Pim Rank: Quality of Debt Collection Services Act – quality knows no time!

September 17, 2025

_{This column was originally written in Dutch. This is an English translation.}

The Quality of Debt Collection Services Act (Wki) aims to regulate extrajudicial debt collection activities in order to combat malpractice in the collection of claims. However, an exception for certain structured finance structures would be appropriate.

By Prof. Pim Rank, Solicitor at NautaDutilh in Amsterdam and Professor of Financial Law at Leiden University

From 1 April 2025, parties that carry out extrajudicial debt collection activities on a professional or commercial basis (either on behalf of a third party or after transfer of the claim) aimed at a natural person residing in the Netherlands must register with the Dutch screening authority Justis. Extrajudicial debt collection activities include all activities aimed at obtaining satisfaction outside of court of a claim for payment of a sum of money. These activities include sending reminders, arranging payment plans and receiving payments.

Registration is mandatory if the collection activities constitute an independently identifiable part of the activities of the party in question and do not serve solely to support the main activities of that party. Furthermore, the collection of the claim must have been outsourced to that party because the creditor has given that party a power of attorney or an instruction to collect, or has transferred the claim to that party. Collection of the claim by the (original) creditor falls outside the scope of the Wki. This concerns claims against natural persons. These are not only consumers, but also private individuals acting in the course of a profession or business.

In my opinion, the most important provision of the new law is the prohibition on performing collection activities within the meaning of the law without the mandatory registration. From 1 October 2026, this will also have serious civil law consequences. For example, a debtor may refuse to pay an unregistered debt collection service provider, even if the latter is authorised to collect debts under civil law. Statutory interest will also cease to accrue once the debtor has received a payment request from an unregistered debt collection service provider, and extrajudicial collection costs may no longer be charged.

The Wki also has consequences for financing practices. If claims in the context of a securitisation or a covered bond transaction have been transferred to a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) and are collected by this SPV, the Wki will apply to this SPV. The same applies if claims in the context of factoring have been transferred to a factoring company and are collected by this factoring company. After all, the activities of the SPV and the factoring company consist primarily of performing extrajudicial collection activities. It is unclear what the situation is if, in the case of a securitisation or a covered bond transaction, the originator remains responsible for collecting the claims after their (silent) transfer to the SPV. This is the most commonly used construction in structured finance practice. It could be argued that the originator must then register as a debt collection service provider. On the other hand, performing extrajudicial debt collection activities is only a secondary activity for the originator. Registration also seems unnecessary to me because the claim is materially the originator's own claim and undesirable because the originator would then have to inform the debtors about the silent transfer. Perhaps the legislator could create an exception for these structures.

More columns by Pim Rank