Wesbank, South Africa's largest vehicle financier, said on Wednesday it repossessed nearly 2000 vehicles per month as at June 2008, compared with just over 1000 vehicles the same time last year.

Although repossession numbers have reached their highest levels in recent times, its marketing director Chris de Kock said: "We don't expect repossession numbers, as a percentage of our book, to climb to the levels we saw 10 years ago."

He said cited tougher debt collecting methods and the fact that interest rates have not reached levels seen in 1998.

In June this year, Wesbank repossessed 1806 vehicles – up sharply from 1061 vehicles in July last year.

Deducing from Wesbank's market share of 35 percent, De Kock said more than 6000 vehicles could be going under the hammer or resold to the used vehicle market per month in the country.

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