Mortgage Strategy: Alan Cleary’s column.
Managing Director
Collections and recoveries staff are in massive demand right now due to an increase of nearly 800% in arrears levels. Compared to 2000-2007 where there was an average of about 70,000 borrowers 3 months down, to the forecast 500,000 by the end of 2009 and you can see that banks and building societies are facing a significant resource problem.
A recent article published by Fitch shows that the average level of experience of collections staff has significantly deteriorated from 2006 to 2008 and it is now not uncommon to see servicing companies with collections teams that have an average of less than two years experience. Indeed a recent recruitment campaign Exact carried out specifically targeting collections staff saw all manner of applicants. One example was a French polisher who on reading our advert suddenly thought a career in collections was for him or in a similar vein the fish and chip shop worker whose application tried to convince that his skills were transferrable.
Obviously neither got an interview as we believe that the experience of people is critical and never more so than in the collections arena. The UK has not experienced a significant housing related downturn in 15 years and a lack of investment in the collections teams will exasperate this problem. The last thing anyone needs is to further aggravate the problem with inexperienced staff.
