Monika Lacey: Centrix Chief Operating Officer on the latest figures on consumer arrears and company liquidations

Positive signs when it comes to consumer arrears, but some businesses are still doing it tough. 

The latest Centrix data for June shows the number of people behind on payments is down on last year, for the fifth consecutive month in a row. 

At the same time company liquidations have risen 27% year-on-year. 

Chief Operating Officer Monika Lacey says that's partly due to increased enforcement, after a softer approach from credit providers during Covid. 

She says Inland Revenue is among those businesses which is now taking a normal approach again, and that's having an impact. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right, Let's have a look at the state of the
place with new data. The shows when it comes to
credit areas, things look stable, but a jump in the
company's going under. Apparently Monica Lacey is a COO Atcentrics
and as well as Monica Morning.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
To you, morning mate.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
I'm trying not to be too alarmist about this. The
heral's got an alarmist sort of headline, and I'm sort
of sick of alarmist headlines. It doesn't appear people in
mortgage areas, for example, has never been and doesn't appear
to be correct me if I'm wrong to be that bad.
It's one point something percent, which means ninety eight points something.
Pento doing fine. Is that fair or not?

Speaker 2 (00:33):
That's totally fair. Look, I think that's the headline number
definitely portrayed in that way can look quite bad. But
when you take the context of the situation, we're actually
seeing areas rates for the fifth consecutive months in a
row below last year's levels, which is a really positive sign,
and I think that definitely makes a trend. So I
think that's really important to take into consideration. There's no

(00:56):
doubt that people are doing it tough out there, but
it's really a percentage of the population and things are
starting to get a little bit better.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
When we get to this credit demand thing, I'm always
it's up nine percent business credit demand that is, is
that people wanting money because they're aballish and they want
to expand, or is it people in trouble who need
some cash.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
It's probably a combination, to be honest, people might be
shopping around for better rates if there's difficulty and cashlozed situation,
So it's not just one thing that's made up of
lots of different contonents.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Liquidations up to twenty seven percent. Is this the last
cab off the rank? In other words, the IIDs toughening up,
they're going through their funding some people that weren't fluid anyway,
and they're tidying matters up, or are things a bit
ugly there.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
It's definitely a lag effect, and I think if you
cast your mind back to COVID, most credit providers really
altered their collections treatment for many customers, whether you're a
bank or a power company, things got a little bit
softer over that period. So I think it is just
a continuation of a bit of a tidy up of
all of their historic debt that's sitting there.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
How would you describe the state of the economy as
you see it? This morning?

Speaker 2 (02:08):
I heard someone on your show actually recently describe the
economy as we're bouncing along the bottom, and I think
that's a really apt way to describe it. It just
feels like we can't quite hid a lea gap. So
I'd like to hope that as we come into spring,
and you know, we're really relying on consumer sentiment to
try and drive things, So hopefully with lower infrastrates out

(02:28):
the air and a bit more positivity, one might start
to see some changes.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Let us hope. So, Monica, nice to talk to you.
Go well, Monca Laty, who's the chief operating officer at Centrix?
It is it's the psychological, doesn't it. I keep saying
it on this program. I mean that it's there. But
this SURVIVEDAL twenty five thing is not quite as real
as we thought it would. But they keep relying. My
question is this and this is as political as much
as anything as And I'm thinking July they got to

(02:54):
cut the Reserve Bank twenty five points. I'm thinking August
they got to cut twenty five points. But if they
don't own't then what And if we're relying on the
cheaper money from the banks and we don't spend because
we're too busy paying the insurance bill and the rates
and the power, then what

Speaker 2 (03:12):
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