Version Number

1.2

Edited By

Sarah Mathias

Date of changes to specification

22/02/2010

Field Number

Change

Page Number/Actions required

Header Records

Supplier reference numbers (SRN) – these numbers are to be managed by the CPA in future and only numbers issued by the CPA will be deemed valid.  All requests for new SRN’s are to be submitted to the CPA. These numbers will then be issued and circulated to the member and all member credit bureaux.  Should a file be submitted with an incorrect SRN the member bureaux is to report this to both the member and the CPA.  Permission to change the SRN must be obtained from either the member or the CPA since the Header record information on any file is classified as financial data.  The CPA will then ensure that the member corrects their file submission in future.

For queries on SRN’s members will need to contact their CPA portfolio manager, an exercise will be undertaken shortly to ensure that all SRN’s in use are valid.  It should be noted that the SRN’s will be used for the transfer of data through the Hub hence the requirement for the changes if required.

The format of both the month end date and the date the file was created has been changed from Alpha-Numeric to Numeric fields. This should not require any actions for the members as these fields are already in a numeric format when submitted by the members.

The information submitted in the header record is to be treated in the same way as any other financial information and may therefore not be changed by any of the member bureaux unless a request has been submitted to the CPA and/or the CPA member and consent has been provided.

Records that don’t meet minimum NCA Requirements

Any records that don’t meet the minimum data requirements as set out in the NCA will only be accepted for loading if the account was opened before the 01/09/2006.  In addition the record was to have been accepted and loaded prior to the implementation date above.

6  –  Branch code

Rules for the population of branch codes and sub-account numbers

·         Branch codes and/or sub-account numbers should only be submitted by members if they are required to create a unique number within the supplier’s debtor’s book.  If the fields are not required then the fields should be space filled.

·         Fields 6 to 8 must be right aligned and should only contain alpha characters A – Z or numeric characters 0 to 9.

·         No preceding zeros should be added to any of these numbers either unless these zeros are part of the account number strings as stored by the members systems.

·         It should be noted that the bureaux use the fields listed below in combination for matching purposes and these fields should always be submitted in exactly the same way every month.  Any changes to this string should be dealt with by members using the applicable fields for account number conversions in the L700 – fields 42 to 45, failure to do so could result in the loading of duplicate records by the bureaux.

a.     Supplier reference number – this will be submitted in the header record of every file

b.     Branch code – Field 6

c.     Account number – Field 7

d.     Sub-Account number – Field 8

·         Changes to any of these fields i.e. supplier ref number, branch code, account number and sub-account number must be communicated to all member bureaux and the CPA prior to the change taking place for effective change management. The change should be communicated well in advance of the change and it is advisable that members include the bureaux and CPA in the planning stages of the change.  

·         Should the branch code or sub-account number be populated with zero’s or any variation of zero’s the bureaux will not reject the record as has been previously done, instead these zero’s will be replaced with spaces.

7 – Account Number

Account number conversions can be split into two different processes

·         Account number conversions where only part of a file is converted, typically this would be when a branch has been closed and all records still open are transferred to a new branch.  This conversion should take place seamlessly provided the Member has populated the fields specifically included in the L700 for this purpose. The account conversion fields should only be populated once in the month that the conversion occurred thereafter the fields would not be populated unless an additional conversion is required.

·         Account number conversions that are required to all accounts on a file regardless of the status of the record i.e. open or closed and where the records may not all be submitted on the members monthly file.

Should any account number conversions take place the following actions are required by the member

a.     Both the CPA and the Credit Bureaux are to be notified of the change in advance

b.     If necessary a planning meeting should be held in advance to allow for sufficient planning if required by the bureaux.

c.     If these changes cannot be made using the L700 format another file layout containing the required fields should be agreed with the Member, Bureaux and the CPA before the conversion takes place on the member’s book.

d.     Where possible all pp history should be moved with the performing accounts and the account open dates should also be moved with the pp history, if the data is being migrated to a new system.

e.     The Opening Balance should also remain as it was initially for instalment type accounts.

8 – Sub-account  Number

The rules and procedures for branch codes should be used for sub-account numbers as well.

9 - Surname

“Y” should be accepted as a vowel for surnames

10 – Title

Judge has been added as a valid title

25 – Ownership type

Records submitted with a value of “01” in this field will no longer be rejected if the Employer detail is not submitted in Field 49.  A warning should be recorded on the load and validation report that is returned by the Bureaux to the members.

27 – Payment type

Matrix has been supplied for prioritisation of Payment Type

Changes to Description of Payment Types (field 27)

1.     06 – Debt under restructure, this can be used going forward as wording “for future use” has been removed.

2.     07 – Staff over indebted voluntary consolidation – the description has been changed to “voluntary debt consolidation” to be used by all CPA members when opening a consolidation loan for all consumers not just staff members. 

3.     02 – Deferred payment, when this value is submitted as “02” then field 30 must contain a deferred payment date.  If the account can be categorised as a normal instalment account after the first payment has been made then this field should be changed to another appropriate type either ‘00’, ‘01’ or ‘03’.  If the account will have a new deferred payment date then the new expected payment date should be submitted with the record.

If an account can be categorised into two or more payment types, the priority rating tabulated above will indicate which payment type should be used for the submission of data.

28 – Type of Account

Changes to description of account types

1.     C – Credit Card Account (Banks only) – wording (Banks only) has been removed.

2.     N – Loan Against Policy, this has been changed to “Secured Pension/Policy Backed Lending” and all members granting these facilities should now submit pp data for these accounts.

3.     O - This account type is restricted for use by members who provide facilities which are described as “limitless” but which are repayable in full at the end of a specified period. Use of this account type is administered by the CPA in future and permission to use this account type should be sought from the CPA. 

4.     S – Student loans should be submitted in the future and the records should be treated in the same way as personal loans.

5.     V - No submission of overdraft data will be accepted at this stage as the rules for the submission have not been agreed.

* Account types have been removed from the body of the specification and can now be found in “Table C”

31 – Date of last payment

Dormant accounts reactivated for record’s using an account type of C, E, H, I, J, P & R a process is to be implemented that will enable the loading of these records by the Bureaux. This will require a change from the Members to their monthly pp submissions.  It is advisable to re evaluate a consumer’s affordability when reactivating dormant accounts.

Dormant recordsthat have been reactivated by a consumer are currently being rejected when added to the CPA files by Members, as the dates of last payment are older than 36 months.  In order to ensure that these records are not rejected in future, members need to set the dates of last payment on these records to null values i.e. space filled.  Changing this field should ensure that the record is accepted in terms of the rejection and validation routines.  This applies to the following account types C, E, H, I, J, P & R only.

32 – Opening Balance / Credit Limit

1. Account types C,R,G,E,B and J

The opening balance/credit limit may be supplied as zero for these account types in  the following circumstances

a.   Where the account has been closed with a positive status code at the request of the consumer. 

b.   Where an account has gone into arrears/misconduct has occurred and the credit limit has been set to zero to prevent further purchases.

The opening balance/credit limit for account type “F” should always be set to Zero. 

Field 33 – Current Balance

Current Balance > 0 but no instalment has been submitted – Where this is submitted by a member the bureaux will reject the record.

Exceptions to this rule are as follows

1.     For account type “R” The current balance is R50 or less, since the cost of generating an invoice is normally higher than the amount that a consumer will be required to pay on the account.

2.     Account types “F” and “O”

Previously the L700 rule was that the current balance and instalment amount should equal one another for these two account types. This has been amended and a credit current balance will be accepted provided the record is submitted with a status code of “P”.  A current balance submitted as a zero will be accepted provided the record is submitted with a status code of “P” or “C”.

