GUIDELINES

GUIDELINES FOR SUCCESSFUL GROUP PARTICIPATION

Welcome! This Industry Credit Group is a unique source of credit information on customers in your industry that is not available elsewhere. You may hear "bulletin" information about customers that have declared bankruptcy, returned checks, been referred for collection, changed hands or names, or closed altogether...in addition to the very latest payment history you can get.

We encourage you to inquire about customers you have pending applications on, current customers you just want to check on, and slowing or delinquent customers on whom you want to know what other creditors have experienced.

The other folks present want your payment experience information too, so don't be shy about speaking up if you recognize a customer of yours being inquired on by another person in the Group. If you aren't sure about your account experience, just invite the other creditor to call you for more information after the meeting.

The statements on the reverse side of this form are read aloud before each meeting begins in order to protect the Group from allegations of wrongdoing. To simplify, following are some basic guidelines:

1. Give only historical facts about your own experience with a customer.

2. Never report or discuss your future intentions or ask for the future intentions of another creditor.

3. Never give advice about a customer or ask for the advice of another creditor.

4. Never give your own opinion about a customer or ask for the opinion of another creditor.

5. Never discuss or ask other creditors to discuss their terms of sale or specific company policies.

6. Never reveal the existence of the Group to a customer or salesman.

7. Never reveal information obtained from members of the Group to anyone outside your own credit department.

8. Information shared in Industry Credit Groups is privileged and must never be used for sales leads. This type of predatory activity is unethical and unacceptable.

9. Members in the lending industry must understand that Regulation B does not exempt them from compliance with this requirement to keep this source of information confidential. Answers to requests from customers for reasons why credit has been limited or denied must never include the source of the information used to reach a decision, or enable a customer to identify a specific creditor as the source of the information.

10. These guidelines are for your protection and should be adhered to at all times, not just in Industry Credit Group meetings.

If you have questions about the reasons for any of these rules, please call Michele Hamby, Vice President, NACM Houston at 281-228-6100 or email her at mhamby@nacmsouthtexas.org

I hereby certify that I have read, understand and agree to comply with these guidelines, and that I have been given a copy for my files.

Name __________________________________________________ Date ________________________

Company _____________________________________________________________ Group _______________________________

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