201504 CM April

CICM NEWS
THE Credit Services Association (CSA)
has launched a series of bespoke
Forums for members to discuss, share
and collaborate on key issues regarding
compliance.
The Compliance Forums, announced at
the CSA’s Members’ Meeting and Annual
General Meeting in February, will be very
inclusive in their nature, according to CSA’s
Regulatory and Corporate Counsel Gillian
Tiplady: “Our aim is to develop a collegiate
approach to compliance amongst the
members and provide a broader range of
coverage of the developing FCA issues,”
she says.
The content of each Forum will be partly
CSA LAUNCHES NEW COMPLIANCE FORUMS
devised by the CSA but also determined
by the participants. The CSA will be inviting
members to request topic areas or ask
specific questions in the lead up to the
Compliance Forum.
“Members will be asked to complete
a pro-forma detailing issues they are
grappling with,” explains Gillian, “or areas
of compliance where they are not sure of
the best approach. The CSA will prepare an
agenda for each Forum in response to the
current issues, which will be shared with
attendees in advance of the meeting to
help them better prepare.”
The sessions, which will be held
every two to three months, are aimed at
compliance officers and in-house lawyers,
and also those studying at Level 3 and 5
Diploma level. Each session will involve
a presentation on an agreed subject
area, and where appropriate an FCA
spokesperson will be invited to answer
members’ concerns. The format of the
meeting will follow the issues raised as
the agenda, working through them as a
group and giving people the opportunity to
contribute their views.
The first meeting was held on 10
March. For more information, contact
Claire Aynsley at claire.aynsley@csa-uk.
com or Gillian Tiplady at Gillian.tiplady@
csa-uk.com.
BIG FIRMS SHOULD PAY SMALL
SUPPLIERS IN 30 DAYS
THE Government-backed Prompt Payment
Code, administered by the Chartered
Institute of Credit Management (CICM), will
now promote 30-day payment terms as
standard, with signatories committing to pay
within a 60-day maximum limit. Unless these
firms can prove exceptional circumstances,
they will be removed from the Code.
The change will be rigorously enforced
by the new Code Compliance Board,
which will include individuals from business
representative bodies who will investigate
challenges made against signatories to the
Code by their suppliers. The Compliance
Board will remove signatories found to
be in breach of the Code’s principles and
standards.
More than 1,800 businesses and
public authorities have so far committed
to these principles, which include paying
suppliers within an agreed timeframe and
communicating with them effectively.
Business Minister Matthew Hancock
says making small businesses wait an
unreasonable time for payment is entirely
unacceptable: “I know first-hand the great
burden that late payment can place on firms
– and how it can strain family finances –
which is why I am committed to stopping it.
“Big companies should lead by example
and pay small suppliers within 30 days. I
have already written to the FTSE 350 urging
them to sign up to the Prompt Payment
Code.”
The change follows a Downing Street
summit and a meeting of the Prompt
Payment Code Advisory Board, which was
co-chaired by Matthew Hancock and Philip
King, Chief Executive of CICM.
Businesses will be actively encouraged
to start complying with the strengthened
Prompt Payment Code with immediate
effect and this will complement the tougher
reporting laws in the Small Business,
Enterprise and Employment Bill.
These new laws will force the UK’s largest
companies to publish their payment terms,
increasing transparency and empowering
small businesses. The Code Compliance
Board will be able to use this data to review
the status of signatories to the Code and
challenge those that either do not pay their
suppliers promptly or insist on excessively
long standard terms.
Philip King says the Prompt Payment
Code has had a significant impact in
challenging payment practices and creating
a debate and dialogue around the behaviour
and culture of late payment that did not
previously exist – a fact borne out in the
recent joint CICM/BIS survey:
“I am delighted that we have now agreed
to further strengthen the Code, giving it more
structure and introducing a Compliance
Board to build on the success of challenges
to date.
“The 60-day maximum is also to be
welcomed, and the decision of the Advisory
Board is an indication of how far the debate
and sentiment has moved since the Code
was launched, leading to a recognition that
ethical treatment of the supply chain should
be an imperative.”
A joint CICM/BIS survey in December
2014 found that 72 percent of signatory
responses supported the introduction of a
maximum payment target and 63 percent
of these thought that the term should be 60
days.
Introducing a maximum payment term
to the Prompt Payment Code had been
raised during Parliamentary debates of the
Small Business, Enterprise and Employment
Bill.
NEWS IN BRIEF
RIMILIA TO LAUNCH NEW
SUMMER COLLECTION
Rimilia, the credit management software
business, has hinted at the launch of a new
suite of cash allocation products that take
advantage of Robotic Process Automation
technology.
Speaking exclusively to Credit
Management, Rimilia Commercial
Director, Steve Richardson, said that the
new products would feature intelligent
decision making and software that would
continually ‘learn’: “We have taken lessons
from gaming software to develop new cash
allocation products that will be both easy
and intuitive to use, and where the return
on investment can be quickly realised,” he
said.
Mr Richardson suggested that as
high as 95 percent of all cash allocation
decisions would be automated, and the
user given ‘prompts’ to determine how
and where the remaining five percent
should be allocated. “We see the credit
management world as a gateway to
sales and supporting a company’s future
growth,” he added.
Details of the new products are
expected to be announced in the early
summer.
A NOVEL AFFAIR
Pictured is Christine
Laird FCICM, the winner
of the CICM UK Credit
Managers' Index for Q4
2014 participants’ draw
for a Kindle HD, kindly
donated by Corporate
Partner, Tinubu Square.
8
April 2015 www.cicm.com
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