Field 34 – Current Bal Indicator

Current balance indicator

The previous layout had contradicting rules around this field, the rule has been changed and should be read as follows:

1. If the current balance is in credit then this indicator should be a “C”

2. In all other instances i.e. (debit or zero balances) the current balance indicator must be submitted as a “D"

Field 36 – Instalment Amount

The following wording originally included in the format 700 referred to the following:

“Instalments that are paid in advance should be submitted with a 0 Months in arrears and reflect the next instalment due”

This is incorrect and should read as follows

“The instalment amount should be supplied as the amount that was requested from the consumer and not the contractual instalment amount due”.

This is because of the fact that this amount may not include insurance charges or may not be the actual amount to be paid for the month, especially in the last month of the contract.

This amount should not be supplied as zero should the consumer pay the amount before the due date of the payment, instead the record should be populated with the instalment amount that was due.

Field 38 – Status Code

Changes to process rules for status codes

1.     Records with invalid status codes will be rejected

2.     Records that have been closed using status code “C”, “P”, “G”, H”, “T”, “V”, “F”, “K” and “M” must be supplied with the current, overdue and instalment balances and the months in arrears be set to zero. There is one exception to these rules which applies to those accounts submitted with a status code of “P” since these records can be submitted with a current balance in credit, this would indicated by the current balance indicator field 34 being submitted as a “C”.

3.     Accounts closed with a status code of C can only be re-opened under the following circumstances

Ø  If the account was closed in error or

Ø  Where a payment has been returned or late transactions are received.

4.     In instances, where an account is allocated to a consumer for life a status code of “P” should be used to indicate the closure of the account. The member is also to ensure the date of last payment should be set to zero’s if the account is older than 3 years when a reactivation takes place. The account open date should not be changed in these instances.

5.     Status code G – wording has been changed and client has been replaced by consumer.

6.     Status code K – Paid out deceased claim, this should only be supplied if the claim has been paid out on the death of the principal holder of the policy, the account should then be considered as a closed account.

7.     Status code I – this status code will no longer be displayed as a Public Domain Adverse. The CPA constitution requires that members should have sustained a loss before loading adverse codes. 

8.     Status code J – This code is to be used by members to reflect an action pertaining to the repossession of an asset.    

9.     Status code T – this code can now be used with account types N & J in addition to those already in effect.

10.   Status code E – in the previous version of L700 if a payment type of “06” was submitted by the CPA Member then a status code of E was mandatory, this led to status code “E” being repeated which is not permitted in terms of the L700 rules for status codes, as only P & D can be repeated. The revised rule allows for the submission of status code E just once in the month that the payment type is changed to “06”.

11.   No negativity should be inferred from the use of codes G,K, or S in isolation (status code of N has been removed)

Field 39 – Repayment Frequency

Will always be defaulted to “03” if not supplied.

Field 40 – Terms

Wording to be added “terms are to be amended in the month a status code of E is supplied.” 

Format changed from “Alpha numeric ’ in L500 to ‘Numeric’ in L700

Field 55 – No of Participants in Joint Loan

Add wording- “if number of participants supplied” does not match the number of records received on the pp file, then this will be reported by the bureaux as a warning on the load and validation reports submitted to members.

This is to ensure that for example where a joint home loan exists, and there are two participants in the home loan, two records are supplied and not only one for the primary bondholder.  The record should also be submitted with all financial fields set to the same values – since participants are jointly and severally liable for these accounts should there be a default of any kind by one or more participants.

This should be monitored to ensure that changes have been effected going forward.

Changes to Process Rules

1.     Data Submissions

I.        Branch codes – When a branch code is not required to ensure that an account is unique then the field should be space filled and not zero filled.

II.        Numeric fields must be right aligned unless stipulated otherwise in the specification, and if no input data is available must be zero filled unless stipulated otherwise in the specification.

III.        Alpha Numeric fields must be left aligned unless stipulated otherwise, and if no input data is available must be left blank i.e. space filled.

IV.        Account number field is the exception to the above rules and is an alpha numeric field which should be right aligned

V.        Records of known impersonation fraud must be removed from the consumers profile at all bureaux by CPA Members through the manual updates process and these records should be excluded from any future pp data submissions.  If the records are not removed from the files then there is an elevated risk of the incorrect information being reloaded.

VI.        Data is to be submitted by all suppliers monthly to each bureau in an electronic fixed length text file, files must contain an “end of line marker’ followed by a “carriage return line feed” and should be submitted in an ASCII format

2.     NCA Rules – additional rule has been added

Change “sources” to “suppliers” in first sentence

3.     Data Fields

The account open date for collections records should be the date that the debt was purchased and submitted only if the record has not already been submitted by a CPA member previously.

4.     Status Codes

Add “R” and “N” to codes no longer in use.
Records submitted with the following codes R,A,B,Q,U and N will be rejected

5.     Months in arrears for CPA members

Months in arrears are to be calculated using the date of last payment and the overdue balance. Months in arrears should not be calculated by simply dividing the instalment amount into the overdue balance field.  This is especially critical in the case of a monthly loans as it results in the loan never being aged past 01 months in arrears.

6.     New accounts with a credit limit but no current balance or instalment amount (i.e. account types R, C, H, E, and J) should be submitted and accepted in all instances, as these are accounts that may not have been utilised by the consumer as yet but may be activated at any point.  The record will thus not reflect a date of last payment at this point.

1.     Opening balance – this should always be supplied as zero.

2.     Current balance – this would be supplied as the current months usage plus any arrears amounts from previous months. If the account is in credit then the credit amount should be submitted with a balance indicator of “C” and the account should be accompanied by a status code of “P”.

3.     It should be noted that if an account appears to have a current balance and instalment amount of 0 the member needs to check that no payment has been made earlier in the month before submitting the records with the current balance and instalment amount set to “0” if this is the case then the current balance and instalment amount fields should be supplied as the amount paid by the consumer for the applicable period.

4.     It should be noted that in some instances the current balance may not equal the instalment amount if an account has a credit current balance. If an account has a credit current balance or the amounts in all fields are supplied as zero and the account is not closed a status code of “P” should be submitted with the applicable date.

5.     Overdue balance – to be populated with the arrears amount only. If there is no arrears balance the amount should be supplied as zero.

6.     Instalment amount – would be supplied equal to the current balance unless the current balance was in credit. This amount would be equal to the current month’s usage plus any overdue amounts as supplied in the overdue balance field.

7.     The current account balance indicator should be set to “C” if the account is in credit.

8.     If the current balance is set to zero or a debit balance this indicator should be set to “D”

9.     If an account has been submitted with the current balance and instalment amount set to zero then it is mandatory to submit the record with a status code, P or C should be utilised depending on the account status.  If these records are submitted without status codes then the record will be rejected by the bureaux. 

10.   Status code “P” can be utilised for this account type when the current balance is in credit, although the bureaux may display the current balance as zero if the balance is in credit. The credit amount will however be loaded and stored by the bureaux.

11.   There should be no months in arrears submitted for records that have a current balance indicator of “C” or a status code of “P” or “C”.

FIELD

POSITION

FORMAT

A = Alpha

N = Numeric

MANDATORY

COMMENTS

ADDITIONAL BUSINESS RULES

HEADER

1 - 1

A1

Yes

To be denoted by “H”

SUPPLIER REFERENCE NUMBER

2 - 11

A10

Yes

CPA will manage this list in the future and numbers will be allocated by CPA, only numbers provided by the CPA will deemed valid.  Members should submit all future requests for SRN’s to the CPA.

This must be right aligned

MONTH END DATE

12 - 19

N8

Yes

Format CCYYMMDD

The date of the month to which the transactions apply

Month end date indicates what month the data represents and this month will determine the display at the Bureaux. The billing date is not necessarily a calendar month end date but rather the date of the CPA members billing cycle.

