FCash Global Lending Inc., or FastCash, has denied reports that the company employs improper collection methods.
“Collection malpractices would not be tolerated in our company. Those who call and collect are third-party collection agencies these online lenders employ,” said lawyer Arnel Mateo, one of the legal representatives of FastCash
“We, in FastCash, are trying our very best to slowly move our third-party collection agency to our own FastCash collection team. Rest assured that everything would be more proper than it was before. We apologize to those who have been offended by our third-party collection team. Thank you for making us better,” he said.
Mateo, who is also the president and CEO of ADM & Partners Data Privacy Consulting Inc., said the company had realized that debt collection was all about listening and empathizing, “about negotiation and working together with the borrower.”
“We are in the process of training our customer care representatives. We are teaching them to be more sensitive and to show compassion and empathy. FastCash is also in the process of ensuring that third-party collectors comply with the requirements of the Data Privacy Act by demanding them to implement appropriate security and privacy measures,” Mateo said.
“We believe that each of our client has a story to tell and they need those stories told. So we will listen to them. In fact, trainings on proper handling of personal data are conducted since October this year to make sure that client information is processed lawfully,” he added.
Collection agencies are companies hired on a commission basis by banks and online lending firms to collect on past-due accounts. The collection agencies may also purchase bad loan debt outright from financial institutions and other lenders. These debt buyers own the debt and the right to collect the full amount of the outstanding debt.