Debt Review Awards Gala Session Two

Debt Review Awards Gala (Session 2)

Session two of the evening began after light refreshments and an hour long break and chance to mingle and meet the generous event contributors and sponsors.

Contributors such as ABSA, Capitec, FNB and Nedbank were present along with sponsors such as DCM (picture left) PDA DC Partner, Hyphen PDA, DCASA, Consumer Friend and ONE|SURE and Maximus (for a full list of all the sponsors and contributors click here).

Once again the MC, Seb Alexanderson began the session with a few words (and a joke about how a DC, PDA and CP walk into a bar). Sebastien is a registered Debt Counsellor and business owner. He was well poised to remark on industry developments. He then introduced Bernidene Thieroff of the Debt Counselling Community Support program to the podium.

Bernidene made a short audio visual presentation in regard to the recent DCCS projects and what DCCS has been up to since the last awards. She briefly recapped how she had run the Comrades on behalf of DCCS to raise awareness for the project. She thanked Meliorleaf and other sponsors for their help throughout the year.

Next Mr Clive Pintusewitz, CEO of the DCM Group gave a presentation in regard to helping shift the perception of the industry in the public’s mind and how the insurance industry had previously faced the same issue. He showed how Discovery Health had turned their business focus onto their consumers physical well being and made this understandable and accessible to consumers. He stressed how the Debt Counselling industry needs to likewise shift focus toward consumers financial well being and not just data capture and court orders.

The third speaker of the session was our own Mr Zak King, Editor of Debtfree Magazine and founder of the Debt Review Awards. Zak spoke about the peer review process and explained a bit about how it worked. He thanked the Audits BKF and Mr Barry Fuchs who was present on the evening to hand out the results.

This year rather than through evaluation by an industry expert panel the Awards are based off an industry wide peer review where members of the industry were invited to rate the performance of other parties on the opposite side of the industry. The answers helped create a picture of the top performing companies and were then announced in 3 main categories namely: Credit Providers, Payment Distribution Agencies and finally Debt Counsellors.

NEXT: The Award Winners