Credit Management magazine October 2017

CREDIT MANAGEMENT 

CM 

OCTOBER 2017 £10.00 

THE CICM MAGAZINE FOR 

CONSUMER AND COMMERCIAL 

CREDIT PROFESSIONALS 

Life on the edge 

Consumers caught 

in the debt trap 

Sean Feast comments 

on the Bell Pottinger 

saga. Page 4 

Are CRAs doing 

enough around bogus 

accounts. Page 26

STAND OUT 

FROM THE 

CROWD 

With over 2,400 qualifications awarded in the last 

three years, CICM is the recognised standard. 

Find out more about flexible options to suit your 

role and lifestyle. 

Visit qualifications.cicm.com

OCTOBER 2017 

www.cicm.com 

CONTENTS 

18 

COVER FEATURE 

DAVID ANDREWS 

CICM GOVERNANCE 

32 

COUNTRY FOCUS - 

ADAM BERNSTEIN 

54 

How I got into 

credit management - 

MORGAN SHELDON 

President Stephen Baister FCICM / Chief Executive Philip King FCICM CdipAF MBA 

Executive Board Laurie Beagle FCICM – Chair / Glen Bullivant FCICM / Sue Chapple FCICM 

Larry Coltman FCICM / David Thornley FCICM(Grad) – Treasurer / Pete Whitmore FCICM – Vice Chair 

Advisory Council Laurie Beagle FCICM / Jason Braidwood FCICM(Grad) / Glen Bullivant FCICM / Sue Chapple FCICM 

Larry Coltman FCICM / Kim Delaney-Bowen MCICM / Victoria Herd FCICM(Grad) / Edward Judge FCICM 

Christelle Madie MCICM(Grad) / Robert Marr MCICM / Debbie Nolan FCICM / Bryony Pettifor FCICM(Grad) / Allan Poole MCICM 

Phil Rice FCICM / Charlie Robertson FCICM / Chris Sanders FCICM / Richard Seadon FCICM. / David Thornley FCICM(Grad) 

Debra Weston FCICM Pete Whitmore FCICM 

View our digital version online at www.cicm.com Log on to the Members’ 

area, and click on the tab labelled ‘Credit Management magazine’ 

Credit Management is distributed to the entire UK and international CICM 

membership, as well as additional subscribers 

Reproduction in whole or part is forbidden without specific permission. Opinions expressed in this magazine do 

not, unless stated, reflect those of the Chartered Institute of Credit Management. The Editor reserves the right to 

abbreviate letters if necessary. The Institute is registered as a charity. The mark ‘Credit Management’ is a registered 

trade mark of the Chartered Institute of Credit Management. 

11 – INSOLVENCY 

David Kerr tackles the tricky subject 

of Pre-packs and why the numbers are 

falling. 

12 – ASK THE EXPERTS 

How businesses can gauge the 

effectiveness of collection agencies or 

lawyers. 

16 – OPINION 

Karen Young with some pointers on 

how to write a good CV and secure the 

all-important interview. 

18 – COVER FEATURE 

The growing debt mountain and how 

it all started – from David Andrews’ 

perspective. 

22 – WHAT PRICE LOYALTY? 

David Sheridan ponders whether 

reputation and quality should count 

for more than price when choosing a 

collections partner. 

36 – MAKING YOUR MARK 

How businesses can protect their 

goodwill from abuse by another online. 

41 – UNINTENTIONAL 

CONSEQUENCES 

The new Pre-Action Protocol for Debt 

Claims and how it could cause a rise in 

the number of insolvency actions. 

46 – EDUCATION 

Hilary Lewis explains how ABB has 

succeeded in delivering an inspirational 

training programme. 

Publisher 

Chartered Institute of Credit Management 

The Water Mill, Station Road, South Luffenham 

OAKHAM, LE15 8NB 

Telephone: 01780 722910 

Fax: 01780 721333 

Email: editorial@cicm.com 

Website: www.cicm.com 

CMM: www.creditmanagement.org.uk 

Managing Editor 

Sean Feast 

Deputy Editor 

Alex Simmons 

Art Editor 

Andrew Morris 

Telephone: 01780 722910 

Email: andrew.morris@cicm.com 

Editorial Team 

Imogen Hart and Iona Yadallee 

Advertising 

Anthony Cave 

Telephone: 0203 603 7934 

Email: anthony.cave@cabbell.co.uk 

Printers 

Stephens & George Print Group 

2017 subscriptions 

UK: £90 per annum 

International: £115 per annum 

Single copies: £10.00 ISSN 0265-2099 

The Recognised Standard / www.cicm.com / October 2017 / PAGE 3

EDITOR’S COLUMN 

Your best customers can 

pose the biggest risk 

Sean Feast 

Managing Editor 

MY alma mater has 

spawned many famous 

old boys. Some of 

them, like the postwar 

prime minister 

Clement Atlee, you 

will certainly have heard of. Others, like 

Sir John Slessor, Sir Trafford Leigh Mallory, 

and Sir William Dixon, may not be so 

familiar, but let me tell you that without 

them, we might not have won the second 

world war. 

My favourite old boy is Sir Stirling 

Moss, who I once had the great privilege 

of meeting and interviewing. Actual 

contemporaries of mine include the actor, 

Stephen Mangan, and the comedian 

Dom Jolly. Another contemporary was 

recently in the press for all of the wrong 

reasons, a chap whose school career was as 

unremarkable as my own, but he’s certainly 

made up for it since. He has recently been 

in the limelight for overseeing one of the 

most spectacular and dramatic business 

collapses in modern history. His name? 

