Collections Guidelines for Financial Service Providers

Financial service providers must treat clients with respect and dignity at all times, even when clients fail to meet their contractual commitments. "Collections Guidelines for Financial Service Providers" is a checklist for institutions to assess their collections policies and practices, with the goal of strengthening client protection during the collections process. The tool addresses collections policies, practices, manuals, and training of field staff. For each of these topics, an institution can compare "good practice" with its own practice, and identify areas for improvement. With this information, institutions can develop an action plan addressing weaknesses.Beyond checklists for assessing practices, the tool provides a discussion guide for training staff on appropriate collections - —including two group exercises for field staff. This section is important for helping staff understand how to use the institutions collections policies in their daily work, including handling difficult clients and ethical dilemmas.