User Group Minutes 11th April 2002

IP Banking User Group Meeting
11 April 2002

At 10.30am on Thursday 11th April 2002, 3rd Floor Conference room, Insolvency Service Headquarters, Ladywood House, 45/46 Stephenson Street, Birmingham

In attendance:

Jim Curtois

Eddie Doherty

Ron Heppenstall

Gary McDonnell

Hedley Brunt

Alyson Williams

Angela Hodgson

Christine Collins

Nigel Mallett

Dawn Palmer

Graham Spalding

Sheila Bowles

Gareth Limb

David Watchorn

David Kerr

Michael ODonnell

Representing:

CAU

Baker Tilly

KPMG

PricewaterhouseCoopers

Numerica

Smith & Williamson

Deloitte & Touche

Grant Thornton

ACCA

Elwell Watchorn & Saxton

ICAEW

Pannell Kerr Forster

1. Introduction and apologies

Eddie Doherty welcomed everybody to the meeting and introduced some new members:

David Watchorn who is a partner with Elwell Watchorn & Saxton and is representing IPs authorised by ACCA. David replaces Tony Mitchell who had recently resigned from the group;

Gareth Limb who is a monitor for ACCA;

David Kerr who is a Senior Compliance Officer for the ICAEW;

Michael ODonnell who is a Senior Manager from Pannell Kerr Forster.

Eddie also introduced Simon Moss, Deputy head of IT for the Insolvency Service (IS), Mike McGuigan, a consultant for IBM and Margaret Burke from IT development for IS, who will be giving a presentation on the on-line services envisaged under the new computer system.

Apologies received

Claire Davies of PWC

Kevin Doughty of Deloitte & Touche

2. Matters arising from previous meeting

a) Signing panels for applications for payments out of the Insolvency Services Account

Following a question raised at a previous meeting as to whether an IP could have a signing panel of senior staff to sign requisitions for payments out of the Insolvency Services Account (ISA), it was agreed that this was impracticable as the relevant legislation states that the application has to be made by the trustee or liquidator.

b) On-line access to BANCS

Eddie advised the meeting that the on-line access facility had again met with delays. All the necessary work and testing has been completed but unfortunately the web host provider had withdrawn their services. Following lengthy negotiations BT has agreed to host the service but are experiencing difficulties with the security implications and are currently involved in negotiations with Insolvency Service management.

3. Performance

Ron advised the meeting that the key transactions volume figures could be found in their folders. He outlined the continued increase in the numbers of receipts and payment requests, although overall aggregate volumes had seen a levelling off with only a 1% increase over the previous year. However, this was still a 89% increase on 10 years ago.

4. BACS

Eddie advised that the number of requests for BACS payments continues to increase and The Service continues to look at ways to encourage greater use of this facility. No further news had been forthcoming from the Inland Revenue regarding their request for BACS payments following the setting up of their new centralised system (see minutes of previous meeting) and Eddie agreed to contact them for an update. The possibility of making payments to individual creditors by BACS was discussed. However, the group agreed that it would be impracticable due to the possibility of incorrect or out of date bank account details. In addition, Eddie stated, there is a limit to the number of incorrect account details BACS Ltd will accept before withdrawing the facility.

Alyson Williams asked if CAU intended to introduce a BACS requisition form to cover cases where more than one BACS payment was being requested from the same estate. Eddie said that this should not be a problem and CAU would look at producing a suitable form.

ACTION: CAU

5. Security

Ron advised the meeting that included in their folders were photocopies of four ISA cheques which had been fraudulently altered since the last meeting. All of these cheques had been confirmed as having reached the IPs offices and forwarded to creditors. Once again no funds had been lost due to the vigilance of the staff at the Bank of England clearing centre. Members of the group asked if any investigations had been made into these attempted frauds. Ron reiterated that CAUs obligation ceased once the cheque had reached the IPs office but that the IP should report the matter to the p
olice, if only for their records. It was unlikely they would spend resources investigating where no funds had been lost.

David Kerr asked that the RPBs be kept informed of such instances in the future so that they can monitor the procedures in place in IPs offices to reduce the chance of fraud.

ACTION: CAU

6. Insolvency Service Internet site

Eddie informed the meeting that the front page of the web site has been amended to make it easier to access CAUs pages.

Jim advised that he intended to make available on the site, for access by the public, a list of approved tracing agents of creditors of unclaimed dividends, together with their respective commission rates.

7. On-line services

The Service, as part of its “ReFit Project” is currently working on the requirements for a replacement financial system for BANCS and LOLA, including the provision of on-line services for IPs. Mike McGuigan and Simon Moss gave a presentation* on what on-line services are being considered. The services to be made available were well received and ways of involving the group in further development was discussed. This would include input through an Internet information site and testing released software. As development work progresses details will be posted on the web and IPs informed.

*The ‘Power Point’ presentation is available for download HERE

8. Date of next meeting

Eddie thanked everyone for their input. The next meeting is scheduled for 10.30am on Wednesday October 9 2002 @ The Insolvency Headquarters in Birmingham.