The presentation by the Bone Cancer Research Trust team was very powerful.  Hearing that there has been little improvement in the survival rate of bone cancer for nearly 40 years and that there’s a severe lack of funding for research into the disease was disheartening.  It was an easy decision to make the special donation which the Trust intends to use towards funding a new research post at Leeds University.

Mat Cottle-Shaw, Head of Fundraising and Communications at the Bone Cancer Research Trust said: “This very generous gift will help enable us to fund urgently needed additional research this year and will make a huge difference to bone cancer patients now and in the future.”

Frank Horvath, MD, Link Financial Outsourcing said:  “Link Financial is proud to mark our 20^th Anniversary with a charity donation of £20,000 to the Bone Cancer Research Trust, supporting their important research into finding a cure for primary bone cancer and their work to support people who are affected by it. We are extremely impressed by the dedication and determination of this charity which, although small, manages to achieve so much”.

The post Link Financial Outsourcing makes £20,000 Charity Donation appeared first on Link Financial.

The Link Financial Outsourcing team was thrilled to win the Collector Accreditation Initiative category at the Credit Services Association Awards for the 4^th year in a row.

The CSA Collector Accreditation test covers the FCA regulatory framework, Treating Customers Fairly, the Data Protection Act, the CSA Code of Practice and more.  Link’s collectors take the test annually and their continuing best-in-class results demonstrate the importance which Link attaches to learning and education, as well as the quality of the courses developed and delivered by our team.

Jeremy Baber, Director of Operations at Link Financial Outsourcing said:  “We’re very excited that our team is once again top of the league in the CAI results.  This is a reflection of the seriousness with which we treat our people’s continuous development, ensuring that they deliver the best possible service for customers”.

Frank Horvath, MD of Link Financial Outsourcing said: “Link’s company values are that we strive to be the best and are passionate about what we do.  Winning the CAI award for the fourth year in a row embodies that ethos and proves that we really do live our values.  We are dedicated to finding positive outcomes for customers and to providing the safest pair of hands for clients who entrust their business to us”.

The post Simply the best: Link Financial wins the CSA CAI award for the fourth time appeared first on Link Financial.

7 colleagues from Link Financial Outsourcing, Caerphilly, successfully completed the “Welsh Three Peaks Challenge” on July 20th.  The challenge is to climb the three highest mountains in south, mid and north Wales: Pen y Fan, Cadir Idris and Snowdon-Yr Wyddfa – a total of 24.6 miles walking and a total height of 2,864 metres, all within a 24 hour period.

Setting off at 2am, the team trekked off into the darkness, reaching the first peak, (Pen y Fan 886 metres) at 3.45am and descending just as the sun rose.  Rain began to set in at this point but undeterred by the worsening weather conditions, they tackled the hardest peak, Cadir Idris 893 metres in 4 hours.  The final climb, Snowdon-Yr Wyddfa 1,085 metres was made in heavy rain and very poor visibility, the team arrived at the peak soaked and exhausted but in good spirits at 4.45pm – mission accomplished.

Jeremy Baber, challenge team member and Link Financial Outsourcing’s Director of Operations said:

“It was a really tough day’s walking and climbing but thoroughly enjoyable despite the poor weather conditions.

We completed 24.6 miles, took around 60,000 steps and burned over 10,000 calories each – so not a bad workout!  The team really supported one another to complete the challenge in 16 and a half hours, and most importantly, raised over £3,200 for charity. 

We now have our sights set on the UK National Three Peaks Challenge in 2019”.

All funds raised by the team will be donated to Dementia UK.

The post Link Financial team scales new heights for charity appeared first on Link Financial.

The CSA represents 90% of the UK debt collection and debt purchase industry and has over 400 members, holding up to £60bn for collection at any one time.  Compliance with the Code of Practice is mandatory for members. The aim is to build confidence in debt collection by making the entire process clear, easy to understand and less stressful for those involved. The Code therefore covers activities common to all members such as fair and clear communication, dealing with vulnerable customers, complaints and data protection.  It also looks at more specialist areas including tracing, debt sale and debt purchase, field collections and litigation.

Link Financial were pioneers in taking a compliant and ethical approach to business, for example, since the foundation of the company we have always referred to our “customers” as such and put their interests at the centre of our activities. Treating Customers Fairly was therefore nothing new to us when the FCA introduced the concept and others in our industry began to follow our lead.

The revised Code of Practice is effective from January 2018 and continues to promote best practice in the collections industry in line with new regulations and standards from industry regulators. It contains greater detail about the potentially vulnerable situations which customers may be in, and there are updates to take into account changing data protection regulations with the upcoming GDPR, and the increased importance of  due diligence when purchasing debt.

We are proud not only to be early members of this trade association but to continue to demonstrate its ethos – strong financial stability, employing people with the right skills and training (2017 saw Link win the national CAI award for the third consecutive year) and, most importantly, working with customers, recognising their vulnerabilities and always treating them with respect in a professional and understanding way.

The post The CSA revised Code of Practice appeared first on Link Financial.

Frank Horvath, MD at Link Financial Outsourcing, looks at the challenges of maintaining the same standards across different regions and cultures in this month’s CCR Magazine.

