The competitive environment has changed increasingly during the past few years. Considering debtors' slow and sometimes hard-to-plan payment behaviour and the growing number of consumer bankruptcies, effective management of defaulted private customer debts is becoming increasingly important for companies. At the end of 2005, approx. 3.13 million private households were overindebted.

Providers of goods and services often have few options when faced with customers who are unwilling or unable to pay: write off the bad debts, or employ time-consuming collection measures. This means that costs and resources are inefficiently tied up in activities that are not part of the company's core business. Apart from a high need for qualified employees, modern IT systems and innovative process management, internal processing of bad debts ties up valuable equity unnecessarily. Therefore, defaulted debts restrict a company's financial scope, while at the same time preventing it from receiving a better rating due to the high amount of risk assets on the liabilities side of the balance statement.

For this reason, more and more companies are considering the option of optimising their business processes and, at the same time, improving their results. Due to the effects of Basle II, a rapid reduction in outstanding debts is becoming more and more important in increasing a company's liquidity and improving its balance sheet.

The active management of bad debts owed by private customers is, therefore, gaining in importance. An alternative to collection is the purchase of overdue receivables, which creates security and liquidity and simultaneously reduces the costs incurred by collection.

Apart from the right products, ideas and services, your success also requires a strong concept for financing growth and protecting your company against risks. Only companies that are financially independent can react flexibly in those markets requiring fast response times. Today, innovative means of financing and safeguarding are in demand. Therefore, make use of the hidden potentials of your accounts receivable.