James Henderson. His firm? Bell Pottinger. 

Credit managers have plenty to consider 

when assessing how much credit to extend 

to a customer: a company’s financial 

well-being; the strength of the balance 

sheet; annual report and accounts from 

Companies House; specific insights 

from specialist credit reference agencies. 

Depending on the values being discussed, 

they may delve even deeper, and consider 

sector/industry reports, their customers’ 

customers, and even look into the personal 

profiles of the directors in charge. 

I doubt very much, however, that any 

of them would have seen this coming. Mr 

Henderson, as an individual, had been 

singled out by PR Week as being one of the 

PR world’s biggest and brightest stars, and 

Bell Pottinger held up as a beacon of PR 

excellence. How silly they look now. 

I know nothing about what went on 

in the dirty world of Bell Pottinger. I’d 

like to think that the vast majority of 

them are decent, honest, hard-working 

people. It may later even come out in the 

wash that Henderson is not guilty of the 

incompetence he has been accused of. I 

hope so, if only for the reputation of the 

PR industry and my old school tie! But 

whatever the rights and wrongs, from the 

scandal first being reported in any detail, 

to the final collapse of the business, was 

only a matter of days. Which just goes to 

show you. Even your best customers can 

be the ones who pose the biggest risk, 

and you can sometimes be only a prawn 

sandwich away from disaster. 

Sir Stirling Moss leads a field of 100 Grand Prix cars to 

celebrate 50 years of Formula One at Silverstone 


Notall credit 

collection 

systems 

aresmart! 

See into the future with Alloc8 collect. 

Alloc8 Collect credit management software allows your collections team to focus on 

creating value and chasing the customers that need chasing, not spending time gathering 

data from spreadsheets, sales ledgers and calling customers that do not need calling. Alloc8 

Collect changes the way you think about technology within the collection environment. 

• Ajoined up Order to cash solution allows areal time view from cash receipt 

(or remittance receipt) 

• Automated segmentation to makesure you only need to takeaction against 

the right customer at the right time 

• Huge efficiencies (one customer doubled their collections by making only 50% of 

the calls they used to make!) 

• Fast ROI and transparent pricing in asimple to install cloud delivery 

Forecast 

Cash Allocation 

World class cash 

allocation solution 

with unrivalled match 

rates andfastROI. 

Cash Forecasting 

Intelligent Payment 

Behaviour 

Driven Cashflow 

Forecasting. 

CreditManagement 

Alloc8 Collect’s 

predictiveanalytics 

enable fastand effective 

decision making to 

increase value call out. 

Cash Reconciliation 

Automated self-learning 

bank reconciliation 

softwarewith 

unrivalled benefits. 

E-Commerce 

Reconciliation 

Works in anycountry, 

using any payment 

typeand currency. 

Bookademonstration... 

01527872123 

enquiries@rimilia.com • www.rimilia.com 

Follow us: 


CM September 2017.indd 1 22/08/2017 11:07 

CMNEWS 

A round-up of news stories from the 

world of consumer and commercial credit 

Written by – Sean Feast and Alex Simmons 

Small businesses remain 

ignorant of impact of new data 

regulation 

LESS than one in ten SME owners 

in the UK fully understand what 

the forthcoming EU General Data 

Protection Regulation (GDPR) actually 

means for their business, or have taken the 

appropriate steps to prepare themselves 

for it. 

The new framework, which is designed 

to strengthen and unify data protection for 

all individuals within the European Union 

(EU), will hand out tough punishments 

for those who fail to comply with new 

rules around the storage and handling 

of personal data. The regulation comes 

into force in May 2018, but nearly half (46 

percent) of all SME bosses, representing 

more than 2.5million firms in the UK have 

not even heard of it. 

Furthermore, GDPR will also introduce 

a duty on all organisations to report 

certain data breaches to the relevant 

supervisory authority, and in some cases to 

the individuals affected, as well as giving 

customers the right to be forgotten which 

requires firms to erase all their information. 

This is a considerable step change and 

will affect many small and medium-sized 

organisations, particularly as recent 

industry figures show that two thirds (66 

percent) of SMEs have been a victim of 

cyber-crime since their launch. 

In the latest Aldermore SME business 

owners Future Attitudes study, more than 

a fifth (22 percent) of SMEs and their 

customers have been directly affected by 

a data breach in the past two years. More 

than half (55 percent) of business owners 

are concerned about cyber-crime and 

the impact it might have on their firms, a 

further two in five (39 percent) SME bosses 

also anticipate that a cyber-attack could 

have a significant financial impact on their 

business. 

Surprisingly only a third (34 percent) of 

businesses see protection against cybercrime 

as a high priority and have taken 

steps to protect themselves, considering 

cyber-crime can involve something as 

simple as having business emails hacked 

and subsequent data stolen or intercepted. 

A further fifth (22 percent) realise it is an 

important issue but haven’t found the time 

to look into appropriate safeguards, with a 

further one in ten (12 percent) saying that 

they cannot afford to shield themselves 

adequately. 

What is perhaps even more surprising 

is that a quarter (25 percent) of business 

owners say protection against cyberattacks 

is not an important issue for their 

businesses. The research also reveals 

that only a half (49 percent) of UK SMEs 

currently have data breach policies in 

place around the use of email, internet and 

mobile devices. 

