Someone should let the folks at Breeze, the tag part of the new Eastlink tollway in Melbourne know that Bill Express is dead. Here is text from a letter they just sent to a new account holder promoting payment at Bill Express outlets:

eTravel Blackboard reports that Flight Centre is caught in the Bill Express mess having apparently paid Technology Business International for terminals which were never delivered.

I received more calls today from newsagents dealing with banks which refuse to act on their instructions to cancel direct debit arrangements for Bill Express equipment. ANZ and Westpac are the banks letting newsagents down based on today’s calls. In each case, newsagents had put their direct debit cancellation in writing and in each case their respective banks had refused to act. Thankfully, one the Westpac branch relented after the newsagent went in with information about the Code of Banking Practice.

The behaviour of banks is appalling on this matter of the Bill Express equipment. The ASIC website is clear on bank obligations as is the website for the banking Industry Ombudsman. It is as if staff in local bank branches have not heard about their obligations. Newsagents are having to go back two and three times before getting reasonable attention.

Time is an issue here since the next round of debits are to be made less than a week from now.

I attended the second creditors meeting of Bill Express and twelve related companies in Melbourne this afternoon. The key resolution of the meeting was to put the companies into liquidation.

Leading up to the decision to liquidate the businesses, the creditors meeting heard further detail of the mess the business created for itself through an unnecessarily complex structure, lack of transparency, inadequate control and questionable business practices.

One comment which interested me was that Directors thought negative media commentary played a part in the downfall of the company.  I am not aware of any negative commentary which was untruthful.

The only glimmer of financial hope for secured creditors such as the ANZ bank is a sale of the business. 7-Eleven has some time left on their exclusivity arrangement around this. For their bid to go anywhere, they will need supplier and retail network support. It will be interesting to see how newsagents react should 7-Eleven get to the point where they are ready to ask the question.

The ACCC and ASIC have active investigations into various aspects of Bill Express. I hope that these are fruitful as they may help provide closure for newsagents. I would also hope that formal interviewing of Directors around the question of possible insolvent trading and dubious transactions is useful.

Today’s meeting was funereal in mood as one would expect.

There is no good news in this – hundreds of millions of dollars lost by ANZ, Optus, Vodafone, Telstra and others and the considerable potential future losses of tens of millions by newsagents relating to Bill Express equipment lease.

I hope that anyone associated with the Bill Express business who is found to have breached their obligations is brought to account.

The ASIC website has a sample of the letter you can send to a bank to cancel a direct debit. Here is a modified version of that letter for use by newsagents in relation to their Bill Express equipment lease. This sample was distributed by the QNF to its members yesterday.

[Your letterhead or postal address]

[Date]                                                                                     

[Name of bank, building society or credit union] [Address]

Dear Sir/Madam

Cancellation of direct debit

I refer to my authority to [Insert name of merchant and your account or reference number  with them] to direct debit my account [insert your bank account name and number] for $544.50 (including GST) on or around the 25^th of each month.   I hereby cancel this direct debit authority, effective from [insert date],

Would you please confirm in writing that you have forwarded this cancellation instruction to the merchant’s sponsor bank and that you will make sure no further amounts are debited from my account under this direct debit authority from [insert date as in paragraph above].

Yours faithfully,

(Your signature, name etc.)

Newsagents involved in the NSW class action were advised more than two months ago to cancel their direct debit.  The ANF changed its mind on the direct debit can called on newsagents to suspend direct debit arrangements for Bill Express equipment twelve days ago.

It is important newsagents ct this week given that the next account sweep is due in under two weeks.

The Age today runs the second part of it’s investigative piece on Bill Express.  It is interesting, but not surprising to see that art least one Bill Express Director blames newsagents, in part, for the collapse of the company.