One of the most high profile events in the credit services industry is the annual CCR Interactive conference and Credit Awards ceremony. An important function of any industry conference is to promote best practice. This is certainly true of the 2013 CCR Interactive event. It also enables representatives of the big industry players to get together and exchange ideas on an informal basis. Events such as these are only ever truly successful if the biggest names in the industry in question are involved. Part of this includes being able to attract a recognisable main sponsor. Fortunately for the organisers of CCR Interactive, this year’s sponsor was Wescot; a credit agency with nationwide coverage and an enviable reputation.
The CCR Interactive conference wasn’t the only event sponsored by Wescot this year. Wescot also lent its name as a sponsor of the Money Advice Scotland 24th Annual Conference. The fact that Wescot is involved with this particular event is hardly surprising. After all, Wescot was originally established in Scotland. Over the last 30 or so years, Wescot has grown considerably. The company now employs over 650 people in offices situated in Glasgow, Saltcoats and Hull. It provides services in the areas of debt recovery, early stage collections, customer locations and debt purchase. Wescot has clients across a range of sectors including banking, utilities, telecom and retail.
The focus at this year’s conferences was very much a look into the future. Wescot is well aware of the pressures faced by its clients at the present time. The company also appreciates that these problems show little sign of improving significantly any time soon. In particular, continued consumer economic pressures are such that average disposable weekly income per head is still very low. If mortgage interest rates were to rise, these income levels would fall even further. Wescot appreciates that its clients across all sectors are likely to be faced with high levels of payment defaults for the foreseeable future.
Wescot is well placed to be able to deliver results on behalf of clients – despite the difficult climate. The figures for Wescot are impressive. In the 12-month period up until February 2013, the company successfully recovered over £240 million of debts on behalf of its clients. The company was also responsible for managing over 3 million customer accounts. Through investing in technology, ensuring that its staff is well trained and by treating customers fairly, Wescot is in a strong position to deliver results.
This year, Wescot was the principal sponsor of the CCR Interactive conference and Credit Excellence Awards. This conference is the flagship annual event for the credit industry. Wescot was also one of the sponsors for 2013 Money Advice Scotland conference. This particular organisation is an umbrella group for the many companies and independent bodies that provide impartial and confidential debt advice across Scotland. The 
As Wescot fully appreciates, these are challenging times for any business directly or indirectly involved in the consumer credit niche. In some ways this is linked to the dented reputation experienced by the banks in the aftermath of the credit crunch. There has been a knock-on effect for the entire financial sector. Certain niches within the consumer credit industry have been subjected to particular scrutiny. These include the payday loans providers and credit-based retail stores. Many businesses will be extremely wary about the collections agencies they work with. In particular, they will want to avoid being tarred with the same brush as some of the more unscrupulous elements within the industry.
Wescot also has a highly effective locate team. Swift Cover, one of the country’s leading insurers, recently selected Wescot to complete a specialist-tracing project on its behalf. Swift was legally required to make small repayments to a large number of former customers. As part of this, approximately 2000 customers had to be traced. Because this was outside of the usual type of activities Swift is engaged in, the insurer did not have the resources or the expertise to carry out the tracing project itself. Swift chose Wescot as its partner. The choice was warranted. The Wescot locate team was able to track down 80 per cent of the individuals Swift was attempting to trace. This exceeded the insurer’s expectations.
It is extremely fitting that Wescot was the principal sponsor of this year’s event. Since its conception in Scotland over 30 years ago, Wescot has gradually grown from strength to strength. The company now has nationwide coverage and employs over 650 employees at offices in Glasgow, Saltcoats and Hull. It has expertise across a number of distinct areas including debt recovery, early stage collections, customer tracing and debt purchase.
Recently, these resources were put to good use in a project on behalf of one of the UK’s leading insurers, Swift Cover. Swift was ordered to carry out a remediation exercise, which involved making a relatively small refund to approximately 2000 former customers. These customers had to be tracked down. Swift realised that it did not have the resources to carry out the searches itself. Wescot Credit Services proved to be the ideal choice of agency to complete the task. Within a matter of weeks, Wescot had managed to exceed Swift’s expectations by tracking down 80 per cent of the customers. This was a far greater number than Swift had expected to trace.
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The Wescot website is also geared towards providing customers with all possible assistance. It includes a facility enabling customers to make a payment online. Alternatively, customers have the option of making payments by telephone. Other methods of payment include Direct Debit payments, PayPoint outlet payment or else payment by cheque. The website also provides a comprehensive questions and answers page. It sets out very clearly the options open to the customer for discussing and negotiating payment.
