In today’s episode, we’re looking at new findings suggesting that major economic shocks may have had less impact on debt collections than many expected.

What Intrum Found

Credit management firm Intrum analysed portfolios of defaulted debt from 2016 to 2025 and found that average collections on established paying portfolios did not significantly deteriorate during either the Covid-19 pandemic or the cost-of-living crisis. Instead, repayment behaviour appeared to be driven more by portfolio ageing and past performance than by short-term macroeconomic disruption.

Why This Matters

That is an important finding for anyone working in collections, recoveries, credit control, or debt purchase.

The findings suggest collections curves tend to revert to expected depletion trends over time. Intrum also found that du ...