A creditor must apply due diligence when communicating with a retail consumer before seeking recourse in competent judicial authorities, while observing the following: | |
| 1.1 | Authenticated means of communication that a creditor has the right to use when communicating with a consumer or their guarantor are limited to: |
| | - | E-mail. | |
| | - | Registered mail. | |
| | - | National address. | |
| | - | SMS messages. | |
| | - | Phone calls. | |
| 1.2 | The communication message must include at minimum: |
| | - | The creditor’s name and the department concerned with the collection of defaulted payments. | |
| | - | The contact number of the concerned department and/or the third party. | |
| | - | Working hours of the concerned department and/or the third party. | |
| | - | Name of the employee, the creditor and/or the third party if a consumer is contacted through a phone call. | |
| 1.3 | A creditor must commit to the following: |
| | - | The number of attempts to contact a consumer through their phone number must not exceed ten attempts’ within a period of 30 days, and the retail consumer should have the ability to call back the same number used as used by the creditor in attempting to reach them. | |
| | - | All phone calls received from or made to a retail consumer must be documented and records thereof should be maintained for no less than ten years from the date of the phone call. A retail consumer must be notified at the beginning of the phone call that it is recorded. | |
| | - | A retail consumer should be able to rate their satisfaction at the end of the phone call (incoming and outgoing), which must also be documented electronically. | |
| | - | There must be standards in place to ensure that employees provide consumers with correct information with the utmost professionalism regarding their current default status and the legal actions to which a creditor is entitled to pursue. | |
| | - | A retail consumer must not be provided with inaccurate or illegal information regarding the consequences of default. | |
| | - | A retail consumer must not be reached through envelopes with phrases indicating that the content is information on debt collection or similar | |
| | - | A retail consumer’s financial and personal information should be protected, kept confidential, and not be used except for specific professional and legal purposes with the prior consent of the retail consumer. In addition, communication should not be made with any person other than the retail consumer or their guarantor, and in the case of phones calls, the identity of the person answering must be verified. | |
| 1.4 | In the event that a retail consumer objects to the due amount of payment, a creditor shall: |
| | - | Document such objection. | |
| | - | Submit a complaint of the retail consumer as per SAMA’s instruction in this regard. | |
| | - | Provide the retail consumer with the estimated period for resolution of their complaint, provided that it does not exceed the statutory period set for resolution of complaints. | |
| | - | Not communicate with the retail consumer to remind them of defaulted payments until the complaint has been resolved. | |
| | - | Advise the retail consumer of the escalation mechanism in place and direct them to the relevant entity in the case of dissatisfaction with the result of resolution and desire to escalate the complaint. | |
| | - | Develop a policy for the analysis of complaints and objections, along with their patterns, to address their root causes. The department concerned with the resolution of complaints shall document such reports and measure their efficiency in resolving the root causes of frequent complaints. | |
| | - | Develop work procedures with relevant departments that cover service level agreements and escalation mechanisms to ensure that retail consumers’ objections and complaints are resolved within the statutory period, provided that the mechanism is documented electronically and the departments’ level of compliance with such mechanism is measured. | |
| 1.5 | The department concerned with debt collection and communication and/or the third party must be subject to review and audit by both the internal audit and the compliance departments at the bank or finance company on an ongoing basis in order to ensure the soundness of procedures followed and their conformity with these Regulations and the relevant instructions. |