Collection of debts

The term “Inkasso” (German for “debt collection”) is a banking term of Italian origin. It is defined as:

“Encashment, the collection of cash for claims, particularly those for overdue bills, invoices, raffled-off securities, overdue coupons etc.”

According to today’s definition, debt collection is:

“The collection of external claims or claims assigned for collection purposes”, which is “performed commercially – without differentiating between principal occupation/secondary occupation or paid/unpaid work”.

Art. 1 § 1 Para. 1 Clause 1 RberG (RechtsberatungsGesetz/ Legal Advice Act )

Depending on the debt collection assignment or mandate, debt collection tasks essentially involve

• Advising creditors on collecting overdue receivables
• Collecting claims, which are undisputed up until order placement and for which not all the legal options have been exhausted, by performing the relevant reminder activities,
• Collecting claims, which are legally enforceable or for which all legal options have been exhausted
• Monitoring of temporarily irrecoverable claims as pre-requisites for new collection measures

Collection of claims is particularly also important in the European Community by virtue of judicial execution agreements.