It is an “as at” date i.e. as at the 15^th of the month, 31^st of the month etc

Date cannot be in the future and the file will be rejected and returned to the member for correction should this be the case.

VERSION NUMBER

20 - 21

N2

Yes

To be denoted by version 05

Version of format 700

DATE FILE WAS CREATED

22 -29

N8

Yes

Format CCYYMMDD

The date on which file was created

Creation date cannot be in the future and can only be submitted as either the same date as the month end date or a date after that date.

TRADING NAME/BRAND NAME

30 - 89

A60

Yes

Trading name of the subsidiary entity.

FILLER

90 - 700

Spaces

No.

FIELD

DESCRIPTION

POSITION

FORMAT

A = Alpha

N = Numeric

MANDATORY

COMMENTS

ADDITIONAL BUSINESS RULES

1

DATA

1 -1

A1

Yes

To be denoted by ‘D’

2

SA ID NUMBER

2 - 14

N13

Yes

Mandatory, unless date of birth and Passport Number or other ID is supplied as per section 19 of the NCA regulations

Must pass Home Affairs algorithm – Refer Appendix A.

Gender to be validated against the SA ID.

Date of Birth to be validated against SA ID.

3

NON-SA ID NUMBER

15 - 30

A16

Conditional

Mandatory with date of birth if no SA ID number supplied.  Used for other ID, Passport No etc.

Where an SA ID number is unavailable the Consumer Passport Number or other ID number (Consumers Unique Identifier) and date of birth must be submitted as per section 19 of the NCA regulations.

4

GENDER

31 - 31

A1

No

‘M’ or ‘F’

“M” or “F” only.  If an SA ID is supplied the gender is to be validated against the SA ID.

5

DATE OF BIRTH

32 - 39

N8

Conditional

Format CCYYMMDD. Date of birth is mandatory if other ID or Passport Number is populated in Field 3 as per section 19 of the NCA regulations.

If SA ID Number is supplied, the first 6 digits of the ID Number can be used to validate the Date of Birth.

Date cannot be in the future

Minors (<18 yrs old) will be reported

6

BRANCH CODE

40 - 47

A8

No

To allow reporting by supplier at branch level.  This field needs to be supplied only if it is needed to make the account number unique within the Debtors Book.  If not needed to create a unique account number, this field should be space filled.  If this field has been zero filled then the bureau may remove the zero’s and space fill.

Right align all Account Numbers, Sub Account Number and Branch Codes –

DO NOT ZERO FILL

It is to be noted that the following combination is unique on the bureau’s database and thus must always be supplied in exactly the same format every month:

·         Supplier Reference Number

·         Branch Code

·         Account Number

·         Sub Account Number

If account number is currently split over account number and sub account number fields then move to account number field.

The account conversion fields must be populated for any change to existing account numbers that were previously sent to the Bureaus.

The only permissible characters to be submitted in these 3 fields are

-       A to Z

-       0 to 9

7

ACCOUNT NO.

48 - 72

A25

Yes

Customer Account Number

See field 6 rules above

8

SUB-ACCOUNT NO.

73 - 76

A4

Yes

Only required if Account Number and Branch Code combination is not sufficient to create a unique number within the debtors book.

All rules that apply to branch codes also apply to sub-account numbers. See field 6

9

SURNAME

77 - 101

A25

Yes

Must be consumer’s surname and must be supplied as per section 19 of the NCA regulations.

Only A – Z, apostrophe or hyphen.

Use of embedded spaces permitted for surnames such as “van der Merwe” or “van Rensburg”.

Company names are not allowed.

Surname must comprise of at least two characters of which one must be a vowel.  “Y” may be included as a vowel.

10

TITLE

102 - 106

A5

CODE

DESCRIPTION

See table for list of valid titles to be used, any invalid titles will be removed by the Bureaux.

ADV

CAPT

COL

DR

DS

JUDGE

KAPT

KOL

LADY

LT

LORD

MAJ

ME

MEJ

MEV

MISS

MNR

Advocate

Captain

Colonel

Doctor

Dominee

Judge

Kaptein

Kolonel

Lady

Lieutenant

Lord

Majoor//Major

MEJ/MEV

Mejufrou

Mevrou

Miss

Meneer

CODE

MR

MRS

MS

PAST

PROF

REV

SERS

SGT

SIR

DESCRIPTION

Mister

Mrs

Miss/Mrs

Pastoor

Professor

Reverend

Sersant

Sergeant

Sir

11

FORENAME OR INITIAL  1

107 -120

A14

Yes

Full Forename is preferred; at least one initial is mandatory as per section 19 of the NCA Regulations

As Above

Use one forename or Initial per field

Field 11 = Forename 1 or Initial 1

Field 12 = Forename 2 or Initial 2

Field 13 = Forename 3 or Initial 3

Only A – Z, apostrophe or hyphen.

Use of embedded spaces permitted for forenames such as “Sue Ann”

12

FORENAME OR INITIAL 2

121 - 134

A14

No

13

FORENAME OR INITITAL 3

135 - 148

A14

No

14

RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS LINE 1

149 - 173

A25

Conditional

Only physical address of account holder.

Split across 4 lines.  Refer Appendix B

15

RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS LINE 2

174 - 198

A25

Conditional

16

RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS LINE 3

199 - 223

A25

No

17

RESIDENTAIL ADDRESS LINE 4

224 - 248

A25

No

18

POSTAL CODE OF RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

249 - 254

A6

Conditional

Right aligned with no embedded zeros.

19

OWNER / TENANT

255 - 255

A1

No

‘O’ or “T’

“O’ or “T” only if neither then space

20

POSTAL ADDRESS LINE 1

256 - 280

A25

Conditional

Only postal address which may be the same as the residential address if residential postal deliveries are made.

Where res and postal is available send – section 19 act

Split across 4 lines.  Refer Appendix B.

21

POSTAL ADDRESS LINE 2

281 - 305

A25

Conditional

22

POSTAL ADDRESS LINE 3

306 - 330

A25

No

23

POSTAL ADDRESS LINE 4

331 - 355

A25

No

24

POSTAL CODE OF POSTAL ADDRESS

356 - 361

A6

Conditional

Right aligned with no embedded zeros.

25

OWNERSHIP TYPE

362 - 363

A2

Conditional

00 – Other

01 – Sole Prop

02 – Joint Loan

If not supplied, this field will be defaulted to “00” by the Bureaux.

01 – If ownership type 01 is supplied then the trading name must be supplied in Field 49 – Employer detail (T/A should not precede the company name)

The sole prop should not be defaulted to the account holder’s name or surname but if this has been done the record should still be accepted and loaded.

02 – If ownership type 02 is supplied then the financial and account information across all records pertaining to the account number fields supplied must be identical. If the payment type of 02 is submitted then Field 55 (Number of participants in Joint Loan) is mandatory. Records should not be rejected in this instance but the Bureaux should list a warning so that this file can be trended over a period of time if needed.

26

LOAN REASON CODE (FORMER END USE CODE NLR ACCOUNTS)

364 – 365

A2

Conditional

This field is mandatory for account typesJ and K, but will also be accepted if supplied for any other account types (refer to table B).

27

PAYMENT TYPE

366 – 367

A2

Conditional

00 – Other

01 – Payroll Deduction

02 – Deferred Payment

03 – Staff Account

04 – Under Administration

05 – Judgement Granted

06 – Debt under restructure

07 – Voluntary debt    consolidation

If not supplied this field will be defaulted to “00” by the Bureaux at time of load.

If type 02 – Deferred payment is supplied then field 30 (Deferred payment date) is mandatory at all times. 

Once an account with a single deferred payment date has been paid, the deferred payment date should be removed and the payment type (Field 27) changed to “00, 01 or 03”.

Please refer to Process Rules and Appendix C for the data submission rules around Deferred Payments and the process rules for the prioritisation matrix for the use of this payment type.

