It surprises many that in the midst of the collapse in sales, delinquencies have not increased in an Argentina famous for its public defaults and also its private debt.
But in the area of individuals
there is a lot of work in the shadows to avoid that scenario
.
It is about preventive management through software, various and sophisticated applications and highly trained personnel.
They are programs to save headaches or ensure that high bad debt rates do not come upon creditors.
According to the latest report on BCRA banks from December 2023, the system's arrears
increased 0.5 percentage points to stand at 3.7%
.
In the case of loans to companies it reached
4.4% and in families, 2.8%
.
The UIA reported that due to the collapse of activity, “
there are more companies with difficulties in meeting their payments.”
In Brazil, default rates for companies and families are
higher
, reaching 4.9%, and in Chile, according to a study by Equifax (the owner of the Veraz index), 26.4% of consumers register some type of default.
For Rodolfo Cassini, with 25 years of experience in “debt recovery”, the situation is far from that of 2001 “when
there were banks with 30% of their non-performing portfolio.
But the difficulties are growing,” he tells Clarín.
Cassini observes an increase in defaults in
fintech companies
that provide loans to those who do not have enough scores to allow them to access a bank line.
Although he warns of the 70% jump in the arrears of
social and prepaid works.
“In January and February there are always more difficulties until the March joint elections arrive and the situation improves,” he points out.
With national capital, Cassini is the founder of RC Collecting, which is dedicated to collection management in Argentina.
It has 20 leading clients, from the highways of the City of Buenos Aires and prepaid such as Medifé to the banks Macro and Comafi, among others.
They specialize in
defaulter portfolios
that are purchased by different entities.
They have 120 employees.
They were born in times when it was advertised that
“with tails and galley we charge anyone.”
Its director, Cecilia Cafferata, points out that things have changed and today the approach is proactive.
“We make shortcuts easy.
It is started by WhatsApp, SMS and email preventively, remembering the expiration date.
It is an automatic service linked to a payment button.
In the face of delays there are various strategies," he describes.
They distinguish three types of default, the
early one that extends up to 90 days
, and the
prejudicial one
when the lack of payment lasts from six months to a year.
Then the
late one
.
RC Colleting is the market leader and 20% of its activity is concentrated in early debt and the rest is divided between pre-judicial and late debt.
In the market there are about 24 firms that usually share clients and are grouped together in a sector chamber.
There are companies that are going strong like Wecross, which has Mercado Libre, Coca Cola and the banks Supervielle, Patagonia and BBVA.
Gedco is another that also serves Mercado Libre, Edesur and Galicia, to name a few.
“We are very prepared to
always negotiate without aggression
in what we consider friendly collections to achieve a beneficial outcome on both sides of the counter.
It is not a business to suffocate the debtor,”
they define.
“When the debt has already expired, a message is sent to the debtor to offer them an opportunity with benefits, whether it is
a loan, longer term, interest-free financing,”
says Cafferata.
There are all kinds of situations in times of virtual scams.
The most common are those of
children who take out loans in the name of one of their parents
and those parents did not find out or those who resorted to loans and were
fired from work.
“We consider it essential to find solutions that are fair and equitable for both our clients and debtors, thus allowing an effective collection process that is sensitive to the current circumstances,” they emphasize in the face of the difficult months ahead.