Atradius Collections' Global Collections Review Reveals new Trend: Success Rate Valued Higher Than Pricing When Selecting a Debt Collections Agency

Amsterdam (ots/PRNewswire) -

The latest "Global Collections Review" survey undertaken by
leading worldwide B2B debt collections specialist Atradius
Collections, shows a new trend amongst businesses when selecting a
debt collections agency. Unlike in the past year, companies put more
attention on the agencies' success rate, less the price.

This trend can be seen amongst many major European countries and
reveals a mindshift in European businesses seeking support from
external agencies when collecting outstanding debt. The success rate
of a debt collections agency easily allows comparison between
collection agencies' performance. The success rate* is defined as the
value of collected payments of the total debt received and expressed
as a percentage. The amount excludes insolvencies and withdrawals.

Raymond van der Loos, Managing Director of Atradius Collections
explained: "Successful debt collections and ensuring solvency is
fundamental to business. The study has made clear that the choice of
a collection agency is made based on its quality, meaning its
performance and ability to succeed in collecting, and not price."

He continued: "Here at Atradius Collections we are often asked
about our success rates. Today we lead the market with an overall
success rate of over 55% for national and international debt
globally. The Global Collections Review again has shown that the
ability of external debt collection agencies to deliver results is
the key factor for businesses to employ a debt collections agency."

An additional significant finding from the study: companies are
more willing to outsource their debt collections activities to
external agencies in 2011 compared to previous years. During the
crisis many businesses activated internal resources to collect
outstanding debt. With the economy picking up and staff busy focusing
on incoming business, collecting debt can again be seen as a task
that is more frequently handed over to external agencies. The trend
is significantly visible in Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and Great
Britain alike where over 10% increase was observed by the companies
surveyed and is linked to the higher success rates of debt collection
agencies and their expertise in the field.

Use of a Use of a Trend Collect Collect Trend
Country DCA** 2011 DCA** 2010 Internally Internally
2011 2010
Belgium 33% 23% ^ 35% 58% v
Denmark 24% 26% v 59% 79% v
France 27% 32% v 49% 54% v
Germany 32% 27% ^ 45% 63% v
Great 43% 31% ^ 60% 66% v
Britain
Italy 31% 18% ^ 52% 69% v
Netherlands 65% 54% ^ 31% 53% v
Spain 20% 21% v 86% 60% ^
Sweden 41% 47% v 56% 54% ^

Source: Global Collections Review, 4th edition, May 2011

** DCA = Debt Collections Agency

In France a decrease in use of debt collections agency can be
explained by the tendency to sell debt, as well as in Denmark where
an overall decrease of outstanding commercial debt was observed.

Leader in usage of external debt collections agencies is the
Netherlands where 65% of the surveyed businesses have used this
service and is significantly higher than in countries, such as Spain
which remains at a low 20%.

Broken down by sectors, companies operating in the financial
services sector tend to use a debt collections agency more often
while in the other sectors, such as manufacturing, wholesale and
retail trade and distribution, services, companies have a preference
towards collecting internally.

Overall, European attitudes relating to the selection of debt
collection agencies were remarkably similar, which indicates that the
requirements, expectations and high standards demanded of agencies
are consistent factors irrespective of business type, size or
location.

The survey for the Global Collections Review was conducted
amongst almost 2000 businesses throughout nine countries in Europe,
monitoring commercial debt collection trends and practices.

About the Global Collections Review

Atradius Collections conducts regular surveys of corporate
collections behaviour across a range of countries. The findings are
published in The Global Collections Review. This survey is conducted
twice a year and is the forth time that the Global Collections Review
has been published since its inception in 2009. In this survey almost
2,000 businesses located in nine countries across Europe which
include Belgium, France, Great Britain, The Netherlands, Germany,
Denmark, Sweden, Italy and Spain were surveyed. The full Global
Collections Review can be 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 350 staff in 20 offices and an
extensive network of collections specialists and lawyers worldwide,
Atradius Collections serves more than 12,000 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.

* Debt collections success rate = the value of collected payments
expressed as a percentage of the total debt received, excluding
insolvencies and withdrawals.

ots Originaltext: Atradius N.V.
Im Internet recherchierbar: http://www.presseportal.de

Contact:
Press contact: Corinna M. Lohse, corinna.lohse@atradius.com,Phone:
+31-20-553-3028