10 Leaders Magazine II 2009 The Creditor’s Position Towards the Debtor Should Be Legislatively Strengthened An interview with PhDr Ing Ivo Klimeš M B A Managing Director of Intrum Justitia s r o Ivo Klimeš 52 years was engaged in companies SAKO CO Ltd in Riyadh in the Saudi Arabia as Executive Director in Coca Cola Amatil in the Czech Republic as Home Market Manager in Duracell Int as Country Sales Manager in the Czech Republic and Slovakia and in ING in Nationale Nederlanden as Business Manager Since February 2000 Ivo Klimeš has worked in the company Intrum Justitia s r o in Prague as its Managing Director The Intrum Justitia is Europe’s leading credit management services company Could you specify its activities Our success came also thanks to the Intrum Justitia Group foundation already in 1923 in Sweden Thus it has more than 85 years of successful activities We have currently branches in 24 European countries employing over 3,000 people with the annual turnover exceeding 3,2 billion Swedish Crowns We can say without a trace of flush that the Intrum Justitia is the biggest financial group engaged in providing services concerning credit management and administration As one of the few companies of the given area in the world its shares are listed and traded on the stock exchange In case of the Justitia Group it is the Nordic Exchange This guarantees the accomplishment of the strictest quality security and ethical criteria The Intrum Justitia has been active in the Czech Republic since 1996 We have become the most important company in this field in the Czech Republic with the market share of more than 40 percent after twelve years It gives an entirely clear evidence of the Intrum Justitia’s position on the Czech market And we keep growing successfully What other service do you offer your clients As I already said in my previous answer it does not concern only claims but complete services of credit management The Intrum Justitia s r o offers its clients complex solutions of their problems Our clients can use either the whole package or only some of those provided via the whole range of particular activities or services I mean the real complete spectrum i e credit information invoicing and claim ser vices furthermore all service of both the court and out of court collections dispensation of adjudication i e the execution and also the so called long term written off debt and apparently bad debt collection Concurrently we are helping our clients with the purchases of complete debt portfolios anytime during the above mentioned proceedings It all concerns business debts if debtors are both companies and physical persons In addition to that all services are available in both the Czech Republic and internationally in more than 150 countries What novelties do you prepare We have quite a lot of complete novelties and tiny improvement of our services However all of them are heading to one goal the satisfaction of our clients We want to solve our client’s problems in a complex way Thus they do not have to make any other internal activities and spend extra money to solve the given problem On the contrary we want our clients to be fully engaged in their main business task Moreover we want our clients to have a systematic detailed and perfect overview of the current state of the solution of their problem We try to achieve maximum comfort of our clients distinct flexibility and high effectiveness If anybody wants to get more detailed information I would like to recommend our web page www intrum cz The Intrum Justitia conducts a survey the European Payment Index EPI twice a year What is its content and what is it aimed at The EPI is really the representative survey concerning the total payment index of particular European countries The survey was initiated by the Swiss bank circus who asked the Intrum Justitia as a renowned company within the credit management field to carry out the survey It comprises all important European countries it covers 97 percent of the Europe’s GDP and the results inform of payment morale and payment habits in particular countries and last but not least they also calculate the total risk index You are members of the Collection Agency Asso ciation in the Czech Republic AIA Could you shortly discuss its main objectives We are the founding members of the AIA When we founded this professional association in 2002 we set up two main goals to cultivate market environment in the field of debt collection and also to become a typical company concerning quality and ethic work and transparency for our members clients After few years of the association’s existence we have relatively considerable results The AIA gathers all key market players at present Their turnovers represent approximately 85 90 percent of the market turnovers of debt collection I can say that state administration bodies and media take our association as a relevant partner I am glad that I could have and I still can take part in the AIA work as its president and currently as the vice president

Leaders Magazine II 2009 11 Do you cooperate on the international level as well Yes we do Our association was accepted into the Federation of European National Collection Associations FENCA It was a significant step forward and an irreplaceable option to consult to compare our work and to exchange experience and information with the best European companies in our field The distinct acknowledgement not only of my work but also of the whole Association resulted in my election as a member of its four members Board in Nice at the FENCA World Congress Thus the Czech Association has its representation in the FENCA Board as the only member country of the Central European countries In this connection what events do you prepare We plan a lot of events Our members for instance appreciate very much the regular supply of information concerning our field of work and many forthcoming novelties in legislation However I would like to mention two most important events we can expect Firstly it is the meeting with the European Parliament and the European structures representatives which is going to take place in Brussels in April Anyway this year’s crucial event remains the next FENCA World Congress organized here in Prague in September It is a unique opportunity to send further signals towards our clients to open our Association even more deeply for the cooperation with public administration bodies and legislation creators with judiciary representatives etc And I hope that it increases the prestige of the whole area of our work in the eyes of broad public The Ministry of Justice revaluated the plan on the insolvency law amendment with regard to the current economic crisis Is it possible to keep a balanced relationship between creditors and debtors at all We know that it is impossible to reach an ideal in any field and thus we can only approach it Concerning the creditor debtor relationship however the ideal is really far off I suppose the position of these two subjects is really not wellbalanced Practically the debtor is given an advantage although it should be the opposite Well the creditor has still not only the right but he should have the real chance to get his money back in time and the debtor on the contrary has the obligation to fulfil his commitments The present state leads among others to the rise in debt of business objects and households and in high payment risks in our country What would be the possible solution I can see several possible solutions some of them can be influenced by the participants directly other only indirectly First of all every entrepreneur can improve and optimize management of their risks inside their company Secondly another solution can be the full focus on the business line i e to do a thing I am best at and to entrust the care of my debts to specialist companies as they are again best at it I am talking about the well known and constantly growing trend of outsourcing Thirdly a distinct factor is represented by the legislation The creditor’s position towards the debtor should be legislatively strengthened It is rather the opposite at present I hope that our laws will be harmonized with the EU law soon Yet it is also our duty as we are the EU member country The European Union Directive No 35 2000 describes this problem clearly Last but by far not least in the light of significance it is necessary to find the solution in the sphere of justice We need a sort of law interpretation harmonization I do not mean any attack on judiciary independence but rather greater predictability of adjudications Simply I want that the same problem be judged in the same way everywhere e g at courts in Brno and in Ústí n Labem and also by courts in one city but with different judges since at present different judgements appear By Pavlína Holancová českou verzi naleznete na www leadersmagazine cz

previous page next page

Rate this issue: votes: