Before your debt repayment plan can be activated, you need a majority of your creditors to approve it first. The process for when creditors will review, and hopefully approve, your proposal is called a meeting of creditors (often abbreviated to MOC).

In this guide, we’ll explore everything you need to know about your meeting of creditors: what it is, how it works, how involved you need to be in a meeting of creditors, and what happens afterwards.

What is the meeting of creditors?

The meeting of creditors is a routine part of the process. For any debt solution to be approved, it first has to be reviewed and signed off by a majority of your creditors – the people you’re in debt to. ‘Meeting of creditors’ is the name for this review process.

The first thing to mention is that it’s not actually an in-person meeting. The term ‘meeting of creditors’ can lead people to worry that their creditors are getting together in a room, discussing all the times they failed to repay their debt, before naturally deciding to reject them for an IVA.

In reality, ‘meeting of creditors’ is simply the term given to the process. Creditors will review and vote on whether to approve your proposal, but it doesn’t all happen in one day. It’s usually done virtually, and votes are often submitted in advance of the meeting.

While you will be given a date for your meeting of creditors, and a virtual meeting may take place on that day, the meeting date is really just a deadline for the point at which every creditor should have submitted their vote on your proposal.

How does the meeting of creditors work?

Before your meeting of creditors takes place, we’ll put together a proposal for you that we think will help you pay off your debt, will be affordable for you, and will ultimately be approved by your creditors. As soon as you’ve read through the proposal and given it the OK, we’ll then share it with your creditors.

Anyone you owe money to who is named in the proposal will be sent a copy and given the chance to review it. Your creditors are given 16 days’ notice of the deadline for returning their votes, plus an additional two days if they’re voting by mail, and the meeting can be adjourned by a maximum of 14 days if there are any issues with the voting process.

In the case of an IVA, for the arrangement to be approved at least 75% of the creditors included have to agree to it. Each creditor has a vote equal to the amount they are owed as a percentage of your total debt. If you’re using an IVA to pay off £10,000 of debt, for example, and you owe Creditor A £1,000, then Creditor A’s vote will be counted as 10% of the total vote.

The voting process starts as soon as your creditors receive notice of the deadline for voting. Creditors can send their votes through at any point before the deadline, often by email, and the votes will be reviewed once every creditor has had the chance to examine your proposal.

We will remain in touch with your creditors during this time to try and answer any queries, and we’ll also want to keep you in the loop so we can update you on any developments from the review process.

When does the meeting of creditors take place?

As previously mentioned, the meeting of creditors isn’t simply a meeting that happens on a given day. Instead, it refers to the entire process of reviewing your proposal. This process starts as soon as creditors are given notice of the voting deadline, and ends on the day of that deadline.

As soon as we’ve shared your proposal with creditors and given them notice of the deadline for the meeting of creditors, you’ll receive an email from us confirming that your proposal has been shared, and notifying you of the date for your meeting of creditors. You can also find the details in the customer app.

On the day of the meeting itself, some of your creditors may decide to meet virtually, but it isn’t compulsory for anyone to attend, and most of the votes will likely have already been sent in via email or otherwise. The votes will be tallied by the chair of the meeting, who will then know whether your proposal has received enough votes to be approved.

Do I have to attend the meeting of creditors?

In a word, no. Because the meeting of creditors is usually done virtually, and many creditors have already voted prior to the meeting, you won’t be required to attend. Attending the meeting isn’t actually compulsory for your creditors either.

The voting process opens as soon as your creditors are notified of the meeting date, and while you won’t have to attend the meeting yourself, it’s important that we are able to get in touch with you throughout this time.

We will never put forward a proposal unless we’re confident it has a good chance of being approved, but that doesn’t mean creditors won’t have certain questions regarding your debts, financial history, and affordability. We’ll also need to be able to get in touch with you in order to let you know the outcome of your meeting.

What are the possible outcomes of a meeting of creditors?

There are three main outcomes of a meeting of creditors: Arrangement approved, arrangement approved subject to modifications, and arrangement rejected.
Arrangement approved
This is the best possible scenario, and means your creditors have looked at your financial history, examined your IVA proposal, and at least 75% of them have agreed that the terms of your IVA are acceptable to them.

We pride ourselves on our ability to guide our clients through the application process, which has resulted in a monthly approval rating of 88% for IVAs, the most popular debt solution we offer.
Arrangement approved subject to modifications
In certain cases creditors will ask for changes to be made to the proposal. These are known as modifications. The most common include requesting for your payment term to be extended (from five years to six in an IVA, for example) or asking to up your monthly payments.

Having your proposal modified doesn’t mean it’s going to be rejected, however. In fact, it’s a good indicator that it’s going to be approved as long as the creditor requests are met.

We’ll get in touch with you as soon as any modifications are requested to let you know the details and give you time to consider how the proposed changes would impact your budget. If you need more time, we can always ask for the meeting of creditors to be delayed.
Arrangement rejected
Again using the example of an IVA, if at least 75% of your creditors can’t agree on your proposal, it will be rejected. In that situation, one of our advisers will set up a call with you to discuss next steps, which might involve resubmitting your proposal, or looking at another one of the debt solutions we offer.

As well as the three main outcomes, your creditor meeting date can also be adjourned. This is a normal part of the process which gives creditors more time to review your case, and it isn’t an outcome in itself.

Your meeting can only be adjourned for a maximum of 14 days from the original meeting date, after which your creditors will consider your case and come to one of the above conclusions.

What happens after the meeting of creditors?

What happens after your meeting of creditors depends on the outcome of the meeting itself.
If your arrangement is approved
If your arrangement is approved, we’ll send you an email with the good news, welcoming you as a client. Your proposed repayment plan can then become legally binding, and you will start making monthly contributions towards your debts.

These payments will last five years, six years, or however long your agreed payment term is.
If your creditors want to make modifications
If creditors ask to make modifications to your proposal then, as mentioned previously, we’ll call you to talk you through the proposed changes and help you come to a conclusion that works for you.
If your arrangement is rejected
In the event that your arrangement is rejected, we’ll call you to walk you through the options available to you, which might include resubmitting your proposal, restarting the application process, or looking at alternative debt solutions we can offer you.