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Published on September 19, 2007

Otherwise, they may be disciplined under the upcoming Financial Institutions Business Act.

The new system is one of three practices that creditors are required to adopt as guidelines for their business. They must also ensure appropriate debt-collection procedures and take responsibility for customers who suffer from any actions by debt-collection companies they hire.

The move comes after a meeting with credit providers to seek agreement on debt-collecting from individuals after a group of consumers complained to the central bank about harsh and inappropriate methods used by debt collectors.

They claimed that collectors were impolite, used threatening behaviour and failed to keep customer data confidential.

Risk Management Policy Office director Somboon Chitphentom yesterday said banks and non-banks should set clear policies and procedures for responding to complaints and pursuing debtors. Each company's executives are required to acknowledge such procedures.

Under the guidelines, debtors should be able to contact lenders and make formal complaints. Financial players can establish any organisational structure to comply with the customer-service requirement, he said.

"They should have procedures to handle customer complaints, so that they will know how they have been affected by the businesses," he said.

Once the guidelines have been in use for a while, the BOT will evaluate their efficiency - how well lenders have followed the requirements.

He is optimistic that credit companies will listen to the BOT even though the guidelines have been introduced without grounds for legal enforcement.

"They usually give good cooperation whenever we ask them, but we may consider punishing those who don't follow the practice strictly," he said.

Lenders are also limited to contacting debtors from 8am to 8pm on weekdays and 8am to 6pm on weekends. They cannot ask a debtor's relatives or colleagues to shoulder the debt without a legal order or permission from the debtor.

They are prohibited from trying to hurt debtors physically or destroy their reputation.

Anoma Srisukkasem

 The Nation