If payment Type 04, 05 or 06 is supplied then the data supplier needs to ensure that credible supporting evidence is available as per the NCA.

If payment type 06 is supplied then a status code of “E” must be supplied once in field 38 when the payment type is first sent as 06, thereafter members should continue to submit the payment type of “06” without the status code to reflect the restructure.  Should the credit provider decide to reinstate the account the payment type should be changed back to an appropriate type, one of the following types should be submitted “00, 01 or 03”.

28

TYPE OF ACCOUNT

368 – 369

A2

Yes

All applicable account types can be found in Table “C”

The Account Type must match the type of contract entered into between the CPA Member and the consumer.  The field is a two character field. It should be left aligned and padded with a space to the right.

29

DATE ACCOUNT OPENED

370 – 377

N8

Yes

Format CCYYMMDD

If the Date Account Opened is not supplied or is invalid i.e. a future date when compared to the Header date, the record will be rejected.

 (An allowance of 45 days is made between the month end date and the account open date before the record should be rejected ) 

30

DEFERRED PAYMENT DATE

378 – 385

N8

Conditional

Format CCYYMMDD

Deferred Payment Date must be in the future and is mandatory if a value of “02” is supplied in Field 28.

Date on which first payment is due, if payment is for a monthly account for which an initial deferment had been granted, then the deferred payment date is no longer required.

In this instance the payment type in Field 28 should be changed from what was previously supplied.

If payment isn’t monthly but a longer interval is granted for the deferred payment ie annual, biannual etc, then the next due date should be inserted in the deferred payment field.

Refer to the Process Rules and Appendix C for the data submission rules around Deferred Payments.

31

DATE ON WHICH LAST PAYMENT WAS RECEIVED

386 – 393

N8

Conditional

Format CCYYMMDD

Date of Last Payment cannot be prior to the date account opened, except in the first month of an instalment account where a deposit may have been taken before the account was opened

Date of Last Payment cannot be in the future when compared with the month end date submitted in the header.

Date of Last Payment or Status date must be within the data retention period of 36 months.

If a dormant account is reactivated then the date of last payment should be removed from the record before it is sent to the Bureaux to be loaded this will prevent the record being rejected because the date of last payment is older than 36 months.

32

OPENING BALANCE/CREDIT LIMIT

399 – 402

N9

Conditional

Whole Rands Only. Must never be negative

Account      For Opening Bal

Type    

B                  Credit Limit

C                 Credit Limit

D                  Opening Bal

E                  Credit Limit

F                   Leave Blank

G                 Credit Limit

H                 Opening Bal

I                  Opening Bal

J                   Credit Limit

K                  Opening Bal

L                  Leave Blank

N                 Opening Bal

O                 Leave Blank

P                 Opening  Bal

R                 Credit Limit

S                  Leave Blank

T                  Credit Limit

U                 Leave Blank

V                 Credit Limit

Record will be rejected if this value is not supplied for account types

D

H

I

K

N

P

T

This field may be supplied as zero for account types C,R,G,E,B & J in the following circumstances:

1. Where an account has been closed with a positive status code

2. Where an account has arrears or         misconduct has occurred and the limit has been set to zero to prevent further purchases.  (processing rules)

33

CURRENT BALANCE

403 - 411

N9

Yes

Whole Rands only.  If value is a credit balance then field 34 must be populated with a C.

If charges (interest, etc.) are included in balance overdue the Current Balance must also be increased to reflect these charges.

 If account is paid up or settled in full and the account is not in credit (i.e. status code = C, P, F, M, V, X, H, G, K, T, S) then the current balance value must be set to “0” and the current balance debit indicator must be set to a D. With the exception of Status code “P” as this code can be submitted with a credit current balance.  

If the account is in credit then field 34 (Current balance debit indicator) must have an indicator of C and the credit balance must be supplied in this field.

Credit balances must be reflected as whole Rands only e.g. 100 and not 100- or 100.99

34

CURRENT BALANCE INDICATOR

412 – 412

A1

Yes

D = Debit

C = Credit

If account has a credit balance then this field is supplied as a C

If account has a debit or 0 balance then this field must be set to a D

35

AMOUNT OVERDUE

413 – 421

N9

Conditional

Whole Rands only.  Will reflect the balance of cumulative missed payments

AKA Debit Arrears – Only debit balances to be supplied here. 

Field must be populated with an overdue balance if “Months in Arrears” field 37 is populated or status code field 38 is populated with “W”, ‘I’, “J” OR “L’.  If account is paid in full (i.e. status code = ‘C’, ‘P’, ‘F’,’M’, ‘V’, ‘X’, ‘H’, ‘G’, ‘K’, ‘T’, ‘S’), then value must be set to “0”. 

In the case of written-off accounts, the amount overdue field should reflect the amount actually written off.

Refer to appendix C

36

INSTALMENT AMOUNT

422 – 430

N9

Yes

Whole Rands only. 

For Revolving account submit instalment due. 

For Instalment account use regular instalment amount.

Refer to Appendix C.

Use total instalment due as per statement, this value must be greater than zero unless an account is paid up or settled in full (i.e. status code = ‘C’, ‘P’, ‘F’, ‘M’, ‘V’, ‘X’, ‘H’, ‘G’, ‘K’, ‘T’, ‘S’). Then value must be set to “0”. 

Instalment should only be greater than the current balance if there is a contractual agreement between the CPA member and the consumer which allows for such an anomaly.

Instalments may equal zero for revolving credit account types provided the current balance is less than R50.

The instalment is used for affordability assessment purposes by CPA members.

37

MONTHS IN ARREARS

431 – 432

N2

Conditional

Total number of months that the instalment is in arrears (displayed in months).

Refer to appendix c.

Accurate actual number of months to be supplied here, anything greater than 9 will be defaulted to 9 for display purposes only by the Bureaux.

When an accounts is not in arrears  – set to 00

If month in arrears field is populated with a value greater than zero, the amount overdue field must contain a value greater than zero.

Months in arrears cannot be greater than the number of months an account has been opened and will also be warned on by the Bureaux but not rejected

38

STATUS CODE

433 – 434

A2

Conditional

See list of status codes below and refer to Appendix C for an explanation on the use of these codes.

Status of account – only use codes in the Default Data & Repayment History Status Codes Table.

If Status code field is populated then Status Date field is mandatory.  Please refer to section 17.2 of the NCA regulations.

Must be left aligned as this is an Alpha Numeric field.

If invalid status code is received then the entire record will be rejected.

 Status dates should not be submitted if the status code field is blank.

39

REPAYMENT FREQUENCY

435 -436

N2

Conditional

01 – Weekly

02 – Fortnightly (every 2 weeks)

03 – Monthly

04 – Quarterly

05 – Bi-Annual (twice a year)

06 – Annual

Regardless of repayment frequency records must be submitted monthly. 

Contractual repayment period, if not supplied will be defaulted to monthly (“03”)

01 – Weekly balances should be rolled up as for monthly submission

02 – Fortnightly balances should be rolled up as for monthly submission

04 – Quarterly must populate deferred payment date

05 – Bi Annual must populate deferred payment date.

06 – Annual must populate deferred payment date.

Please refer to Appendix C – Deferred Payment examples

40

TERMS

437 - 440

N4

Conditional

Number of instalments relating to original contract, unless a status code of E is supplied in which case the new term should be supplied once for the month when the change occurred.

Repayment period must be greater than or equal to 1 for account types

I – Instalment

P – Personal Loan

H – Home Loan

B – Building Loan

T – Student Loan

K – Unsecured credit transaction under R8000 repayable within 6 months.

D – Debt recovery account

Zero fill for other account types.