Ignorance and fear of the principlesbased 

GDPR appears to mirror concerns 

expressed at the CSA’s UK Credit and 

Collections Conference (UKCCC) by Jo 

Pedder, Head of Policy & Engagement at the 

Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). 

Although those in the credit industry 

appear to be considerably better briefed, 

there are still those who see GDPR as little 

more than a ‘debtors’ charter’, especially 

in relation to the concept of having 

one’s credit history erased. She stressed, 

however, that its intentions were still 

being misunderstood: “GDPR is a way of 

capitalising on the opportunities opened 

up by the digital world,” She said. “It is not 

there to impede innovation.” 

aldermore.co.uk csa-uk.com 

CM 


SEPTEMBER 2017 £10.00 

GDPR 

The new face of 

data regulation 

Kevin Reed gives his 

take on Carillion's 

woes. Page 15 

Interview with an 

alternative finance 

pioneer. Page 16 

THE CICM MAGAZINE FOR 

CONSUMER AND COMMERCIAL 

CREDIT PROFESSIONALS 

September's 

issue of Credit 

Management 

magazine 

>FINANCIAL CROWN 

Fintech is helping London maintain its place as the world’s top 

financial centre despite Brexit uncertainty, a new report suggests. 

The Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI) measures financial centres 

based on the business environment, human capital, infrastructure, 

financial sector development and reputation. The research shows 

that confidence dropped in most areas over the past six months. 

However, London remained in first place, despite a slight fall in its 

fortunes. zyen.com 

>OUT THE STABLE 

Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking has launched its new direct bank feed 

service to help clients with their daily accounting processes. The service 

sends current account transaction information safely and securely to a 

participating accounting software provider so businesses don’t have to 

manually input their bank statements. Previously, businesses would have to 

manually upload files from their online banking system and, in some cases, 

use unauthorised third-party software with inherent security risks. 

commercialbanking.lloydsbank.com 


NEWS 

IN BRIEF 

It's new visual identity 

is designed to show 

the interconnected 

nature of the Group 

New ID for Callcredit 

CABOT IPO DELAYED 

CABOT Credit Management’s planned £1 

billion pound initial public offering has 

been delayed by the resignation from 

its board of the former boss of Provident 

Financial. A filing by Cabot shows former 

Provident Financial Chief Executive Peter 

Crook stepped down as a Director on 8 

September. 

Cabot had planned to announce its 

intention to float in London but his 

departure has delayed the process. Crook 

left Provident after more than a decade in 

August following a profit warning by the 

British subprime lender, its second in two 

months, which sparked a 66 percent share 

price fall. 

Provident also suspended its dividend 

and disclosed that the Financial Conduct 

Authority was investigating a product sold 

by its Vanquis Bank business. 

Cabot is still planning to press ahead 

with its flotation this year. The Canada 

Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) 

and private equity firm Apax Partners had 

separately expressed interest in buying 

Cabot this year, although the talks did not 

develop. 

cabotcm.com 

CALLCREDIT Information Group has 

reported record results and at the same time 

has launched a new identity designed to 

position the business for continued growth 

both in the UK and internationally. 

The Group recorded an 18 percent 

increase in gross revenue to £201 million 

(2015: £170 million). Over the same period, 

group operating profits outpaced revenues, 

growing by over 20 percent. 

Growth during the period was said to be 

both organic and acquisitive. The Group’s 

client base expanded with a number of key 

account wins across multiple sectors and 

was augmented by a number of strategic 

acquisitions. The company bought customer 

experience specialist, Numero, in March 

2016 and device fraud protection firm, 

Recipero, in September 2016. In September 

2017, it acquired leading Spanish fraud 

prevention and anti-money laundering 

business, the Confirma group of companies, 

and appointed a head of Spain. 

Callcredit says that its new visual 

identity is designed to show the 

interconnected nature of the Group, how it 

is able to transform data into meaningful 

insights and answers so its clients and 

consumers can make faster and more 

informed decisions. callcredit.co.uk 

DOWN TOOLS 

BIBBY Financial Services has agreed a 

£1.6 million funding facility for Toolspec 

Manufacturing Company. The new 

facility is a combination of £1.3 million in 

invoice discounting and £300,000 through 

asset finance. Established in 1961, the 

Bedfordshire-based manufacturer is a 

specialist welding and fabricating business, 

that provides a range of welding products for 

the automotive and agricultural industries 

to well-known businesses including Jaguar 

Land Rover, JCB and Case New Holland. 

bibbyfinancialservices.com 

Phillips & Cohen shortlisted in contact centre awards 

CALLMINER and Phillips & Cohen 

Associates have been shortlisted for 

the ‘Best Customer Insight/Voice of the 

Customer Initiative’ by the European 

Contact Centre and Customer Service 

Awards 2017. 

The ‘Best Customer Insight/Voice of 

the Customer Initiative’ Award recognises 

organisations which have successfully 

implemented a robust model for collecting 

and analysing Voice of the Customer 

data. Phillips & Cohen was shortlisted 

for achieving significant customer 

experience benefits from its deployment 

of the CallMiner Eureka speech analytics 

solution. 

The entry showed how interaction 

analytics helped its call centre to drive 

successful customer outcomes, enhance 

competitive strengths and improve key 

metrics, by analysing 100 percent of 

customer calls to deliver a truly accurate 

picture of the voice of the customer. 

Nick Cherry, COO, Phillips & Cohen 

Associates, says Voice of the customer 

feedback is a real game-changer for 

the business as the nature of its work 

makes it a challenge to obtain through 

traditional feedback and survey methods: 

“CallMiner Eureka provides us with 

meaningful trend analysis and voice of the 

customer measures we simply didn’t have 

before.” 

