Credit company Afab next in trouble

Thursday 22 October 2009

Credit company Afab has trouble meeting its financial obligations and is in talks with a consortium of six banks in an effort to get its finances back in order, the Telegraaf reports on Thursday.

Privately-owned Afab has debts of between €180m and €190m, the paper says.

The company has begun a sweeping revamp of its operations which may involve cutting 200 out of 600 jobs, two members of Afab's supervisory board are quoted as saying.

Clients

All client files are being reassessed to make sure customers have been sold products which meet their needs and which they can afford. 'If that is not the case, customers will be approached to come up with a solution,' the paper quoted the company as saying.

Afab has come under fire in the past for charging too-high agency fees on its single premium insurance policies (koopsompolis), the same problem which helped bring down DSB bank earlier this week.

The companys says it has changed its fee structure and agents earn a fixed salary and bonus based on the quality of the advice they issue.

Pressure

In tv programme Nova on Wednesday night, a number of Afab agents said they had been presured to sell products with high fees.

Maasbert Schouten (36), founder of credit provider Afab, topped the Quote magazine list of young millionaires with a fortune of €334m in 2008.

Afab is sponsor of Arnhem's premier division football club Vitesse.

© DutchNews.nl

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