41

STATUS DATE

441 - 448

N8

Yes, only if applicable

Format CCYYMMDD

If a status code has been populated in field 28 then this field becomes mandatory in terms of the NCA.  The converse is also true i.e. if a Status Date field is populated then Status Code field is mandatory.  Please refer to section 17.2 of the NCA regulations.

Any records containing status codes but no status dates will be rejected by the bureaux.  The member should be reported to the CPA who will then request the member to correct their submissions.

Status dates cannot be in the future.

42

OLD SUPPLIER BRANCH CODE

449 - 456

A8

Yes, only if applicable

Mandatory if changes are made to the account number, branch code, sub account or when a book is transferred from one supplier to another.

Fields 42 – 45 must be populated in full if an account conversion is taking place

The CPA and all 4 member bureaux are to be notified in advance when a member is planning to change any of this information. Fields 42-45 can only be supplied once in the month of change.  Failure to submit this information if an account conversion has taken place will result in duplicate records on the Bureaus.  Please refer to section 19.3 of the NCA Regulations

43

OLD ACCOUNT NUMBER

457 - 481

A25

Yes, only if applicable

44

OLD SUB-ACCOUNT NUMBER

482 -485

A4

Yes, only if applicable

45

OLD SUPPLIER REFERENCE NUMBER

486 - 495

A10

Yes, only if applicable

46

HOME TELEPHONE

496 - 511

A16

Conditional

Contact numbers should be supplied if the information is stored by the credit provider.  Please refer to section 19.2 (a) of the NCA regulations.

Right justify

Must not be zero (0) filled.

47

CELLULAR TELEPHONE

512 - 527

A16

Conditional

Right justify

Must not be zero (0) filled.

48

WORK TELEPHONE

528 -543

A16

Conditional

Right justify

Must not be zero (0) filled

49

EMPLOYER DETAIL

544 -603

A60

Optional

Name of the company that employs the account holder.  If trading as a Sole Prop then the name of the Sole Prop must be supplied.  Do not proceed with T/A.  This field must not be defaulted to the account holders name or surname

Only A – Z, 0-9, apostrophe or Hyphen allowed.

Must not be zero (0) filled.

50

INCOME

604 -612

N9

Optional

Gross income to be supplied in line with Income Frequency (field 51)

Bureau will mask Income information – only to be used for statistical analysis and NCR Compliance reporting.

51

INCOME FREQUENCY

613 - 613

A1

Conditional

M = Monthly

W = Weekly

F = Fortnight

Q = Quarterly

A = Annual

Mandatory if field 50 is populated

52

OCCUPATION

614 - 633

A20

Optional

Job Title.  Only A – Z, apostrophe or Hyphen allowed.

53

THIRD PARTY NAME

634 -693

A60

Optional

Used for accounts sold to a 3^rd party.  Field 53 is mandatory if Field 54 is populated and should contain the company name of the purchaser of the debt.  A status code should be supplied to close the account

·         Status code C to be supplied for current accounts that are sold that are not delinquent.

·         Status code J,L,W to be  submitted for delinquent accounts that are sold

54

ACCOUNT SOLD TO THIRD PARTY

694 -695

N2

Conditional

01  indicates  an Account has been  sold to 3^rd party

Field 54 is mandatory if Field 53 is populated.  Indicates debt sold to a third party.

55

NO OF PARTICIPANTS IN JOINT LOAN

696 -698

N3

Conditional

Mandatory if Ownership Type is”02” in Field 25. Bureaux to warn if this count is not the same as the number of records submitted for an account.

Number of participants in Joint Loan must equal the number of records supplied for the specified account num  If number of particip

56

FILLER

699 - 700

A2

Spaces

To be space filled.

Trailer

FIELD

POSITION

FORMAT

A= Alpha

N - Numeric

Mandatory

Comments

Additional Business rules

TRAILER

1 – 1

A1

Yes

To be Denoted by a T

NUMBER OF RECORDS SUPPLIED

2 – 10

N9

Yes

To include header and trailer records – number of records supplied must reflect the total number of records supplied.

FILLER

11 – 700

N/A

Yes

Spaces

CODE

DESCRIPTION

DEFINITION

PUBLIC DOMAIN

COMMENTS

A

Not in use

B

Not in use

C

Account Closed

Account fully paid and has been closed.  Account cannot be reopened

This status code can only be used for account types –

I, R, O, C, P, H, G, E, U, V, N, B, T, K, D, J, F

When an account is closed fields 33, 35, 36 & 37 must be submitted as zeros and   field number 41 must be populated accordingly.

1. Records that have been closed using status code “C” must be supplied with the current, overdue and instalment balances set to zero and can only be re-opened under the following circumstances

·         The account was closed in error

·         For banks where a payment was returned or late transactions are received.

D

Disputed

Payment Profile record will not be viewable until the status code is removed or changed.

The record should be kept up to date for the duration of the dispute.  Field number 41 must be populated accordingly

E

Terms Extended

Repayment terms have been extended.

Field number 41 must be populated accordingly.

F

Lapsed Policy

Client has allowed Insurance Policy to lapse due to non-payment

This status code can only be used for account types  S &L

When account is lapsed, fields 33, 35 & 36 must be zeros.

Field number 41 must be populated accordingly.

G

Cancelled by consumer

For use with Insurance Account types only S & L

When account is cancelled, fields 33, 35 & 36 must be set to zeros

Field number 41 must be populated accordingly.

H

Cancelled by Supplier

For use with Insurance Account types only S & L

When account is cancelled, fields 33, 35 & 36 must be set to zeros.

Field number 41 must be populated accordingly.

I

Credit Card Revoked

Credit Card Revoked

NO

This status code can only be used for account types C, G and O

This status code will NOT create a public domain adverse record.  Fields 33, 35 & 36 must be populated accordingly with the corresponding months in arrears (field 37)

Field number 41 must be populated accordingly.

J

Repossession

Goods have been repossessed due to non-payment

YES

This status code can only be used for account typesI andH

This status code will create a public domain adverse record.  Fields 33, 35 & 36 must be populated accordingly with the corresponding months in arrears (field 37).

Default will not be displayed in Public Domain if the overdue amount is less than R100.00

Field number 41 must be populated accordingly

K

Paid out Deceased Claim

Death Claim paid to Principal Policy Holder

This status code can only be used for account type “L”.  Field number 41 must be populated accordingly.

This code should only be supplied if the claim was paid to the principal policy holder, once the code has been supplied then the record should be removed from the submission.

L

Handed Over

Account handed over to attorney or collection agency for recovery

Fields 33, 35 & 36 must be populated accordingly with the corresponding months in arrears (field 37).

Field number 41 must be populated accordingly.

M

Paid out Disability

Paid out to Principal Policy Holder

This status code can only be used for account type “L”.

Field number 41 must be populated accordingly

N

Loan against Policy

Loan granted against outstanding value of Policy.

This status code can only be used for account type “L”.

Field number 41 must be populated accordingly.

O

Not in use

P

Paid Up

Account paid up but can become active again in the future.

This status code can only be used for account types –

R, C, P, H, G, E, V, N, B, T, J, D, I.

This status code may be repeated it should be noted that the status date should also be changed accordingly.

Field number 41 must be populated accordingly.

Q

Not in use

R

Not in use

S

Surrendered

Policy surrendered and premiums paid out.

This status code can only be used for account types “L”

T

Early Settlement

Loan settled early by Customer

This status code can only be used for account types – I, P, H, B, T, K, D & N When an account is settled early fields 33, 35 & 36 must be zeros, the opening balance should remain as supplied when the account was opened

Field number 41 must be populated accordingly.

U

Not in use

V

Cooling Off Settlement

Loan settled within 5 day cooling off period.

When an account is settled early,  fields 33, 35 & 36 must be zeros

Field number 41 must be populated accordingly.