The Winners will be announced on 

28 November at the ECCCSAs Award Gala 

Dinner. phillips-cohen.co.uk 

Voice of the customer 

feedback is a real gamechanger 

for the business 

as the nature of its work 

makes it a challenge to 

obtain through 

feedback. 

Nick Cherry MCICM 

COO, Phillips & Cohen 

Associates 


News in Numbers – provided by the Money Charity 

THE.news . IN 

NUMBERS 

LIZ 

£1,344 

TRILLION 

SECURED DEBT IN THE UK, THE 

HIGHEST IT HAS EVER BEEN 

£1,545 

TRILLION 

TOTAL PRIVATE DEBT IN THE 

UK, WHICH HAS NEVER BEEN 

HIGHER 

£530 

MILLION 

OF DEBT WRITTEN OFF (OF WHICH 

£394 MILLION WAS CREDIT CARD 

DEBT) AMOUNTING TO A DAILY 

WRITE-OFF OF £7 MILLION 

3,321 

CONSUMER 

COUNTY COURT JUDGMENTS 

(CCJS) ARE ISSUED EVERY DAY, 

WITH AN AVERAGE 

VALUE OF £1,495. 

£1.754 

TRILLION 

PUBLIC 

SECTOR 

NET DEBT (EXCLUDING 

BANKS) 

£3,880 

AVERAGE 

CONSUMER 

CREDIT BORROWING 

PER UK ADULT 

£1.344 

TRILLION 

OUTSTANDING 

MORTGAGE 

LENDING AT THE 

END OF JUNE 

THE POPULATION 

OF THE UK GREW BY AN ESTIMATED 1,286 PEOPLE A DAY BETWEEN 2014 AND 2015. 

1,054 

PEOPLE 

A DAY REPORTED THEY 

HAD BECOME REDUNDANT 

BETWEEN MARCH AND MAY. 

£200.882 BILLION 

UNSECURED DEBT IN THE UK, THE HIGHEST SINCE 2008 

>NEWS 

IN BRIEF 

Bingham takes 

new role at the IPA 

Bingham OBE has joined the Insolvency 

Practitioner’s Association (IPA) team to assist 

Council and support the CEO, management 

team and staff. Her role is described as being 

in part ambassadorial, and in part focused on 

helping the IPA with its own strategic review and 

implementation of its IIP standards. 

Liz was most recently Managing Partner to the UK 

and Ireland Leadership Team at Ernst & Young (E&Y) 

with responsibility for the firm’s people engagement 

and development strategy, having previously led 

E&Y’s restructuring practice. Liz is an IPA-licensed 

Insolvency Practitioner and Former President of R3. 

Liz was awarded an OBE in 2015 for services to 

Equality in the Workplace and in 2016 was awarded 

an Honorary Doctorate of Laws by the University 

of Bath for her work in diversity in professional 

practices. insolvency-practitioners.org.uk 

Growing funds 

NEW figures released by the Finance & Leasing 

Association (FLA) show that asset finance new 

business (primarily leasing and hire purchase) for 

deals of up to £20 million grew by six percent in July, 

compared with the same month last year. Including 

high value deals, new business fell by one percent 

over the same period. The plant and machinery 

finance and business equipment finance sectors 

reported new business up in July by 20 percent and 

13 percent respectively, compared with the same 

month in 2016, while new finance for commercial 

vehicles was flat over the same period. fla.org.uk 

SIDETRADE 

collaboration 

MORETON Smith has unveiled a new software 

platform in collaboration with developers at 

Sidetrade. The system is said to permit workflow 

design at a client level, giving clients the flexibility 

to determine their own collections strategy for debt 

and credit control activity. A blend of automated 

activities and outbound call campaigns are 

employed in the workflows, based on date or prior 

outcomes. The system incorporates multiple contact 

channels and allows customers to update their 

contact details, raise queries, record promises to pay 

and make payment. 

moretonsmith.co.uk uk.sidetrade.com 


Goldman Sachs to launch new 

consumer lending arm 

GOLDMAN Sachs is considering launching 

a consumer lending arm in the UK, to 

compete with the likes of Zopa and 

RateSetter. 

The investment bank is reportedly 

looking to expand its retail banking 

business in the UK, initially with savings 

accounts, but potentially moving into 

lending too. 

Goldman Sachs has traditionally been 

known for wealth management and 

investment banking services. However, 

last year it began offering high-interest 

online savings accounts in the US which 

can be opened with deposits of just $1 

(76p), and followed this up by launching 

Marcus By Goldman Sachs, an online 

New addition to UK finance board 

LORD Macpherson of Earl’s Court, the 

former permanent secretary to the 

Treasury, is set to join the UK Finance 

board. The board of the newly-established 

trade association is led by UK Finance 

chair Bob Wigley and comprises 19 other 

senior industry representatives across 

retail, SME, wholesale and consumer. 

Lord Macpherson – who is the chair of 

the privately-owned bank C Hoare & Co – 

will lead on private banking. UK Finance 

was formed on 1 July and represents 

around 300 firms in the UK providing 

credit, banking, markets and paymentrelated 

services. 

Its members offer a wide range of 

financial and advisory services across 

both mutual and corporates, representing 

regional, national, domestic and 

international businesses. The board has 

been developed to ensure senior and fair 

consumer lending platform. 

