Atradius Collections to Now Include Asia Pacific in the New Global Collections Review

AMSTERDAM, January 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Atradius Collections releases the results of its Global Collections Review in its fifth and fully updated edition. The new review now includes the Asia Pacific region for the first time, giving valuable insight on the collections behaviour of businesses all over the world and how they deal with overdue invoices.

Global B2B debt collections specialist Atradius Collections conducts and releases the review regularly to provide decision-makers in the credit management industry with an understanding of the dynamics and differences in collections practices by country and region.

In this edition, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan and Japan have been included for the first time, along with further new additions Mexico and Greece. The edition focuses on 27 countries in total, examining the collections behaviour of businesses and their decision whether or not to engage an external partner, such as a collections agency, to collect outstanding payments.  

The Global Collections Review reveals that the Asia Pacific region was most likely to employ a collections agency compared with respondents in the Americas and Europe, particularly when collecting debt from businesses located abroad. China and Taiwan stand out particularly, with 60% and 51% respectively, the highest figures for employing an external debt collections agency. Overall, companies in the Asia Pacific region were likely to use the most direct and forthright methods of debt recovery. These respondents were also more inclined to send a final demand letter than their counterparts from other regions. European and American businesses appeared to exercise more caution in the debt collection process.

Even within Europe there were differences in how debt is collected. The Netherlands clearly leads as the country with respondents most likely to employ an external collector versus relying on internal resources.  70% of the Dutch companies that responded have used external debt collections agencies, followed by Sweden and Austria with approximately 45%.

Success rate is a driving factor for businesses to opt for an external solution.  Often asked about success rate, Raymond van der Loos, Managing Director at Atradius Collections, states, "The ability of external debt collection agencies to deliver results is the key factor for businesses to employ a debt collections agency. This again is confirmed by the Global Collections Review where respondents stated that their expectations are high. Success rate was ranked as the main reason to employ a debt collections agency, followed by working with a reputable agency that also offers a good price."

The Global Collections Review also revealed differences in collection behaviour by sector: companies operating in the financial services sector are the highest users of debt collections agencies, followed by companies from the raw materials, textile, metals and oil & gas industries who also stated their preference for using external resources.

The survey for the Global Collections Review was conducted amongst almost 5400 businesses throughout 27 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 19 offices and an extensive network of collections specialists and lawyers worldwide, Atradius Collections serves more than 15,000 customers and handles, on average, 100,000 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.