Leverage In International Debt Collection

Leverage can be vital to achieve success in international debt collection. The existence of leverage is often a vital ingredient to negotiate payment or settlement of outstanding debts and mediation in international claims.

Leverage can be defined as “influence or power used to achieve a desired result”. What kind of leverage may a creditor, its legal representatives or a debt collection agency have when collecting an international, commercial debt?

Existence of a commercial relationship

If the international debt is between two businesses, both the creditor and the debtor may have an interest in maintaining the commercial relationship and solve any financial issues between them. This means that the debtor may be willing to pay and the creditor may be in a position to agree to a settlement of the debt, if necessary. We consider the existence of a commercial relationship and the importance of maintaining the commercial relationship as probably the most important leverage the side of the creditor may have during an international debt collection process.

Legal alternatives for payment of international debt

Another important leverage the creditor may have is the alternative to start legal proceedings against debtor and to legally enforce payment of an outstanding debt. In reality though, often this alternative may be relative as legal alternatives for international debts are either limited, and / or time-consuming, and / or expensive. On the other hand, the fact that legal proceedings are time consuming and expensive also goes for the debtor, and this in itself may be sufficient leverage to push debtor to pay or except settlement.

Personal relationships between creditor and debtor

Not unusually, creditor and debtor have been in business together a while and personal relationships have been established across departments and management. This may be another type of leverage the creditor may turn on when collecting a debt internationally. Depending on the size of businesses, there may be several people involved in the business relationship between creditor and debtor, and people may feel committed and may be willing to continue their personal relationships and avoid any personal issues as a result of the outstanding international debt. This leverage can also be used when attempting to collect an international debt, by involving in the negotiation people with a personal interest in the business relationship and personal relationships between them.

Importance of the industry reputation of debtor

The importance of debtor’s industry reputation may also mean leverage for the creditor, when collecting an international debt. Debtor may feel that the existence of the international debt, and disruption of the commercial relationship because of the debt, if it becomes known within debtor’s industry, would damage debtor’s reputation. Some industries have warning lists for bad payers. The creditor, its legal representatives or its debt collection agency should definitely use this leverage, if present.

Leverage in international debt collection

In this post we discussed the important of leverage during negotiations over an international debt. We mentioned the following types of leverage: the existence of a commercial relationship, legal alternatives to enforce payment, personal relationships between creditor and debtor, and the importance of the industry reputation of debtor.

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