坏账不还怎么办?雇佣职员专门负责催账成本又太高?不少金融平台将此业务外包，使“讨债公司”逐渐发展起来。

A Chinese woman shows credit cards and other bank cards in Qionghai city, South China's Hainan province, April 14, 2012. The non-performing loans' ratio of China's commercial banks reached 1.67 percent, up 8 basis points quarter-on-quarter by the fourth quarter of last year.[Photo/IC]

请看《中国日报》的报道：

That brought about a need to hire specialist debt-collection agencies, particularly in regions where credit expanded and economic growth slowed, said analysts.

分析人士认为，这使得雇佣专业讨债公司的需求出现，特别是在信贷扩张，经济增速下降的地区。

从事这一行业的则被称为“职业讨债人”(debt collector)，他们的工作就是向各种欠款者催账(debt collection)，比如向信用卡欠款人(credit cardholders who defaulted on their repayments)等。

在过去几年，中国的银行、P2P借贷平台(peer-to-peer lending platforms)、小额贷款公司(microfinance companies)等机构的不良贷款(non-performing loans or NPL)问题加剧。这也催生了“职业讨债”这一行当。

“讨债公司”也要合法经营。如按期不归还欠款，讨债公司会与律所合作，使用法律途径，如发律师函(dispatch lawyer notices)，甚至起诉(file lawsuits)。