W

Written Off

Account written off as a  bad debt due to non-payment

The amount written off at the time must be represented in the amount overdue and current balance field (Fields 33 and 35)

YES

This status code can be used for all account types except L & S.

This status code will create a public domain adverse record.

Fields 33, 35 & 36 must be populated accordingly with the corresponding months in arrears (field 37).

Default will not be displayed in public domain if the overdue amount is less than R100.00 at time of write-off.  Should the record have had a balance greater than R100 at time of write-off then the record should be loaded – any changes to balance etc can be sent to the Bureaux to update in the monthly file.

Field number 41 must be populated accordingly.

CODE

DESCRIPTION

DEFINITION

PUBLIC DOMAIN

COMMENTS

X

Paid up default

Account paid up subsequent to a Status Code of  J, I, L, or W

Account has been paid up subsequent to an adverse code being loaded – the codes that should be updated in this instance are J, I, L, W.

When an account is paid up and submitted with this status code then fields 33, 35 & 36 must be supplied as zeros.

Field number 41 must be populated accordingly.

When an account has previously been submitted with a status code of “J” or “W” then the record should be displayed in Public Domain with the updated status code, it should however be noted that the original status date should be utilised to determine the listing period of the adverse code – section 17 of the NCA regulations.

Records previously submitted with status codes of I & L should be displayed by the Bureaux within the closed user group.

Y

Not in use

Z

Deceased

Notification received that consumer is deceased

Field number 41 must be populated accordingly.

CODE

DESCRIPTION

DEFINITION

C

Crisis Loan

Loan granted to overcome client cash flow problems during unforeseen circumstances

H

Home Loans

New property acquisition or upgrades to existing property

S

Study Loan

Loan to fund formal studies at a recognised institution

F

Other Asset acquisition financing

Financing of fixed or moveable asset other than property

R

Consolidation Loan

A loan resulting from the Debt Consolidation

O

Other

A loan other than the ones stipulated above.

Account Type

Description of account type

B

Building Loan (only opening balance (field 32) should be supplied until after first withdrawal then current balance and instalment must be supplied.

C

Credit Card Account

D

Debt recovery account

E

Single Credit Facility

F

Open Account. These are accounts without a credit limit but where total owing, as reflected on monthly statement, is due and payable on a date as advised on the statement.  This account type is to be used for service related account types such as:

- Telecom’s

- Security

- Cell Phones

G

Garage Card except where payment is linked to a credit card

 (Multiple products under one facility) in which case the record is submitted under the credit card itself.

H

Home loan accounts (inclusive of “access” type accounts

I

Instalment account where the opening balance is equal to the original purchase price.

The current balance will reflect monies still due.

The overdue balance will reflect the rand value of the cumulative missed instalments

The instalment amount should be submitted as the amount the consumer is required to pay as per the account submitted by the CPA Member.

The instalment amount cannot be greater than the current balance.

J

Revolving unsecured credit transaction under R8000

K

Unsecured credit transaction under R8000 repayable within 6 months.

L

Life insurance

N

Secured Policy/Pension backed lending

(to be treated in the same way as personal loans)

O

= The definition for the use of this account has been changed to accommodate Members that have an open type facility.

This account type is restricted for use by members who provide facilities which are described as “limitless” but which are repayable in full at the end of a specified period. Use of this account type is administered by the CPA and permission should be sought from the CPA should a member wish to utilise this account type.

P

Personal cash loan

R

Revolving credit account where purchases and payments are made within a given credit facility

S

Short term insurance

T

Student loan

(to be treated in the same way as personal loans)

U

Utility (rates, water, electricity)

V

Overdraft (Not in use currently as no submission rules have been agreed)

Data Submission

·         All files must be supplied monthly on an agreed date to all Associate Member Bureaux of the CPA; this date should not be greater than 5 working days after the members billing date. Should a member be unable to meet this requirement for a specific submission period, the CPA is to be informed in writing with appropriate justification and a date by when submissions will resume.

·          Data is to be submitted by all suppliers monthly to each bureau in an electronic fixed length text file (ASCII), files must contain an “end of line marker” followed by a “carriage return line feed”

·         The month displayed at the Bureaux will be the month that the billing date refers to for example the billing date 5/09 refers to the period 05/08 to 05/09, the billing date 30/09 refers to the period 01/09 to 30/09.  

·         The file name should be compiled using the following naming conventions – CCYYMM Name of Supplier/Division e.g. : 200701 EFG Retail/Fuzzy Clothing.txt

·         A supplier reference number is mandatory for all CPA files submitted for loading to the Bureaux. Members should ensure all requests for supplier reference numbers are channelled through the CPA.

·         If a member of the CPA is unable to supply any of the mandatory fields within the Format 700 layout, a request to be exempted from submission of these fields should be directed to the CPA, with an appropriate justification. The CPA is to make a ruling on the request and communicate this to the member and the bureaux.

·         Records of known impersonation fraud must be removed from the Consumers profile by the CPA Members and the record should also be excluded from any future monthly submissions.

·         Alpha fields must be left aligned unless stipulated otherwise, and if no input data is available must be left blank (space filled)

·         Numeric fields must be right aligned unless stipulated otherwise, and if no input data is available must be zero filled

·         Any information transferred between parties should comply to the minimum security requirements communicated to CPA members and encapsulated in the security section under annexure 3 This should be the document sent out to all members that covered data security protocols.

·         Data submissions should not be submitted directly to the CPA or its staff but to the associate host bureaux, unless authorised by the Executive Director of the CPA.

·         Members must notify each Bureau on submission of their files, the notification should contain a list of files submitted and the Bureaux will in turn acknowledge receipt.

Header Rules – Supplier Reference Numbers

·         Supplier reference numbers (SRN) – these numbers are to be managed by the CPA in future and only numbers issued by the CPA will be deemed valid.  All requests for new SRN’s are to be submitted to the CPA. These numbers will then be issued and circulated to the member and all member credit bureaux.  Should a file be submitted with an incorrect SRN the member bureaux is to report this to both the member and the CPA.

·         The information submitted in the header record is to be treated in the same way as any other financial information and may therefore not be changed by any of the member bureaux unless a request has been submitted to the CPA and/or the CPA member and consent has been provided.

NCA Rules

·         All suppliers of information as set out in section 70 (2) of the Act and Regulation 18 (7) must take reasonable steps to ensure that the information reported to the credit bureau is accurate, up-to date, relevant, complete, valid and not duplicated as indicated in section 19 (3) of the regulations to the National Credit Act.

·         The information submitted to a credit bureau must contain the following information in respect of a consumer (section 19(1) of the regulations to the NCA)

(a)   Initials and  surname or full names and surname

(b)   SA Identity number, or if the consumer does not have an identity number, the passport number and date of birth.

·         For credit agreements that are conducted outside of South Africa or where a valid SA ID document is unavailable, the consumers Passport Number or ID Number (Consumers Unique Identifier) and date of birth must be submitted.

·         If Status Code field is populated then Status Date field is mandatory – Please refer to Section 17.2 of the NCA Regulations

Matching Rules

·         The following fields are required in order to facilitate accurate matching of consumer data:

o    Supplier reference number sourced from the file header

o    Field 2 SA Id Number or alternatively field 3 other ID and field 5 date of birth

o    Field 6 Branch code if this is required to create a unique account number string

o    Field 7 Account number

o    Field 8 Sub account number if this is required to create a unique account number string

o    Field 9 Surname

o    Field 11 Forename or initial 1

o    The account number fields must always be in the same format, structure and content of actual number for all monthly submissions, failure to do so could lead to the creation of duplicate records.

o    If supplier chooses to change the format, structure or content of the account number fields i.e. fields 6, 7 and 8, then the data rules for fields 42 to 44 must be applied and all affected parties notified. (Refer to Appendix D – Account conversion examples)

o    Old Supplier reference number field 45 is to be submitted with all requests to convert account numbers.