While the concept of establishing an international business with cookie cutter operations in multiple jurisdictions may be an attractive one, in reality, businesses need to be more flexible about the products and services they offer from region to region to be successful.

In the world of debt recovery, one example is that different legal and compliance regimes mean following the spirit of TCF in the UK, while following the letter of the law in more codified countries. Then there are differing HR and cultural approaches which mean that what is perfectly acceptable in one country is completely verboten in another.

So against this divergent background, how can a company establish a set of business standards which apply internationally?

Know your values and apply them

You should ensure that the business is underpinned by a set of corporate values which accurately represent the company’s culture and ethics.  Having those values fully embedded and promoted throughout the group will go a long way to ensuring multi-jurisdictional consistency and best practice which will satisfy your staff, clients, customers and shareholders.

Recognise your strengths

What are the major strengths in my business? Once you have answered this question, you can determine which of those strengths you want to – and are able to – carry forward to your operations in other territories.  Not all will be portable or appropriate, or the mix of skills needed to achieve them may differ by country.

You may decide that your key strengths include a particular system, an operational process, your suite of management information, a strategy that drives your business, the goals and measures you use to set and manage business performance, your unique management structure or performance management process for your agents.

Once you have identified the key areas you need to replicate internationally, the next step is to understand those which can be directly copied and those which have limited geographical transferability and will need greater creativity to reproduce.

Try ranking the key strengths from most important to least and then start with those which are the highest scoring.  Review them critically, not just for the importance they bring to your business model, but also whether they are truly stand alone or only add value in combination with other factors.

Process makes perfect

Look at your process flows and determine which elements of the process are not transferable due to their specificity to one particular market.  Mark these on your process flows and discuss with colleagues in the local market to understand what competitors are doing in these areas.  Such differences may represent local legislative demands and limits, restrictions on contact methodologies and contact times or uncodified practice.

The identification of cultural differences that challenge an operation’s effectiveness can be identified from a number of sources.  Firstly, and most importantly, local management should be trusted to add local value.  They should know what is right and what will work in their territory.  Similarly, feedback from customers passed on via agents and staff members as well as complaints should be used to drive changes to a standardised approach.  Where debt is purchased from or placed by another institution, lessons from their original approach can be taken onboard.  Finally, any local operation should join with local associations in their industry to learn from other professionals and businesses as well as giving some of their own experiences to enrich the whole process.

By following this approach, you can develop the optimal operating model for each territory.  Hence, the resultant operating model will maintain the best common factors, while being adapted to each local market and their relevant rules and regulations.

Standards will ultimately be maintained not through individual processes or strategies, but through the quality of management and controls used to drive performance and compliance in the business.

Published in CCR Magazine, December 2017

The post One Size Fits All? appeared first on Link Financial.

“Link Financial has been active in the Spanish market since 2004 when it established Link Finanzas. This announcement demonstrates the breadth and depth of opportunity we continue to see in Spain and underscores our commitment to this vibrant market. With a strong, full service platform in place we are confident that both businesses, operating under the Link Financial banner, will together grow and build on each other’s strengths. We are proud to welcome our new colleagues to the firm and are excited by the opportunities that this acquisition will offer Link Financial in the Spanish market.”

Selina Burdell, Chief Operating Officer, Link Financial Group

“The acquisition of the Aiqon business has been part of a wider transaction and portfolio purchase concluded by LCM Partners. The Aiqon team bring a depth of expertise in servicing Small to Medium Enterprise receivables and this means they are a seamless addition to our existing business and operation in Spain. The Spanish market offers a lot of opportunity for businesses such as Link and Aiqon and together we will be stronger and able to offer our banking partners an exceptional proposition in the servicing of loan portfolios.”

Pablo de la Viña, Managing Director, Link Finanzas

The post Link Financial Group acquires Aiqon Capital Espana appeared first on Link Financial.

“The best way to protect your customers is to entrust them to the best trained team in the UK” Frank Horvath, Managing Director, Link Financial Outsourcing

For the third year running, Link Financial Outsourcing (Link), one of the UK’s largest specialist outsourcing firms, has won a top award from the debt collection’s industry body, the Credit Services Association (CSA), for its commitment to accreditation and professional development.  Once again, Link’s team achieved the top average score in the annual CAI examination and were assessed as the highest quality in the country, ahead of all competitors.

The Collector Accreditation Initiative (CAI) is a CSA led program that annually benchmarks individual team members’ knowledge, expertise and compliance to ensure that the credit industry maintains the highest standards.  Link achieved the highest average CAI score during the previous 12 month period, and was recognised for its achievement with first place for companies with more than 100 collectors at the UK Credit & Collections Conference in September.

Managing Director Frank Horvath said “We are delighted that our team has again been recognised for the efforts they make to maintain the highest standards in the industry. This award demonstrates that Link recruits highly skilled staff who treat all customers with empathy and respect.  Our internal training program incorporates the Collector Accreditation Initiative, which allows staff to achieve industry recognised certification as well as providing an ideal benchmark for our own development programs”.

The post Link Financial Outsourcing wins the CAI Collector Accreditation Award for the 3rd time appeared first on Link Financial.