Below is a comment from Andy Davie, site manager for IVA.co.uk,
the leading personal debt website, responding to the news that today
Debtmatters, the insolvency specialist, has lost GBP 12.5m from its
market value, blaming creditors´ "hardening attitudes". Andy comments:
"Debtmatters´ huge 70% share price drop today is reflects what is
often proved on our IVA.co.uk forum- that debt laden consumers should
be very careful about who they choose to take on their case. A large
company, or ´IVA factory´ may have the best advertising, but they will
also employ under qualified ´debt counsellors´, giving the debtor
limited access to their licensed Insolvency Practitioner. We have
recently had a lot of people coming to the forum and speaking about
their experiences with larger firms, and the lack of personal
attention. In order to make money, the ´debt counsellors´ have been
known to push forward unviable IVAs, just to get the arrangement fee.
This has inflated the market, and company share prices.
In December 2006, the British Bankers Association called a forum
with leading Insolvency Practitioners to discuss the future of the
insolvency market. Subsequent meetings between these two groups have
tried to come to an amicable position in terms of fees and IVA
structure. To date no agreement has been reached, but some operations
such as TIX have forced the issue with restrictions on fees.
Businesses with larger overheads and personnel will obviously struggle
more than their smaller counterparts. As market competition has
increased, ´IVA factories´ have compensated by a growth in their
advertising, which is often criticised as misleading.
Now that the "hardening attitudes" have come into force, it is
these large companies that will be worst hit. Smaller Insolvency
Practitioners who dedicate quality time to putting forward suitable
IVAs have far less to worry about from this market news."
Notes to editor:
About IVA.co.uk
IVA.co.uk is the UK´s biggest online IVA community for information
and advice about Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs). It is a
leading authority on debt and finance in the UK and receives over
2,400,000 hits a month. IVA.co.uk was formed in 2005 to help improve
understanding of debt and debt solutions in the UK by providing expert
advice and a live forum alongside a regular roundup of the latest
news, statistics, and research from the world of debt solutions.
The IVA Forum (iva.co.uk/forum) was launched in January 2006 to
enable the community to discuss IVA issues. The IVA forum now has
3,000 members and over 33,000 posts. Online TV channel IVA TV
(TV.iva.co.uk) was launched in December 2006 to report on issues
surrounding IVAs and debt. IVA Community Blogs (blogs.iva.co.uk) was
launched in January 2007 to provide free blogging space for anyone
from the IVA community.
IVA.co.uk was created by, and is maintained by, Community121
(www.community121.com), builders of niche community websites.