Secret information from a debt collection company.

The secret information of a debt collection company is a first-rate tool for assessing and analysing the solvency of a company. The proof of this is the example of a large company with over € 20,000,000 turnover whose accounts are supervised and validated by an auditor, and which enjoys a good credit rating with the rating agencies. This company filed for bankruptcy overnight. How could the credit rating agencies validating the solvency of the company be so wrong? Why has the auditor not been alerted?

In reality, this company used a large number of foreign subcontractors and did not pay their invoices changing supplier on multiple occasions, as unpaid foreign suppliers were reluctant to act because of the relative modesty of their claims.

The unpaid invoice files against this company have accumulated with a debt collection company specializing in international debts. The latter immediately suspected serious difficulties when it became impossible to reach anyone in the accounting department. Small instalments were paid irregularly. A payment order for a small fee was contested by the company’s lawyer without any indication of any reason. You did not have to be a top-flight financial analyst to understand that this company was in fact terminating payments. Judicial action for a few thousand euros caused the filing for Bankruptcy.

Another example of a well-hidden secret is the following. The subsidiary of a large group contacts a debt collection company. She wishes to entrust him with the recovery of all his 6-digit client account. As this is a company specializing in B to B services, the customer post is the main or only asset of this company. It turns out during the processes initiated by the debt collection company that most of these claims were disputed, that the disputes were serious and the position of the creditor company legally fragile. In fact, the sole purpose of the creditor was to defend the client item vis-à-vis its auditor by acting with a debt collection company to avoid a massive depreciation of this asset.

The debt collection companies so decried and vilified would have a role to play in the prevention of the difficulties of the companies by having for example a right of information strictly confidential of the organs of control to prevent before it is too late to cure.