WITH his close-cropped salt-and-pepper hair and stern, weathered face, Simon Lim looks like a Triad gang leader straight out of a Hong Kong movie.

But Mr Lim is no underworld kingpin - he is the operations manager of Asian Debts Collection Services, a Singapore government-registered firm whose employees use tact rather than violence to persuade debtors to pay up. Mr Lim and other debt collectors in Asia say the pickings are good in these bleak economic times.

His company pursues corporate and personal debts and gets a cut of the money it successfully recovers.

Debt collectors across the region said they have seen a spike in business compared with a year ago - and the global economic slowdown is a major factor boosting business. Most of the debtors had companies which were in dire straits, Mr Lim said.

'(They) lost what they invest, and they cannot pay,' he said, gesturing to a long row of files which spanned two tabletops and contained debtors' details.

Mr Lim said his customer base has increased 30-40 per cent from 2007, while the average monthly amount he needs to collect has jumped significantly from the previous range of S$200,000-S$300,000.

'Now, we have to collect S$500,000,' he said.

Another local debt collection agency, Kimberly Masters and Partners, said it had seen a 25 per cent rise in the size of debts needing collection.

'This has been an increasing trend ever since late 2008 when the economic crisis actually struck,' said Mark Tilakadaf, operations manager of the company.

For those genuinely facing financial difficulty, the company is flexible with debt payment, Mr Lim says.

Credit Counselling Singapore, a non-profit society, saw a 39 per cent increase in people seeking counselling in the second half of 2008 when the economic crisis intensified, compared with the first half, said the organisation's assistant director, Tan Huey Min.

'I suppose the economic crisis is one potential reason. Things have not been going well (for the debtors),' said Tan, whose charity was formed to advise debtors and help them develop a repayment plan.

But Mr Lim says creditors are victims too, because many are cheated by debtors who make off with their profits and who bully them 'because of our clients' kindness'. -- AFP