Credit, collections & insolvency news
The Money Advice Service (MAS) has announced that the Standard Financial Statement (SFS will) begin operation on 1st March 2017. The Money Advice Service also thanked the many advice agencies, creditors, trade bodies and others involved in its development, including Money Advice Liaison Group (MALG) members who were part of the governance group.
The first advice providers will begin using the new SFS format on 1st March and until April 2018, a transition period will be in operation while the rest of the sector make their switch to SFS. During this time, the SFS will be in operation alongside Common Financial Statement (CFS), the StepChange method and other current statement formats.
Registration to become a SFS user is now live on the SFS website. Any organisation planning to use the SFS must complete the online application which will also include agreeing to a Code of Conduct outlining best practice usage of the SFS.
While creditors will not be required to apply to use SFS simply to receive statements from the advice sector, it will be required to access the spending guidelines and for those intending to use the format in their own collections processes.
Further information can be found on the sfs.moneyadviceservice.org.uk website
