Credit Industry Forum Latest
Credit Industry Forum (May 2014)
The latest Credit Industry Forum (CIF) meeting was held at the end of May 2014 (on the 30th). The CIF consists of industry role players in the debt review process and advises the NCr in regard to matters to do with the day to day running of debt review.
New member to represent consumers
Previously it has been up to Debt Counsellors and the NCR to try fill two roles on the CIF in representing their own organisations as well as the rights and interests of consumers. This was obviously not ideal. The latest CIF member namely the Black Sash will now be able to represent consumers in a focused manner.
Feedback and proposals were made by various sub committees.
2010 NCR Task Team Report
The Task Team Agreement was submitted by the “Task Team” Sub-Committee and circulated to all stakeholders who gave their approval. The NCR will now in all likelihood issue the 2010 NCR Task Team Agreement as Guidelines for industry practice.
Section 103(5) Induplum
The “Section 103(5)” Sub-Committee reported to CIF that they could not reach any sort of consensus on Section 103(5) and they recommended that the matter be referred to the NCR. As usual it was seemingly the Credit Providers on the sub committee that were not in favour of finalising the exact measure of Section 103(5). This has unfortunately been going on for several years including while DRAC was in existence. They further asked that the NCR try clarify the day to day implementation of Section 103(5). This recommendation was approved by CIF. The NCR will now be putting together a legal opinion (with some outside assistance).
DCRS
A proposal on new additional rules for the proposal generating software called DCRS was tabled. It is hoped the additional rule will help to deal with matters which do not solve through DCRS. Not all matters resolve via DCRS and it can be frustrating to all parties when this is the case. Credit Providers in particular favour proposals via DCRS rather than other calculation methods. Feedback from all CIF members will be discussed at the next “DCRS” Sub-Committee meeting in June. However the NCR informed meeting that they now, in a turnaround, support use of DCRS. This is partially since it is based off comments in the 2010 NCR task team report and partially due to support by the majority of DC organisations.
End Balance Differences
The End Balance Sub- Committee have arranged for a pilot process to be tried. A new process protocol document has been prepared. The results of the pilot expected in the one or two months. the results will help guide the recommendation of Sub-Committee.
Affordability Assessment Guidelines
The CIF will not be discussing this matter. It is being researched by the DTI and NCR and the DTI minister will after consultation and research issue the guidelines.
The Withdrawal Process
It was determined that the NCR should obtain a specialist legal opinion on withdrawal process rather than that of the CIF.
www.ncrdebthelp.co.za
The NCR informed attendees of plans to try improve NCR Debt Help and that they wish to now set up a special CIF sub-committee meeting for this purpose. The Debt Help system is run by the NCR and is meant to track consumers through the debt review process, generate statistics for the NCR and update credit bureaus in regard to consumers debt review status. They system has come under a lot of fire over the years as it is not very user friendly and has a poor back end structure that is subject to error and data capturing issues. It is hoped that the debt helps system can perform many of the proposed functions of the former project called the “data switch” and that these improvements come soon.
Next Meeting date announced
The next CIF meeting is scheduled for the 30th of June 2014.