For example, one of China's biggest bad debt managers, the Hong Kong-listed China Cinda Asset Management, is now auctioning off bad debt from two Jiangsu-based steel makers for 530 million yuan ($81 million).
No known applications have been made in the banking, bad-debt management, or mutual fund industries.
The interest rate is calculated having taken into account the cost of bad debt, account management personnel, account management systems, and the cost of capital invested".
Some economists say it has improved its state-owned banking system by writing off bad debt and overhauling management even as it rejected American pressure to privatize banks and allow unfettered competition in the financial sector.
The company focused too heavily on issues such as bad debt expenses and management retention without paying enough attention to enrollment, Strayer's chief executive, Robert Silberman, told analysts on a conference call.
Eight have already gone under this year, ruined by bad debts and poor management, with the odd one attracting a visit from the local police.
But could more prudent management have reduced the bad debt problem?
Not a moment too soon, it announced in late May that it would approve the establishment of an asset-management company to buy up bad debt in its creaky banking sector, for example.
Debt management firms have been widely criticised for bad practice and poor advice since they began to proliferate just over 10 years ago.
It added Thames Water "overestimated" an increase in bad debt write-offs, adding "we do not think the company is achieving best practice in debt management".
"Many fee-charging debt management companies are failing to give the right advice, making bad debt problems worse," she said.
