We apologise for not having put many articles on the Blog recently. Unfortunately the Blog has had to take a back seat due to the fact that we have been very busy, and not just undertaking visits to IPs. In future we will try and post articles at least once a month, so please keep on checking it out.
We had the temerity to poke our noses into the IVA debate and helped to generate some positive discussion by distributing a standard proposal and protocol for use by those in the volume consumer debt market. This, in turn, helped trigger the Insolvency Service/British Bankers Association seminar in Birmingham in January. We have since contributed to one of the working groups. Unfortunately matters have not proceeded as quickly as we would have liked (see our earlier article), but the chairmen of the working groups are to meet to discuss their findings in early May and the reconvened forum should take place in late May.
Bill has undertaken two presentations about key compliance and monitoring issues in Manchester and Birmingham as part of R3’s Keeping your Licence course. He has two further presentations to make in London on 3 May and Bristol on 21 June, and if you have not already attended the course we hope that you can join us at one of them. Gareth will be making a presentation at Sprecher Grier’s insolvency conference in London on 20 June. This will complement Bill’s presentations by dealing with actions an IP should take after a monitoring visit has been completed.
We have also finished updating our checklists to take account of the recent changes to SIPs 2, 3 and 9 and to include some prompts on Health and Safety issues affecting IPs, which we have included as a result of one of the presentations in the R3 Keeping Your Licence course. If any of our existing clients would like to receive a copy of the updated checklists please contact Gareth by e-mail.
We have recently received a couple of requests from IPs to review their standard packs of documents and letters and suggest changes. This is something that we can help with. We have undertaken this type of work for IPs in the past, both as specific assignments and as part of our usual service following our compliance visits. What we cannot do, however, is to make the actual changes on IPS, or whatever case management system you use. That is something that you will have to do.
If you want to make use of this service then please contact either Bill or Gareth to discuss your particular requirements. Remember though, that changing your standards can only improve what you do in theory. Only a detailed review of your actual casework can give you comfort that your systems are working in practice and we usually find that a combination of case reviews and updates to standard documents provides the most effective solution.