Branch Code

·         Branch codes and/or sub-account numbers should only be submitted by members if they are required to create a unique number within the supplier’s debtor’s book.  If the fields are not required then the fields should be space filled.

·         Fields 6 to 8 must be right aligned and should only contain alpha characters A – Z or numeric characters 0 to 9.

·         No preceding zeros should be added to any of these numbers either unless these zeros are part of the account number strings as stored by the members systems.

·         It should be noted that the bureaux use the fields listed below in combination for matching purposes and these fields should always be submitted in exactly the same way every month.  Any changes to this string should be dealt with by members using the applicable fields for account number conversions in the L700 – fields 42 to 45, failure to do so could result in the loading of duplicate records by the bureaux.

a.     Supplier reference number – this will be submitted in the header record of every file

b.     Branch code – Field 6

c.     Account number – Field 7

d.     Sub-Account number – Field 8

·         Changes to any of these fields i.e. supplier ref number, branch code, account number and sub-account number must be communicated to all member bureaux and the CPA prior to the change taking place for effective change management. The change should be communicated well in advance of the change and it is advisable that members include the bureaux and CPA in the planning stages of the change.  

·         Should the branch code or sub-account number be populated with zero’s or any variation of zero’s the bureaux will not reject the record as has been previously done, instead these zero’s will be replaced with spaces.

Account Number

Account number conversions can be split into two different processes

·         Account number conversions where only part of a file is converted, typically this would be when a branch has been closed and all records still open are transferred to a new branch.  This conversion should take place seamlessly provided the Member has populated the fields specifically included in the L700 for this purpose. The account conversion fields should only be populated once in the month that the conversion occurred thereafter the fields would not be populated unless an additional conversion is required.

·         Account number conversions that are required to all accounts on a file regardless of the status of the record i.e. open or closed.  When these conversions take place the following should be noted:

a.     Both the CPA and the Credit Bureaux are to be notified of the change in advance

b.     If necessary a planning meeting should be held

c.     These changes cannot be made using the L700 format so another file containing the required fields should be agreed with the Member, Bureaux and the CPA

d.     Account open dates should not be changed if the data is being migrated to a new system.

e.     The Opening Balance should also remain the same when records are migrated.

Sub-Account Number

The field should only be supplied if required to create a unique account number for display purposes at the Bureaux.  If the field is not required then it should be space filled by the Member.  Please refer to process rules for branch codes for additional rules.

Financial Details

·         If Account Type = I, P, H, R, C, G, E, V, N, B, T, K, J, D and opening balance = “0” record will be rejected.  Except in the following circumstances for account types C, R, G, E, B & J

(a)  Where the account has been closed with a positive status code

(b)  Where an account has gone into arrears/misconduct has occurred and the credit limit has been set to zero to prevent further purchases.

·         The months in arrears cannot be greater than the number of months an account has been open.

·         The instalment amount should not be the only financial amount populated for any of the account types.

·         Whole rands to be submitted only, CPA Members are to ensure that the cents/decimals are removed from all financial fields submitted.  Value must be rounded up or down.

·         The Instalment amount cannot be greater than the Current Balance -Instalment should only be greater than the current balance if there is an allowance for this anomaly in the terms of the credit agreement – such as 10% of balance owing or R200 whichever is the greater amount needs to be paid. In instances where the balance is 0, a R200 debit will still pass through the consumers account.

·         For accounts with the following status codes (W, I, J or L) the current bal, overdue balance and the instalment amount should be submitted as the write off amount and this value should be displayed as the same through all 3 fields. Records where the balance is below R100 at time of write-off will be rejected.

·         The instalment amount should be supplied as the amount that will be requested from the consumer and not the contractual instalment amount as the contractual amount may not include insurance charges or may not be the actual amount to be charged for the month especially in the last month of the contract.

Status Codes

·         Recurring status codes are not permitted. Status of account must be reported once only.  (The only recurring status codes that can be submitted are a P and a D.

·         The following status codes are no longer in use A, B, Q, R & U. Records submitted with these codes will be rejected.

·         Status code “E” will no longer be mandatory should a payment type of “06” be submitted in field 27 (Payment type)

·         If Status code field is populated then Status Date field is mandatory.  Please refer to section 17.2 of the NCA regulations.

Payment Type

If an account can be categorised into two or more payment types, the priority rating tabulated above will indicate which payment type should be used for the submission of data.

Account Type

·         If an account type is not supplied – the record will be rejected.

Date Account Opened (field 29) vs.

Date of Last Payment (field 31) vs.

Month end date (refer header)

·         The account open date (fl 29) cannot be after the month end date in the header record plus an additional 31 days. This is required to accommodate instances where a deposit is paid on an item purchased, but the item not being available at the time. This may result in a payment having been made, reported on but an account not having been opened as yet. The account will only be opened once the item had been invoiced (pending stock etc).

·         The Date of Last Payment (fl 31) this refers to the date the last payment was received by the credit provider and not the final end date of the credit agreement. The date supplied in this field cannot be after the month end date in the header record plus an additional 30 days. This is required to accommodate instances where a deposit is paid on an item purchased, but the item not being available at the time. This may result in a payment having been made, reported on but an account not having been opened as yet. The account will only be opened once the item had been provided (pending stock etc) hence the additional 45 day rule.

·         The account open date for collections records should be the date on which the debt was purchased and may only be supplied on records that do not already reside on a CPA Associate member bureaux database. This is to ensure duplicate listings do not occur.

·         The Status Date (fl 41) cannot be after the month end date in the header record + 30 days.

·         If the date of Last Payment (fl 31) and Status Date (fl 41) is older than 3 years from the month end date in the header record the record will be rejected.

·         The Date of Last Payment (fl 31) is within the last 3 years from the month end date and the Status Date (fl 41) is more than 3 years from the month end date the record will be accepted.

·         The Date of Last Payment (fl 31) is more than 3 years from the month end date and the Status Date (fl 41) is within the last 3 years from the month end date the record will be accepted.

Date Account opened

·         When a debt has been sold to a Debt Recovery Entity the date account opened should be supplied as the date on which the company acquired the record.

Public Domain

·         Status Codes (W & J) will create a public domain default provided the balances submitted are > R100.

·         Subsequent to supplying a negative status code and an account being rehabilitated, the status code of X (paid up default ) is to be submitted in the month of the settlement date. Applicable months in arrears and financial fields must be submitted as zero.

·         If the Amount Overdue (fl 35) and the Current Balance (fl 33) and the instalment amount (fl 36) are not populated then a public domain record will not be created and the record will be rejected.

·         Default records will be displayed using the retention periods as per the NCA Regulations and should not be extended beyond these legislated maximum periods.

In Duplum Rule

·         The in Duplum rule provides that interest stops running once unpaid interest equals unpaid capital”.

Multiple Billing Cycles

·         For CPA members that run more than once billing cycle per month, which could result in the loss of financial data, a snapshot of these various billing runs should be made with the details stored and concatenated. The period reflected in this concatenation should be the same each month, for example from the +

·         1^st to the 31^st or the 5^th to the 4th.

·         Months in arrears (field 37) must be supplied as actual months past due

Deferred Payments

·         Records for Deferred payments are to be submitted monthly regardless of frequency.

·         For bridging finance ie a single payment deferred to a later date – the full amount advanced should be populated in the opening balance, current balance and instalment amount along with the submission of the deferred payment date.

·         Deferred payments attributable to instalment sale agreements where a payment holiday arrangement exists for example the first 3 months payments are deferred to a later date, the opening balance and current balance will be equal. The instalment amount will be supplied as per the instalments from month four in our example above, along with the deferred payment date.

