The CCSVA, a subsidiary of debt charity the Foundation for Credit Counselling, says its Individual Voluntary Arrange (IVA) service is proving successful. In the first  quarter of 2008, 70 clients agreed to IVAs with only two lenders rejecting proposals for repayments.

An IVA is a legally binding formal agreement between the debtor and creditors which can only be set up by a licensed professional such as the CCSVA. It enables clients to come to an arrangement with people that they owe money to, making reduced payments towards the total amount of debt. The aim is to pay off a percentage of what they owe, then after five years the debt is generally deemed to be settled. The CCSVA offers this service free of charge to clients.

According to the CCSVA, in the first three months of this year,  the average level of debt among clients was £61,360. Lenders agreed to write off 66% which left clients paying on average £20,862 over five years. The average cost of an IVA to lenders was £5,600.

"When we launched CCCSVA last year we promised to bring high standards, lower prices and transparency,” comments Malcolm Hurlston, Chairman of CCCSVA and of the Foundation "Our market presence and activities supporting the British Bankers Association and the Insolvency Service, have brought higher standards. The numbers we are publishing today demonstrate progress both with pricing and transparency. The IVA is an important part of the armoury of support for lenders and debtors in need of a way forward. It is our aim that it should have its rightful place among the solutions and we shall continue to strip out cost and improve standards.”