Atradius Collections' new Global Collections Review now Includes India and Turkey

AMSTERDAM, January 9, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Atradius Collections is releasing the results of its 6^th Global Collections Review shortly. Since 2009, global B2B debt collections specialist Atradius Collections, has conducted and released the review to provide decision-makers in the credit management industry with an understanding of the dynamics and differences in collections practices by country and region. The latest edition has been expanded and now includes data on two new countries - India and Turkey. In total the Global Collection Review now covers 29 countries and is the most extensive version ever.

30% of all respondents had used a debt collections agency in the past 12 months. Across regions, respondents agreed that success rate was the driving factor behind choosing a debt collections agency. Raymond van der Loos, Managing Director at Atradius Collections, explains the result:

"In this economic climate rates of late or defaulted payments are rising, putting businesses at risk. Successful full and fast debt recovery is critical as cash flow is essential to an organisation's health. Every business needs, therefore, to approach outstanding debt strategically. Organisations with high levels of unpaid debt, such as financial services, raw materials, textile, metals and oil & gas industries, are often seen to rely on external resources. The reason is clear: quick access to in-depth collections expertise that is hard to come by in-house."

As a second criterion for choosing an external agency, respondents from the Americas and Europe named price. The Asia-Pacific region on the other saw maintaining a good relationship with the customer as having greater importance.  

The Global Collections Review reveals that businesses in the Asia Pacific region were most likely to employ a collections agency, compared with respondents in the Americas and Europe. China and Indonesia stand out, with 56% and 44% respectively. Whilst China has fallen 4% compared to previous year, it still has the region's highest figures for employing an external debt collections agency. Indonesia, on the other hand, has seen an increase of 3%, making it the Asian country second most likely to employ a debt collections agency.

Companies in the Asia Pacific region are still most likely to use direct methods of debt recovery. Respondents from this region were more inclined to send a final demand letter than their counterparts from other regions. European businesses in particular, appeared to exercise more caution in the debt collection process.

In Europe, the rankings of countries likely to employ an external collector remain unchanged versus previous year.The Netherlands leads as the country with respondents most likely to employ an external collector rather than relying on internal resources, followed by Sweden and Austria.

The survey for the Global Collections Review was conducted amongst almost 6000 businesses throughout 29 countries worldwide, monitoring commercial debt collection trends and practices. The report can be directly downloaded from: http://www.atradiuscollections.com.

About Atradius Collections

Atradius Collections, a business unit of Atradius Group, provides efficient, quick and flexible solution to recover domestic and international trade debts. With over 300 staff in 20 offices and an extensive network of collections specialists and lawyers worldwide, Atradius Collections serves more than 15,000 customers and handles, on average, 120,000 cases a year. Over 85 years of global credit management industry experience, uniquely positions Atradius Collections as a worldwide leader in business-to-business debt collections. Please visit http://www.atradiuscollections.com for more information.