Preventing over indebtedness

BANK OF AFRICA is understandably keen to ensure that customers do not get into financial difficulty. Since 2004, it has employed the necessary resources to identify the persons in question by adopting a responsible approach to debt recovery.

In this respect, customers experiencing financial difficulties are offered help and assistance. The Bank’s approach to debt recovery by amicable means aims to support financially vulnerable customers. It can be summarised as follows:

 

Right to information:

  • Providing customers with accurate information about the criteria and terms of restructuring plans and arrangements
  • Continuously improving the conditions and content of the dialogue and negotiations

 

Respecting customers’ interests:

  • Respecting customers’ privacy and protecting their personal data
  • Drawing up transparent procedures to ensure that customers’ demands, rights and obligations are dealt with

 

Ensuring that they do not get into financial difficulty by:

  • Identifying those customers who are in a precarious situation as early as possible to be able to offer them customised solutions
  • Proposing customised and long-lasting amicable solutions

 

Providing specific training for the managers concerned

Debt recovery managers specialising in handling sensitive and vulnerable cases, known as ‘amicable recovery advisors’, receive specific training, available from the Group's training catalogue.

 

Support programmes in the event of financial difficulty:

  • Maintaining an inventory of all customers meeting certain vulnerability criteria (extended authorised overruns, loan arrears, etc.).
  • Systematically adopting a proactive approach to these customers by two teams (central and regional) of specialised advisors who are responsible for managing the commercial relationship on a temporary basis, in place of the branch, until customers’ accounts have returned to normal.
  • Exploring, alongside the customers in question, different solutions to enable customers to gradually clear their loan arrears, giving priority, as far as possible, to amicable settlement rather than litigation
  • Resuming, at the end of the rehabilitation period, the customer relationship with their branch

 

Preventing all forms of corruption:

  • Raising employee awareness of the measures taken by the bank in this respect
  • Not accepting bribes or gifts from counterparties

 

Appraising the effectiveness of policies preventing customers from getting into financial difficulty and helping them by:

  • Ensuring customer satisfaction by adopting a customised approach to their specific situation
  • Improving the monitoring and steering of indicators related to the rate at which accounts in arrears are rehabilitated

 

RESPONSIBLE CUSTOMER RELATIONS