         The Deferred date must be submitted up to and including the month in which the payment is due. 

·         If no further deferred payments are required and the record returns to a monthly payment then the payment type should be defaulted to the original type submitted and the deferred payment date is to be remove.

·         If a subsequent deferred payment is due then populate a new deferred payment date.

·         Months in arrears (field 37) must be supplied as actual months past due

·         Deferred payment accounts will result in no date of last payment being supplied and bureaux are to ensure that deferred payment accounts are not rejected due to this attribute.

Credit Card – Account Type C

·         Balances must be the sum of the budget and current facilities if applicable.

·         Members are to submit an account number allocated to the consumer and not the card number reflected on the card in question on the records submitted to the Credit Bureaux for loading.

Account Types U,S and L

·         The Current Balance and Instalment amount should always be equal and reflect the total amount due and payable in the billing period. 

·         Overdue amounts must be supplied in the overdue balance field.  The opening balance should always be defaulted to zero.

Prioritisation Matrix for use of Field 27 Account type

Account Number Conversions

Account number conversions can be split into two different processes

·         Account number conversions where only part of a file is converted, typically this would be when a branch has been closed and all records still open are transferred to a new branch.  This conversion should take place seamlessly provided the Member has populated the fields specifically included in the L700 for this purpose. The account conversion fields should only be populated once in the month that the conversion occurred thereafter the fields would not be populated unless an additional conversion is required.

·         Account number conversions that are required to all accounts on a file regardless of the status of the record i.e. open or closed and where the records may not all be submitted on the members monthly file.

Should any account number conversions take place the following actions are required by the member

a.     Both the CPA and the Credit Bureaux are to be notified of the change in advance

b.     If necessary a planning meeting should be held in advance to allow for sufficient planning if required by the bureaux.

c.     If these changes cannot be made using the L700 format another file layout containing the required fields should be agreed with the Member, Bureaux and the CPA before the conversion takes place on the member’s book.

d.     Where possible all pp history should be moved with the performing accounts and the account open dates should also be moved with the pp history, if the data is being migrated to a new system.

e.     The Opening Balance should also remain as it was initially for instalment type accounts.

Population of Financial Fields for Account type “F”

1.     Opening balance – this should always be supplied as zero.

2.     Current balance – this would be supplied as the current months usage plus any arrears amounts from previous months.

3.     If the account is in credit then the credit amount should be submitted with a balance indicator of “C”.

4.     If an account has been paid before due date the amount applicable for the month should still be submitted in the current balance and instalment amount fields and not a balance of zero. 

5.     It should be noted that in some instances the current balance may not equal the instalment amount if an account had a credit current balance.

6.     If an account has a credit current balance or the amounts in all fields are supplied as zero and the account is not closed a status code of “P” should be submitted with the applicable date.

7.     Overdue balance to be populated with the arrears amount or when no arrears are in evidence, field to be populated with a zero.

8.     Instalment amount – would be supplied equal to the current balance unless the current balance was in credit.

9.     The instalment amount would be equal to the current month’s usage plus any overdue amounts as supplied in the overdue balance field.

10.   The current account balance indicator (field 34) should be set to “C” if the account is in credit.

11.    If the current balance is supplied as zero or is a debit balance the current balance indicator (field 34) should be set to “D”

12.   Status code “P” can be utilised for this account type when the current balance is in credit, although the bureaux may display the current balance as zero if the balance is in credit. The credit amount will however be loaded and stored by the bureaux.

13.   There should be no months in arrears for records that have a current balance indicator of “C” or a status code of “P” or “C”.

0

8

2

8

2

8

8

6

2

7

0

2

1

8

8

0

1

5

5

3

Opening

Balance

- Field 32

Current

Balance

- Field 33

Credit /

Debit

Indicator

- Field 34

Install.

Amount

- Field 36

Amount

Overdue

- Field 35

Months in

arrears

- Field 37

Status

Code

- Field 38

Status of account

1000

600

D

100

0

0

Space

Active & Paying.Consumer is ahead in his/her payment.  This would normally be true for consumers who pay more than the instalment specified or one that pays more than one instalment upfront.

1000

600

D

100

0

0

Space

Active & Paying. Consumer is meeting his/her contractual credit obligation

1000

600

D

100

100

01

Space

Active & Overdue. Consumer is overdue by one month with an overdue amount of R100

1000

600

D

100

200

02

Space

Active & Overdue. Customer is overdue by two months with an overdue amount of R200

Opening

Balance

- Field 32

Current

Balance

- Field 33

Credit /

Debit

Indicator

- Field 34

Install.

Amount

- Field 36

Amount

Overdue

- Field 35

Months in

arrears

- Field 37

Status

Code

- Field 38

Status of account

1000

500

D

100

400

02

Space

Active & Overdue.

Consumer is overdue by two months with an overdue amount of R400

1000

900

D

100

900

9

L

Handed over.

Consumer has not paid the account and thus account has been handed over to legal for collections.

1000

0

D

0

0

0

C

Closed

All corresponding fields are set to zero

1000

1000

D

100

1000

9

W

Written off.

The amount overdue will be the amount that is shown on the default/ public domain record as the amount written off.

1000

0

D

0

0

0

P

Paid up.

All corresponding fields are set to zero.

1000

150

C

0

0

0

P

Account in Credit.

If a credit balance indicator has been supplied as a C and current balance populated > 0 then the account should be considered to be in credit. Account status should be submitted with “P” to say that the account is paid in full.

Deferred

Payment

Date – Field 30

Opening

Balance –

Field 32

Current

Balance –

Field 33

Debit

Indicator – Field 34

Install. Amt

- Field 36

Amount

Overdue – Field 35

Months in

arrears

- Field 37

Status

Code

- Field 38

Status of Account

20091231

1000

1000

D

100

0

0

Space

Deferred payment prior to payment being due

20091231

1000

1000

D

100

0

0

Space

Deferred payment with payment due

1000

1000

D

100

100

01

Space

Deferred payment overdue in month 1

1000

1000

D

100

200

02

Space

Deferred payment overdue in month 2

Deferred

Payment

Date – Field 30

Opening

Balance –

Field 32

Current

Balance –

Field 33

Debit

Indicator – Field 34

Install. Amt

- Field 36

Amount

Overdue – Field 35

Months in

arrears

- Field 37

Status

Code

- Field 38

Status of Account

20091231

1000

1000

D

100

0

00

Space

Deferred payment prior to payment being due

20091231

1000

1000

D

100

0

0

Space

Deferred payment with payment due.

Data submissions for header date 20091231

20100331

1000

900

D

100

0

00

Space

Deferred payment met in previous month.  Data submission for header date 20100131

20100331

1000

900

D

100

0

00

Space

Data submission for header date 20100228

20100331

1000

900

D

100

0

00

Space

Data submission for header date 20100328

20100630

1000

900

D

100

100

01

Space

Deferred payment overdue in month 1.  Data submission for header date 20100428

20100630

1000

900

D

100

100

02

Space

Deferred payment overdue in month 2. Data submission for header date 20100528

Supplier Ref

(Forms part of Header Record (Field 2))

Branch

Code

(Field 6)

Account

number

(Field 7)

Sub Account

number

(Field 8)

Old Supplier

Branch Code

(Field 42)

Old

Account

Number

(Field 43)

Old Sub

Account

Number

(Field 44)

Old Supplier

Ref Number

(Field 43)

Comments

PP0101

12

(New branch code)

80015

1

15

(Old Branch code)

80015

1

PP

Accounts being transferred across Branches

PP0102

(New Supplier ref)

12

80015

1

12

80015

1

PP0101

(Old supplier Ref)

Accounts being transferred across Brands

PP0101

12

800151111

(New Account Number)

1

12

80015

(Old Account Number)

1

PP0101

Account number restructure