The bank may be looking to replicate 

this approach in the UK, with plans to 

unveil an online deposit business by the 

middle of 2018. 

Stephen Scherr, Head of Strategy at 

Goldman Sachs confirmed that the next 

step would be to launch a consumerlending 

arm, taking on the UK’s big P2P 

names. 

Marcus, which offers loans of up to 

$30,000 to consumer borrowers, has 

already passed $1 billion in loans since 

launching in October 2016 with the 

target of passing $2 billion by the end of 

this year. 

goldmansachs.com 

Northern Powerhouse 

The British Business Bank has announced a new £15 million fund to support businesses 

in the North West. The Government-backed bank has partnered with MSIF – a Liverpoolbased 

loan and equity provider – to launch the North West Business Growth Fund. The fund 

is the first investment fund under the British Business Bank’s Help to Grow programme and 

will support established businesses which are seeking development capital. 

british-business-bank.co.uk 

representations across the industry. Its 

main focus will be on issues of importance 

to retail, SME and wholesale customers, 

including ethics, financial inclusion, 

financial fraud, crime, access to markets 

and diversity. 

UK Finance says that its board will also 

ensure the consumer voice is represented 

via the inclusion of a strong, independent 

consumer champion, while significant 

overlap of board members with the banking 

standards board will support a close 

cooperation with its work to promote high 

standards across the industry. 

“Lord Macpherson’s appointment 

completes the UK Finance board and is 

another significant milestone for our new 

association, providing representation for 

our members in the private banking space,” 

says Bob Wigley. 

ukfinance.org.uk 

>NEWS 

IN BRIEF 

OPEN FOR ENTRIES 

ENTRIES for the CICM British Credit 

Awards 2018 are being welcomed and 

businesses have until 27 October to 

submit entry forms for the 18 categories. 

Further information can be found on the 

website: 

cicmbritishcreditawards.com. 

Aldermore 

appoints Chief 

credit officer 

Aldermore has appointed John Wood to the 

newly-created role of Chief Credit Officer. 

John joins Aldermore from Royal Bank of 

Scotland where he has worked for the last 27 

years in a variety of portfolio management 

and risk roles. 

More recently he had responsibility for 

the embedding of a credit risk management 

framework in its asset and invoice finance 

businesses. He has also held a variety of 

senior credit risk roles involving credit 

sanctioning, credit risk appetite and policy 

frameworks, credit portfolio oversight 

and day-to-day credit origination and 

management. 

In his new role John will report to 

Christine Palmer, Chief Risk Officer, and 

will join the Bank’s Group Risk Senior 

Leadership Team. He will be based at the 

Bank’s Reading office. 

aldermore.co.uk 

DIGITAL AGENDA 

PHILLIPS & Cohen Associates (PCA) has 

moved to strengthen its position as an 

innovator of digital offerings to consumers. 

Echoing the theme of the recent CFPB 

guidance on consumer contact strategies, 

the group has appointed Bob Bednar as 

SVP Consumer Communication and Digital 

Strategy, to lead its digital innovation 

agenda. Bob is described as a recognised 

consumer communications and marketing 

specialist with over 20 years’ industry 

experience and is ideally equipped to build 

on PCA’s success in this field to date. 

phillips-cohen.co.uk 

CICM 

IN BRIEF 

This month's briefing includes details of 

the CICM British Credit Awards and how 

you can enter, CICM training courses 

including telephone collections for 

the construction industry, and CICM 

Apprenticeships. 


Report shows 

retirement pots 

are shrinking 

AROUND a third of all adults (32 

percent) are failing to invest in 

order to support their lifestyle 

in retirement, a new study from Close 

Brothers Asset Management has found. 

This is despite the fact that more than 

one in three (35 percent) are concerned 

about not having enough money in their 

pension pot to retire, while more than a 

quarter (27 percent) are worried there will 

not be enough cash available when they 

retire to cover emergencies. 

Even with these worries, more than a 

third (36 percent) do not plan to increase 

the size of their contributions into their 

pensions, while 15 percent say they do not 

plan to retire at all. 

The study found that confusion about 

the options available is preventing adults 

from saving and investing effectively. One 

in five British adults said they were worried 

about which retirement option would suit 

them best, with a quarter saying that they 

found changes to the pension system – 

such as the introduction of the pension 

freedoms confusing. 

David Newman, Head of Pensions at 

Close Brothers Asset Management, says 

it was crucial to close the gaps in both 

pension saving and knowledge: “Auto 

enrolment has boosted the number of 

people contributing to a pension but the 

Making tracks 

HITACHI Capital (UK) has announced plans 

for further European expansion for the 

business following a planned new branch 

office opening in Amsterdam, Netherlands 

in September. 

The branch office is the second 

business Hitachi Capital has established 

in the Netherlands, following the recent 

acquisition of Noordlease Holdings B.V in 

January this year. The Netherlands branch 

will provide vendor finance solutions to 

Hitachi and Mitsubishi group companies, 

whose European head offices are based in 

the country. hitachicapital.co.uk 

Figures from the 

Department for Work 

& Pensions last week 

revealed that the 

average age of people 

exiting the work force 

has increased over the 

past two decades. 

amounts being put aside each month are 

simply not enough. 

“Putting aside the bare minimum 

will not guarantee that the next wave of 

retirees will have the necessary income in 

retirement. Working in later life should be 

a choice not a necessity, and it’s a concern 

that around one in seven people expect 

never to retire.” 

