Thursday 28 April 2011

Weekly Blog by Philip King, CEO of the ICM - 'we have to do more than just watch'


The Insolvency Service consultation on reforming the regulatory framework for Insolvency Practitioners has been much on my mind lately.

Before Easter, I had a number of meetings with insolvency organisations and the Insolvency Service, and the survey of ICM Members prompted a tremendous reaction; this week I've been working on the ICM's response to proposals that could significantly impact credit professionals.

The consultation has three elements: the establishment of an independent complaints body; setting clear objectives for the regulatory regime; and detailed amendments to particular regulations.

One of the key and overriding objectives is to better protect the interests of unsecured creditors. The ICM will be supporting the idea of a new complaints body and other measures to improve and enhance transparency, and it will be encouraging clearer objectives and a regime that achieves the best possible outcomes for those losing money when a customer goes bust.

There is, however, a fundamental issue that needs to be addressed: too many credit professionals fail to engage in the insolvency process. Their position appears to be that they've already suffered a bad debt so why spend more time and effort in what follows? Whereas I understand such a position when there are conflicting priorities - and it makes sense to focus on tomorrow's opportunities rather than yesterday's problems - if we don't play our part in the insolvency, we can't really complain about the outcome and the activity of the Insolvency Professional who is acting on our behalf, can we?

Visit http://www.icm.org.uk/icm-consultancy/government-consultation to view our consultation responses

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