• Members must maintain accurate, up to date client records that detail all client payments and written and oral contact with clients and their creditors.

• Clients‚Äô monies must not be accepted, whether post-dated or otherwise, before clients have received and acknowledged in writing the written terms of business.

• Members must demonstrate, by annual audit certificates from a chartered accountant, that client monies are held in a separate “ring fenced” bank account that would not be at risk in the event of a member ceasing to trade, and is not usable by the member for the purposes of its own business. Any interest earned on the account should accrue to the benefit of the client, not the company.

• Members must pay clients‚Äô monies to creditors within five working days of clearance.

• If clients withdraw from debt management programmes, members must refund any monies held for disbursement paid by the clients, excluding any reasonable administration fees, where these have not yet been distributed.

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