazy to send back a certificate of balance when a consumer first applies for debt review. These are issues which some courts have had difficulty in addressing. The document stresses that it is in no way the NCR trying to tell Magistrates how to do their job.

 Comment

Any comments can be submitted to: cif@ncr.org.za