Complaints Against Debt Collection Agents Employed by Authorized Institutions

Our Ref: B1/1C
B9/67C
7 September 2023
The Chief Executive
All Authorized Institutions
Dear Sir/Madam,
Complaints Against Debt Collection Agents Employed by Authorized Institutions I write to inform you of the results of the industry survey on complaints against debt collection agents (DCAs) employed by authorized institutions (AIs) for the first half of 2023. During the reporting period, 32 AIs used the services of DCAs and assigned 414,755 accounts to 20 DCAs. A total of 10 complaints against 5 DCAs were received by 4 AIs (compared with 19 complaints against 7 DCAs received by 10 AIs in H2 2022). The incidence of complaints per 1,000 accounts assigned has decreased from an average of
0.04 in H2 2022 to 0.02 in H1 2023. No complaints were lodged by unrelated third
parties. Please see Annex for details.
No instance of a breach of the Code of Banking Practice was reported in H1 2023. Yours faithfully, Alan Au Executive Director (Banking Conduct) Encl. c.c. The Chairperson, Hong Kong Association of Banks The Chairperson, The DTC Association Secretary, Code of Banking Practice Committee (Attn: Ms Alieza Chan – HKAB) Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury (Attn: Mr Justin To)

Annex
Survey on DCA complaints received by AIs – H1/2023
Table 1: Number of AIs using DCA services
H1/2023 H2/2022∗ H1/2022 H2/2021 H1/2021
AIs receiving DCA complaints 4 10 10 8 9
AIs receiving no DCA complaints 28 22 23 25 21 Total 32 32 33 33 30
Table 2: Number of DCAs employed by AIs
H1/2023 H2/2022 H1/2022 H2/2021 H1/2021
AIs employing 1 – 5 DCAs 30 30 31 30 26
AIs employing 6 – 10 DCAs 2 3 4
AIs employing 11 – 15 DCAs 0
Total 32 32 33 33 30
Table 3: Incidence of DCA complaints
H1/2023 H2/2022* H1/2022 H2/2021 H1/2021
DCA complaints received (A) 10 19 20 21 25 Accounts assigned (B) 414,755 433,323 414,996 394,196 400,624 Incidence of complaints per 1,000 accounts (C) = (A) / (B) x 1,000 0.02 0.04 0.05 0.05 0.06
Table 4: Status of complainants
H1/2023 H2/2022* H1/2022 H2/2021 H1/2021
Debtors 10 15 16 19 20
Referees 0
Family members/friends 0 1 1 0 1
Unrelated third parties 0 3 3 2 4
Total 10 19 20 21 25

Note (∗): Figures for H2 2022 have been revised to reflect updated figures reported by AIs.