eSchKG: Debt Enforcement Without Piles of Paper
If the payment morale of debtors is not up to scratch, the debt enforcement procedure is often the only and last chance to get to your money. However, traditional debt enforcement in paper form can quickly become a costly nuisance, especially if multiple procedures have been launched, for example, by health insurance or debt collection companies against a debtor. eSchKG comes as a remedy here.
What Is eSchKG?
In 2005 the Federal Office of Justice decided to start with upgrading Switzerland’s debt enforcement and bankruptcy system. For this purpose, a project called eSchKG was launched, which was meant to handle the information flow between debtors, creditors and debt enforcement agencies. Between 2008 and 2011 increasingly more debt enforcement agencies introduced eSchKG on a voluntary basis. On 1 January 2011, when the Swiss Civil Procedure Code came into force, article 33a was added to the Federal Debt Enforcement and Bankruptcy Act (SchKG), which made it possible for debt enforcement and bankruptcy agencies throughout Switzerland to be contacted electronically, so that eSchKG became a standard. As at 1 January 2018 the eSchKG network consisted of 414 debt enforcement agencies and 181 private creditors, with other 195 private creditors being soon to join it. And its use has been becoming increasingly more popular: While in 2015 still only 714,315 debt enforcement procedures were processed via eSchKG, in 2017 it was already 1,257,901 out of 2,938,650.
What Are the Advantages of eSchKG?
With eSchKG, simple routine tasks can be automated; for instance, you do not have to retype debt enforcement details anymore because they are already available in electronic form, which makes it possible to increase considerably the efficiency. Thus, debt enforcement requests, incoming check results, duplicates of debt enforcement requests, resumption requests, proceeds of sale, progress inquiries, payment notifications and debt enforcement information can be exchanged in the latest release of eSchKG without using paper. Especially creditors who launch many debt enforcement procedures, such as health insurance companies or tax authorities, benefit greatly from eSchKG, as they can file debt enforcement requests with the relevant agencies directly from their internal IT systems. To join the eSchKG network, however, participants have to meet the stringent software and data standard requirements imposed by the Federal Office of Justice. In addition, they must pay the acquisition cost of the software and a one-time fee. The debt enforcement cost proper remains the same, but no postage is incurred.
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