The coronavirus pandemic caused global panic. Schoolchildren and students are transferred to remote learning. Companies have also decided to limit the communication of their employees with each other, suggesting to work from home. International events were canceled: the St. Petersburg economic forum, the E3 game exhibition, the Google developers conference, joint military training of the United States and Israel, fashion shows of Gucci, Prada, the Women’s world Cup of hockey, and many others.

Russian companies have also taken precautions. Employees are measured temperature before entering the office, and general cleaning is more often carried out. EuroChem, Mail.ru Group, Yandex, Polymetal, Russian Railways, major banks in the country, and other organizations went into “high alert” mode.

All these preventive measures do not improve the economic indicators of enterprises or countries as a whole. Special attention should be paid to professional debt collectors and sellers: is it possible to return the debt remotely? The experts shared with the DEBT.RF information on the new structure of debt collectors and debt recovery departments.

MFOs switched to “remote”

Igor Petrov, PR Director at MigCredit, said that the company has moved its employees to remote work. The coronavirus pandemic did not affect the work of the organization in terms of both loans and debt collection. According to him, MigCredit has no practice of personal contact with debtors or  visit by any mobile groups. All interactions go through the communication channels that the client specifies when making a loan. First of all, it is phone and email. Representatives of the company can meet the debtor personally only in court.

Debt collectors are staying in the offices for the time being

Boris Voronin, the Director of SRO NAPCA, said that all companies included in NAPCA are working normally. However, the Association does not stand aside and applies security measures. For example, it was decided to postpone the traditional spring conference. “Debt collection agencies already transferred some of employees who do not have an access and do not work with personal data to “remote format” a week ago. In offices, all security measures are taken: from temperature measurement to room disinfection. Technologically, everyone is ready to transfer all the work to “remote mode”. There has been developed a solution to protect clients and their personal data from leaks. About 80 % of call center employees will be able to continue working from home in normal mode,” said Boris Voronin.

Realizing the importance of the issue, SRO NAPCA held an online meeting on the situation related to the pandemic, during which representatives of collection agencies shared their experience, told about plans in case of worsening the situation and developed a common position.

Fedor Vachata, the CEO at “M.B.A. Finance”, said that in the current situation worldwide with the spread of COVID-19, the company takes all necessary security measures in offices, which are recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). The agency has a plan for smooth business operations. “M.B.A. Finance” has three call centers, and they are operating normally. Naturally, all our employees are aware of the main preventive measures against viral infectious diseases: temperature measurement, antiseptics, ventilation of office, etc. All these measures are now strictly observed in call centers. We have canceled events and trips – everything that is possible has been moved to an online format, and we strongly recommend our employees to avoid mass places and be extremely vigilant about their health. We are not going to stop the work of our offices, but if the situation gets out of a control in Russia and call centers are disallowed to work, or there will be a decision to ban access to work, in this case we are operationally and technically ready to start in a remote mode,” said Fedor Vachata.

Since mid-February, M.B.A. Finance has started testing all systems for remote operation of operators. In this case, they will connect to their virtual workplace via a secure communication channel. This option absolutely excludes any leakage of personal data: there is no possibility to copy any information and distribute it. In addition to operators, other departments that are responsible for maintaining business processes and supporting clients are ready to start in this format.

Debt collection agency intently monitors the situation in the world and the country, so the decision on a possible remote format of work was made in February: we discussed possible options, successfully tested all systems. Besides, automatic communication channels (IVR, sms, emails) are also actively used. Therefore, we will ensure smooth of the company’s activities.

According to Fedor Vachata, the remote format for “M.B.A. Finance” is a new one: all employees work in the standard office mode, and for each of them, to some extent, this is a challenge. But this is rather a purely psychological aspect. The company is absolutely ready to work remotely, employees have being instructed how the workflow should be organized within the “home office”.

Sales will persist effective

Sasha Danilov, the CEO of online debt auction Debex, said that since March 18, all employees of the company have been working from home. If necessary, they can come to the office, but Debex asks them not to use public transport and is ready to pay for taxi and carsharing services. “The company is fully ready for this mode of operation, all processes are digitized and conducted through CRM. In fact, there is no difference where the employees who serve sellers and buyers are located. We believe that in the near future many companies (both banks and debt collectors) will switch to a similar mode, and we are happy to be able to effectively support sales. By the way, we have already conducted the auction completely in remote mode, the system worked well. Compared to normal auctions, this auction had 40% more buyers, ” – said Sasha Danilov. The expert also noted that free services for secure transfer of documents and transaction servicing will be particularly in demand. A large contribution to remote work is also made by the mobile app for debt collectors, which allows all buyers to make transactions from home. According to the auction, which took place on March 20, 30% of buyers entered through the mobile app, which means that many debt collection agencies have adapted to the situation and continue to work normally in remote mode, said the CEO of the online debt auction Debex.