Meeting held on Thursday 28^th October 2004 at 11.00am, 3^rd Floor Conference Room, Insolvency Service headquarters, Ladywood House, 45-46 Stephenson Street, Birmingham.

In attendance: Representing:

Jim Curtois welcomed attendees to the user group and requested that everyone introduce themselves due to the number of new members.

1i) Proposal for payment of gross interest

JC advised the group that he had received mixed views concerning the payment of gross interest and invited the group to air their opinions. Tim Foley informed the group that he thought the change would be practical for liquidations but nor for bankruptcy estates. Various discussions followed and it was agreed that it would be worthwhile to canvass IPs more widely. JC agreed to put this in hand and report back .

1ii) IP Banking Website

Alison Poppitt informed the group that the IP Banking website had been updated to incorporate the new fees, and that the interest rates past and present were now available on the site. JC asked the group if they used our website; all attendees confirmed they did use the IP Banking website.

2. User Satisfaction Survey

Dee Youngs informed the group that there is an Insolvency Service target to have a User Satisfaction Index. Currently feedback is received from comment cards that are sent out to users and available on the website. DY informed the group that there are five different user groups, Bankrupts/Company Directors, Creditors, Insolvency service creditors, insolvency practitioners and users seeking advice. DY asked the group if one survey would be sufficient to gain user satisfaction in the following three areas, IP Banking, IP unit and Redundancy payments. After a lengthy discussion is was agreed that 3 surveys would provide more accurate results. Helen Boland to liaise with DY to construct relevant questions.

3. Organisation of IP Banking

JC introduced Graham Stewart as the head of IP Banking. GS introduced himself explaining that he has worked for the last 19 years in private companies at board of management level with responsibilities for finance, IT, corporate governance and administration. He looked forward to meeting the opportunities & challenges that lay ahead for the Banking Directorate and hoped that he would be able to add value to the role of Head of insolvency practitioner Banking.

4. Performance

Ron Heppenstall advised the group that almost all targets are being achieved; however the posting receipts target had been missed by a small margin due to postal delays. The number of receipts received had decreased compared with the previous year.

5. Security

RH addressed the group on security and circulated details of the latest cheque fraud. JC recommended the use of BACS where possible as a safer option, generally when making payments. Banking Directorate are seeking ways to communicate the advantages of BACS to the IP Community.

6. Enterprise Act

JC requested feedback from the attendees on the new financial regime. There followed a lengthy discussion on the process of charging and rebating banking fees. Nigel Mallett requested that we write off the banking fee if it is charged when the case is closing.  JC reminded the group that they should make provision for any banking fees that are charged before or during the closure process and referred to the recent Dear IP article. JC noted that the Fees Order introducing the banking fees had led some IPs to conclude that an estate account could be closed without following the usual formalities. A revised Fees Order will be made but until then, IPs can refer to the Dear IP article for guidance on how the fee is administered.

JC also reminded the group that banking fees are payable even if all estate funds are being held outside the main account in fixed charge/ Brumark or other sub account. GS advised that a letter would be issued shortly concerning banking fees and sub accounts.

7. CAMEO

JC reported that the CAMEO project to replace BANCS and LOLA now has a planned go live date pushed back to October 2005. Banking has carried out a review of current systems and upgrades will be made as necessary to keep them operating effectively over a longer period.

8. Online Access

AP advised the group that we had experienced problems updating BANCS on-line after crediting the half-year interest and charging the quarterly banking fee on the 1^st October 2004. She apologised for any problems and informed the group that all data should now be clean and up to date.

AP asked the group if they would prefer the statements to print out as they appear on the screen when using on-line access, or as they appear when printed from BANCS.

Marc Landsman enquired about the possibility of viewing a payee name when using on-line access.

9. Data Cleaning

AP advised that there are a high volume of cases with debit balances where no provision has been made for the banking fee. She stressed the importance of closing cases in a timely manner after concluding the administration and if applicable, leaving sufficient funds in the account to cover the banking fee. AP informed the group that a letter will be issued shortly to all liquidators of cases with debit balances due to the banking fee.

10. Closing Voluntary Liquidations with undistributed assets

HB informed the group that Treasury Solicitor will not accept funds until the status on Company’s House is “dissolved”. IP Banking will move the funds from the estate to a holding account once Company’s House shows a due to be dissolved date, allowing the account to be closed.

Claire Davies advised that a CAU105 had been submitted to close an account, however the final interest was not added to the payment. AP informed the group that if the requisition does not state that closing interest is to be added it is not automatically done.

JC advised the group that he had been approached about the possibility of holding funds in the ISA for Administration cases and asked the attendees for their opinions. The attendees agreed that if the service was available it would be considered. JC asked that the attendees let us know if they would like to bank administration monies with the ISA.

TF advised that cheques were being manually amended after we agreed that we would cancel and re-issue. RH advised that we do cancel and re-issue when a cheque is returned to us to be amended. However if we were to cancel every cheque that is input incorrectly it would delay the turnaround. After a lengthy discussion it was decided that we would continue to manually amend cheques if a small error is discovered at the checking stage.

NM queried how a surplus is calculated and said that he felt it was a lengthy process. HB advised that a receipts and payments report is required to establish if a surplus to debtor on account has been paid, the CAU101 signed by the trustee is required to release the funds and a final receipts and payments report is required to close the account. HB advised the group that the enquiries team endeavour to calculate a surplus to debtor within ten days of receiving the request and apologised for any delays that had been experienced.

JC requested that if the IP’s or their staff were experiencing problems they should contact IP Banking who will do their best to rectify the situation. GS suggested IP Banking staff go out and visit the IP firms.

ML informed the group that payments into the ISA by BACS are taking a considerable length of time to be credited to the account. AP requested an example to enable her to look into the problem.

JC thanked everybody for attending and closed the meeting.

The date of the next meeting has been scheduled for 21^st April 2005 at 11.00am