We trust you had a good break and are ready for an exciting and busy 2013.

Here is a round-up of recent events and a list of the activities currently being dealt with by your Board.

Board Members                                          

In 2012 we had the resignation of Mark Broadstock and Suzanna Walker has currently stood down but we are delighted to welcome:

Derek Oakley, Steve Slater and Melanie Giles to our Board of Directors.

These new Directors are keen to help to raise standards in our industry and will be campaigning with the rest of the Board to various Government bodies on your behalf.

You will find a list of these priorities later on in this newsletter.

DRF Standards

In October we updated our DRF Standards to meet OFT requirements ready for our code stage one approval; including guidelines for dealing with Introducers and our disciplinary committee.

This is available for download from our web site.

List of Members

We currently have 24 full company members, 2 provisional, 2 introducers and 1 affiliate member. Additionally we have 39 Individual Members.

We aim to be an inclusive Trade Association and welcome small businesses or individuals aiming to gain Consumer Credit Licences and the OFT welcomes our initiative to have ‘Nursery’ and ‘Individual’ membership status.

IPA inspection visits

Inspection visits will be organised within the first few months of joining, there is then a follow up visit/remote inspection 12 months later; many of you will be due these visits in the next few weeks.

Please treat these as an opportunity to gain valuable assistance and support in helping you to identify any areas for improvement in your business processes or procedures; they are not trying to catch you out. Your co-operation with the inspectors is appreciated.

Training CERTDR

As listed in the OFT Debt Management Guidelines, training is required for all advisors. There are now 197 people fully qualified, this is a great indication of credibility to consumers, so register your staff now, check the web site for details of the courseincluding costs or email Gaynor Loughnane at: gaynor.loughnane@debtresolutionforum.org.uk.

If you are currently training, there are exams taking place end of Jan, end of April, end of July, and end of Oct.

Please contact Gaynor to be included.

DRF Board Meetings

Your Board meet every two months, the next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday 30th Jan.

The current list of priorities:

• DRF 2013 regulatory and other activities:
• OFT consultation on suspension of CCLs
• DM protocol
• Insolvency service IP fees, including reviewing the recent joint DRF/R3 survey
• Code One approval before April 2013.
• MAS quality and standards document
• Working with FSA on CCA – FCA headline consultation
• OFT review of enforcement priorities
• OFT (FCA) new entrants, Nursery plans
• FSA hinterland issues, how can they deal with organisations determined not to become compliant
• Insolvency Service IVA protocol development
• Insolvency Service Bankruptcy process, adjudication
• Department for Work and Pensions – Universal Credit, helping with development of procedures of debt recovery for consumers who are in receipt of benefits

The above is not in any order of priority.

If you would like to comment on any particular projects our web forum is the place to do it.

Annual Conference 2nd and 3rd Oct 2013

Our annual conference this year will be at the Midland Hotel in Manchester City Centre.

Gaynor and the Team are busy in organising an award presentation dinner to be held on the evening of 2nd October and the conference the day after.

Accommodation has been reserved at highly competitive rates so put it in your diary now, tickets will be available for sale shortly; watch out for full particulars in the next newsletter.