Carrington Dean wins major AiB payment distribution tender

The agreement will see the Glasgow-based company, which is Scotland’s largest independent debt solutions business, lead a new, four-strong panel of approved Payment Distributors for the AiB’s Debt Arrangement Scheme (DAS), a statutory debt management scheme established by Holyrood.

Carrington, a provider of Trust Deeds and a payment distributor for the Debt Arrangement Scheme since 2008, was appointed to the panel following a competitive tender which rated firms on the basis of fulfilling practical requirements of the role as well as best practice, commitment to continuous improvement and customer service, including complaints management and dealing with vulnerable customers.

The firm, which processed approximately 250,000 individual DAS payment transactions last year and handled payments worth more than £6.5 million, achieved an overall score of 98 per cent in the assessment.

The DAS Administrator awarded Carrington the largest share of DAS Payment Distribution cases among the four panel members, with the new agreement meaning the company will now handle payment distribution for 60 per cent of all new DAS cases.

Carrington now plans significant investment in its IT resources and expansion of its specialist DAS team to handle what will be a trebling in volume of the Payment Distribution cases it now handles as a result of the new contract.

AiB data show that 4,147 new DAS cases were approved in the year to March 31 2015 while £30 million was repaid to creditors through DAS, according to the last AiB Annual Report.

The Debt Arrangement Scheme has helped thousands of Scots to successfully tackle problem debt since it was first introduced in 2004.

Carrington Dean has played a key role in developing greater understanding of DAS among consumers, money advisers, charities, creditors, financial institutions and the legal sector and was the first payment distributor to score 100 per cent for meeting AiB criteria for prompt and accurate collection of payments from debtors, distribution of payments to Creditors and fees to the DAS Administrator.

Peter Dean, managing director of Carrington Dean said: “We are delighted to have been appointed to the panel by the DAS Administrator. Our highly-trained team was the first to hit 100% of the performance targets for DAS payment distribution. We are pleased that our expertise, knowledge of DAS and our track record have been recognised by the DAS Administrator and we remain committed to achieving high standards in service delivery.”