Figures from the Department for Work 

& Pensions last week revealed that the 

average age of people exiting the work force 

has increased over the past two decades, 

while the employment rates of people over 

the age of 50 have also increased. 

closebrothersam.com 

Equifax 

partners with 

Ensek 

EQUIFAX and ENSEK, a leading UK energy 

solutions company, have formed a joint 

partnership to support identity verification 

and credit assessment services for new-tomarket 

energy suppliers. 

The integration between Equifax and 

ENSEK will supply real-time consumer 

and commercial data to energy providers, 

enabling them to onboard new customers 

more efficiently as part of an automated 

process. Equifax says that the insight 

provided will give energy firms a better 

understanding of customers at the point of 

registration, helping to mitigate the risk of 

fraud and bad debt. 

The solution is offered within ENSEK’s 

advanced technology platform, and the 

firm claims that its clients will benefit from 

seamless integration of Equifax insights 

into their customer registration process. 

equifax.co.uk 

>NEWS 

IN BRIEF 

GOLD STANDARD 

1ST Credit has achieved gold standard from 

Investor in Customers (IIC) for ‘exceptional’ 

customer service for the fourth year 

running. 1st Credit increased its scores 

across the board – from customers, staff, 

management and independent assessor IIC. 

The company achieved an overall score of 

8.86 out of 10, up from 8.50 in 2016 and its 

third consecutive year of increases. The 

results showed the company’s staff to be 

highly motivated and encouraged to tailor 

plans to individual customer needs. In total, 

more than 98 percent of team members said 

treating customers fairly is an everyday 

priority in the business. 1stcredit.com 

GIRL POWER 

More women are seeking financial advice 

due to increasing rates of divorce and the 

rise of female entrepreneurs, according to a 

study by Investec Wealth and Investment. 

The research among intermediaries 

found that women accounted for two-fifths 

(40 percent) of IFA clients in 2012 but 47 

percent of new clients gained over the 

past two years. Over a quarter (26 percent) 

of advisers said one of the main drivers 

behind the increase in female clients is they 

are taking more control of their financial 

circumstances; a fifth (19 percent) cited the 

growth of women succeeding in business. 

However, the biggest factors are divorce (51 

percent) and the death of their spouse (35 

percent). investec.com 

PSOGD CLOSES 

The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) 

and Bank of England (BoE) says that the 

Payment System Operator Delivery Group 

(PSODG) has completed the necessary 

steps to deliver against the mandate that 

the regulators tasked it with. Following the 

appointment of Melanie Johnson as its first 

chair, work will continue to deliver the New 

Payment Systems Operator (NPSO) by the 

end of 2017. With the NPSO now taking the 

lead, the PSR and the BoE have confirmed 

the closure of the PSODG. 

psr.org.uk bankofengland.co.uk 


INSOLVENCY 

Pre-packs – 

back on the agenda 

As numbers of Pre-packs are expected to fall to an all-time 

low, David Kerr explores where the issues may lie. 

AUTHOR – David Kerr MCICM is the Chief Executive of the Insolvency Practitioners Association (IPA). 

David Kerr 

NOISE levels around Pre-pack 

administrations may be 

lower than they have been in 

the past, but there are quiet 

rumblings in the insolvency 

world about this procedure, 

how it affects creditors, and the potential for 

legislative change. 

The term ‘Pre-packaged sale’ refers to an 

arrangement under which the sale of all or part 

of a company’s business or assets is negotiated 

with a purchaser prior to the appointment of 

an administrator, and where the administrator 

then effects the sale immediately on, or 

shortly after, his/her appointment. 

The nature of an insolvency practitioner’s 

position renders transparency in all dealings 

of primary importance and particularly so 

in these circumstances. Administration is a 

collective insolvency proceeding – creditors 

and other interested parties should have 

confidence that the insolvency practitioner 

has acted professionally and with objectivity, 

and failure to demonstrate this clearly may 

bring the insolvency practitioner and the 

profession into disrepute. 

Therefore, insolvency practitioners have 

a duty to recognise the high level of interest 

the public and the business community 

have in Pre-packaged sales of businesses by 

administrators, and to assume there will be 

greater interest in and scrutiny of such sales 

where the directors and/or shareholders of 

the purchasing entity are the same as, or are 

connected parties of, the insolvent entity. 

It is equally important that the insolvency 

practitioner acts and is seen to be acting 

in the interests of the company’s creditors 

as a whole and is able to demonstrate this. 

Requirements in Statement of Insolvency 

Practice 16 include providing creditors with 

sufficient information to demonstrate that 

there has been due regard for creditors’ 

interests – by way of a narrative explanation 

and justification of the transaction entered 

into, within a week of it taking place. 

These measures were introduced in 

November 2015 when the Pre-pack pool 

opened its doors to applications from 

connected party purchasers, with the potential 

for independent pool members to provide an 

assurance to creditors about the Pre-pack 

deal…so far, so good. Take up in the period 

to December 2016 was 28 percent of eligible 

transactions – not a bad start, but there was an 

expectation that numbers would grow. 

The problem is that they haven’t. The 

application numbers have slowed, and at the 

present rate the total for 2017 could be lower 

than last year. What does that say about the 

‘success’ of this process, which was one of 

the steps taken by the insolvency profession 

and business community to implement 

recommendations made by Teresa Graham 

in her report on Pre-packs? Does the scheme 

need to be made compulsory to be effective, 

do the pool’s doors need to be opened to 

applications from practitioners, should other 

connected party transactions be included, 

or should perhaps pool members review all 

SIP16 statements to increase coverage? 

