Code of Conduct Guidelines For Debt Recovery Agents

Banks and Financial Institutions are hiring the recovery agents for following up and recovering their retail loans overdue. It is a general practice and also as per the Regulator the Reserve Bank of India.

However the following are core underpinnings of the collection process. The recovery agents should comply, adhered the following in true spirit and discipline.

1. The Purpose, Philosophy and Spirit that govern this Code of Conduct should be understood and adhered to at all times, as much as the policies and procedures themselves

2. Be professional, Open, honest and act within laws, regulations and Bank/financial company policies.

3. Treat customers fairly. Comply with local laws and regulations. Be open and honest with regulators.

4. Respect customer confidentiality, privacy of the borrower and protect data. Do not share the Customer’s details to third party.

5. Communicate with customers in a non-threatening, non-derogatory manner. Do not seek to secure the arrest or committal of any customer. Do not make any threatening calls / send messages

6. Avoid being compromised by gifts and entertainment. Reject bribery and Corruption. Prevent money laundering and fraud.

7. Keep all customer documentation on Bank/financial company premises unless otherwise authorized. Do not manipulate performance records.

8. Exercise only discretionary authorities that have been specifically delegated to them.

9. Do not communicate directly with media, regulators, or any external party, on matters pertaining to Bank/financial company resort to any method or practices that will impact the Bank/financial company reputation. For implementing any collection practices, please take prior approval from the client.

10. No misleading statements/misrepresentations permitted – Do not mislead the customer on any service offered or falsely represent themselves as Bank/financial company’s employees and do not make any false/unauthorized commitment on behalf of Bank/financial company for any facility/service.

11. Do not permit anyone to use his/her systems password nor do premises access card.

12. Contact the customer ordinarily at the place of his/her choice and in the absence of any specified place at the place of his/her residence and if unavailable at his/her residence, at the place of business/occupation. Borrower’s requests to avoid calls at a particular time or at a particular place would be honored as far as possible.

13. Identify yourself and display authority letter issued by the Bank/financial company upon request when collecting dues.

14. Adopt simple and business language in all written, verbal communication and civil manners for interaction with borrowers.

15. Maintain Decency and decorum during visits to customer place for collection of dues.

16. The Field Executive must be in proper attire while meeting up with Customer. The Field Collection Executive should wear a clean and well-ironed shirt and pants, Formal Shoes. No alcoholic beverages or any external substances are to be consumed while on the job.

17. The Field Executive can contact / visit at customer’s place strictly between 08:00 hrs and 19:00 hrs only. Use only Approved mode of communication, with call recording facility. Do not call/message the customer from personal contact number.

18. Calls to be strictly done as per calling script.

19. Avoid making calls / visits at inappropriate occasions such as bereavement in the family or other important family functions like marriages. Time and number of calls and contents of conversation would be documented.

20. All assistance would be given to customer to resolve disputes or differences regarding dues in a mutually acceptable and in an orderly manner.

21. Greet the customer as per the time of the day. Introduce yourself & company before starting the conversation. Do not use pseudo names or do anonymous calls to the customer.

22. If any customer threatens to approach / approaches / you come into contact with law enforcements during visits, the same needs to be notified to the Bank/financial company with all the information leading to such incidents.

23. The agency or any of its staff are not authorized to send any communication for follow up on dues or sharing personal messages, comments, pictures, emoticons with customers on any mediums such as Telegram/ WhatsApp / SMS or any Social Media channels, etc.

24. Kindly note that any complaint from customers about unfair practices of recovery agents may be investigated by your employer.

25. It is Customers’ responsibility to keep updating his / her contact details. In case the Bank/financial company is unable to contact him / her on the details provided, the Bank/financial company will access information available from public sources and approach his / her friends / relatives to trace the Customer.

26. Generally Agents are not allowed to repossess any asset from the customer. A separate team is working on this.

27. Perform your duties within the framework of the instructions issued & guidelines set for you by the Bank. Login & Log out time to be maintained.

28. Receipts to be issued for all the payments collected.

29. Use only approved mode of payment collection, strictly no fund transfers to personal account.

30. Do not click any photos with customer.

31. Please note non-adherence of above Code of Conduct (COC) guidelines is a breach of ZTP (Zero Tolerance Policy), which generally all the Banks and Financial Institutions adopt. Non-adherence will lead to following consequences:

32. a) Suspension – Employee may be suspend for a specified period.

b) Termination – If employee is found guilty of fraud as per the investigations, basis the approval employee will be terminated

c) Rejected for Re-Hire – If an employee who has resigned and still found to be involved in Fraud activities or misconducts, the employee has to repay the losses born by the company and will be marked as -“Not to Re-hire “ on our system

d) Legal Actions – A police complaint will be filed against the DRA or Support Staff, because of which he/she will have to pay penalties or be imprisoned

Before taking the charge and start working as Debt Recovery agent has to undertake like – I have read and understood the above Code of Conduct to abide with during my tenure with the process and the company.

Co Author: Adv. Abhay Jindal – Legalrise Consultants- Mumbai – [email protected]