Raiffeisen Leasing doubles size of collection department

Raiffeisen Leasing, the eighth largest player on the market at the end of last year, has so far restructured almost 200 financing lines for clients who could no longer pay their monthly instalments. “This is a continuous process, which has become more common over the last two or three months. I expect it to continue for at least three-four months,” says Mihaela Mateescu, the company’s general manager. Around two thirds of Raiffeisen Leasing’s clients are small and medium-sized enterprises. Mateescu says in many cases companies in difficulty manage to resume instalment payment after the funding is restructured, which entails extending the maturity or introducing a grace period. “The debt collection department has doubled its size in half a year, with the sales force providing additional help, suggesting restructuring solutions to clients with problems,” says Mateescu. Currently, Raiffeisen Leasing has 10 employees who also deal with repossessing goods. The company sealed 3,000 new contracts last year, with the overall number of ongoing contracts reaching 12,500 at the end of 2008.