A number of the above options have been 

considered by the Pre-pack pool oversight 

group, and some will be discussed by the Joint 

Insolvency Committee (on which CICM has a 

seat). A key question might be to what extent 

creditors pay attention to the SIP16 statements 

and pool opinions where they are provided, 

and to what extent are creditors’ decisions 

on future trading with the new company 

influenced by a pool member’s report. If 

there is no discernible difference in creditors’ 

approach, then what will drive purchasers 

to pay for an opinion which is little read or 

considered? 

The Government could outlaw connected 

party transactions, but would that really 

be in creditors’ best interests? The need 

for transparency is well understood, but 

a connected party will often produce the 

best price and therefore better prospects 

for creditors. Perhaps a ban on transactions 

that haven’t been to the pool is one option to 

consider, but what if the applicant receives a 

negative opinion? At the moment, the sale can 

still proceed. 

A wider question is whether driving 

traffic to the pool is necessarily the mostworthy 

objective. A broader review of the 

pool and what it can and cannot achieve 

might be appropriate, and creditors should be 

consulted on that. In any event, any change to 

SIP16 would ordinarily be subject to a public 

consultation, and CICM would no doubt 

participate in the debate. Some individual 

CICM members may have strong views on the 

subject; now is the time to make them heard! 


ASK THE EXPERTS 

Charles Wilson answers 

the question: how do I 

assess the effectiveness of 

my third-party collection 

agency or lawyers? 

AUTHOR – Charles Wilson FCICM is Chairman of Lovetts Solicitors. 

Charles Wilson 

In the end, the way 

in which you assess 

the effectiveness 

of your collections 

agency will vary 

depending on the 

type of business 

you run, and your 

own priorities and 

circumstances. 

THE many advantages of using a 

third-party collection agency or 

law firm to recover debt have 

been well documented over the 

years, and although there are 

also some benefits to having an 

in-house collections team, more companies 

are using third parties today than ever before. 

Although the benefits are widely known, an 

important question that you should be asking 

yourself is – how do you assess the effectiveness 

of your third-party collection agency? 

Regularly monitoring the job that they do 

goes a long way to ensuring that this method 

of collection is the right one for your business 

and that you’re spending your money wisely. 

In order to carry out this assessment, you’ll be 

looking to focus on two key areas: qualitative 

and quantitative KPIs. 

QUALITATIVE KPIS 

In business, it’s of vital importance to 

maintain a solid working relationship with 

your clients, and being able to solve a debt 

issue without damaging a hard-earned trade 

relationship between supplier and customer is 

so important. Of course, there will be instances 

where the relationship has soured to the point 

of no return, and your primary objective is 

simply to recover the money owed; but when 

a good trading relationship can sometimes 

take months of hard work to create, you 

need to know that your third-party collection 

agency is able to salvage, or even benefit that 

relationship wherever possible. 

Does your collection agency, for example, 

offer access to their services via an online 

platform? 

This allows for greater flexibility as to when 

you access their services, allowing you to take 

care of matters outside regular working hours, 

or get a document or even cost summary, in a 

minute or two. If they only offer direct access 

via telephone or in person then how responsive 

are they when you contact them? 

Some third-party agencies assign each of 

their clients to a case manager or paralegal, 

who is the main point of contact throughout 

the process. This has proven to be a far more 

effective way of working as they become 

familiar with your situation, they know your 

business and your policies on collection. Yet 

they should also be part of a close team, so 

others can help as need be. 

You may also need to consider different 

tactics for different customers. Can you get 

advice on options? 

Some may need the urgency of the threat of 

insolvency; others may just need the escalating 

cost of a Court claim. Yet with others, only 

a third-party phone call to ensure the right 

person is reminded to pay is needed. 

Consider all these factors in order to assess 

how effective your DCA or law firm is when it 

comes to quality of service. 

QUANTITATIVE KPIS 

While the quality KPIs can vary depending 

on what type of support you’re looking for in 

a collection agency, the quantitative KPIs are 

relatively straightforward. 

Look at hard figures and the results are far 

easier to assess. You’re going to be looking at 

how long on average it takes for the agency to 

close a case. Are your customers responding to 

the methods used by your third-party collector? 

Are they quick to follow up on communications 

and deal with any issues? Or do they routinely 

allow issues to drag on over days or even weeks 

without cause? 

How many cases do they manage to close in 

any given time period? Most significantly, what 

is the success rate? How much is it costing 

you per case on average? As a business, you’re 

looking to maintain that balance between a 

high-quality service and cost effectiveness. 

Are they recovering your collection costs or 

commissions through the legal process, if that 

applies? 

In the end, the way in which you assess the 

effectiveness of your collections agency will 

vary depending on the type of business you run, 

and your own priorities and circumstances. 

What is important is that you routinely run this 

assessment, and make sure that the third-party 

collection agency is right for you, and delivers 

the results you expect. 


For more information call 01206 322 575 

info@safecomputing.co.uk 

www.safe-financials.co.uk 


EDUCATION 

Creating the A-Team 

Does your team have a unique identity? Are you making the most of 

your CICM membership? Debbie Tuckwood, CICM Head of Education 

and Professional Development, challenges you to look critically at your 

team’s human resource management and gives tips about how CICM 

can help transform your team’s skills and profile. 

WITH threats of interest 

rate increases and 

Brexit deadlines 

looming, the role of 

credit management 

and collections has 

never been more critical in supporting 

profitable sales and maximising cashflow. 

