NZ Debt Binge

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THERE WAS no let-up in the rate at which finance companies dragged defaulting debtors into court in the eight months to the start of December.

Just over 4800 people were hauled in front of district courts to have summary judgements recorded against them for unpaid debts owed to finance companies, a symptom of the damage done by New Zealand’s credit boom and bust.

In many cases the judgements, most for less than $10,000, will be the first step towards bailiffs arriving on the doorstep and eventually bankruptcy for delinquent debtors.

That figure compared with the nearly 4000 who received similar judgements in the 6 1/2 months to mid-April, indicating there was no overall slow-down in the pace at which debtors were held to account by lenders.

New Zealanders went on a credit binge in the past decade, which, when combined with mortgages, resulted in the average household debt spiking from 74% of disposable income in 2000 to 177% in 2008, though in many cases it was much higher.

Topping the chart for judgements sought and awarded against debtors was once again Evolution Finance, the debt-collection arm of listed company Cynotech run by Allan Hawkins.

Hawkins was chairman of Equiticorp, the most notorious of the listed companies which collapsed in the 1987 sharemarket crash, and he served time in prison after being found guilty of fraud.

Evolution sought and received 571 judgements from the courts, though once the figures for sister companies Cynotech Securities, Cynotech Finance and Budget Loans are taken into account, Hawkins’ firms were awarded 752.

Cynotech is currently collecting the remaining car loans of failed finance firm Provincial Finance, which it bought from receivers, and is shopping around for other books of consumer loans to buy and chase.

The total even topped the combined 694 judgements sought and awarded to Financial Holdings and Jade Financial Services, the two debt collection companies of the Oldham family, which also own Beneficial Finance. Beneficial was one of the earlier finance companies to collapse, owing mum and dad debenture investors millions, but it is on track to pay them all back under moratorium. READ MORE

Sunday Star Times

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