Debbie questions however the extent 

that credit management teams get the 

recognition they deserve: “Too often I meet 

credit managers who feel undervalued. 

Some may argue that managers should 

manage stakeholders better to showcase 

the role of credit management and put 

in place reporting which highlights the 

responsibilities of other departments to 

keep queries and DSO down. 

“From a team perspective though, credit 

managers often have little HR support, 

limited training budget and are faced 

with reduced headcount. At best, they are 

offered with general finance, or customer 

service training which although useful, 

does not build core credit management 

knowledge and skills. Under resourced 

and with little time for strategic thinking, 

success rests often solely on a manager’s 

determination and ability to motivate and 

inspire the team.’’ 

Debbie believes that by simply taking a 

short time out to engage with CICM would 

pay dividends. “You need to establish a credit 

and collections focus in all aspects of your 

HR management. Your CICM membership 

gives access to a wealth of advice and 

support which could transform your 

credit and collections operation and more 

importantly raise the profile of your team, 

regardless of your budget and experience 

in this area. As the saying goes, ‘It is not 

what you do, but the way that you do it’. 

Concentrating energy on HR management, 

even if temporarily to establish the 

basics, would build skills and establish 

that credit management focus needed in 

your team’s HR management and 

relationships with other departments. In 

my opinion, this is the best way to create 

an A-team and raise the profile of credit 

management.” 

Do these issues apply to you? Rate your 

HR arrangements against the criteria below 

to measure how near you are to being an 

A-team. Note any gaps and see the tips and 

advice below about how CICM can help you 

address these. 

A. Job roles mapped clearly to credit controller/collector industry 

recognised standards, qualifications and CICM membership, 

including detailed job descriptions and personal specifications. 

The new Credit Controller/Collector Apprenticeship Standards 

are based on the job descriptions of some of the best credit 

management and debt collection operations in the UK. 

B. Job descriptions for managers and senior roles include activity 

that encourages cross organisational responsibility for cashflow 

management. 

Place credit management at the centre of operations. 

CICM membership gives access to an array of best practice 

examples, many from managers of CICMQ accredited 

operations 

C. New starter induction programmes combine company 

CICM A-Team criteria 

briefings with credit and collections and role specific training. 

Too often training in credit and collections teams is ‘sitting next 

to Nellie’. Search the CICM Training Directory for examples 

of credit management/collections specific training and 

lunch time webinars. Look out next year for new online 

learning for CICM members to help build specialised 

knowledge. 

D. New credit controller/collectors have the support of a 

more experienced colleague or trainer over an initial period 

who phases in more complex work as skills and experience 

grow. 

E. New credit controller/collectors complete an assessment of 

their knowledge and skills before involvement in more critical 

or customer-facing work. 


EDUCATION 

Visit CICMOS for personal assessments and make full use 

of CICM’s growing online learning resources coming next 

year. 

F. All key members of the credit management/collections 

department, including all learners are registered as CICM 

members and are qualified to the industry recommended level. 

This is critical to raise standards and a sense of professionalism. 

Build pride by encouraging members to wear their CICM 

badge. Find out the benefits of CICM corporate membership 

and learning partnerships such as significant savings on CICM 

training and membership. 

G. All members of the credit and collections team understand 

the knowledge, skills and behaviours required for their role and 

have access to specialist technical training to address any gaps 

and develop skills further. 

New CICM self-assessment is coming next year to help measure 

your knowledge and skills against industry standards. 

H. All have access to CICM qualification programmes to develop 

high level knowledge and skills. 

Do key people have the right level of knowledge and 

skills? Check they are qualified to the right level. Look 

out for CICM qualification courses recruiting now. Book 

early to secure a place on the popular CICM virtual classes. 

Benefit from the extra knowledge and skills that qualified 

members bring to the team. Also deter talented team 

members from leaving by supporting their qualification 

ambitions. 

I. Line managers/trainers encourage a rich learning environment 

which includes access to a range of credit and collections 

activities which develop an external perspective. 

CICM membership offers a range of support. Maximise the 

benefits of membership by encouraging attendance at CICM 

events, e.g. Regional Workshops, Best Practice events, Branch 

Events, Education Conference, Law Conference, CICM Open 

Training. Learn from Aggregate Industries, a CICM Centre of 

Excellence, by creating a CICM event calendar and encouraging 

the credit staff to attend each event. Also make the most of 

advice and guidance delivered direct to the workplace through 

Credit Management magazine, member lunchtime webinars, 

open access training webinars, eBuzz, In Brief, Technical 

Briefing, LinkedIn Credit Community discussions, CEO’s blog 

and CICM news items delivered through the website, Twitter, 

LinkedIn and Facebook. 

J. Line managers hold monthly one-to-ones to discuss progress 

towards learning and performance goals and set priorities. 

Make time for regular one-to-ones because they are critical to 

developing strong teams. Use the time to focus on individual 

development, starting with reviewing CPD records to make 

learning ‘visible’, and steer progress by identifying worthwhile 

development activities, e.g. shadowing a more experienced 

colleague, reading an article or undergoing further training 

or a qualification course. 

K. CPD is a mandatory departmental requirement, and line 

managers discuss progress with continuous professional 

development (CPD) in one-to-ones and submit records to CICM 

for certification annually. 

CICM membership fees cover certification of your CPD 

records. Are you making the most of this? Add ‘CPD hours’ to 

annual appraisals to emphasise the importance of keeping upto-date 

and building knowledge and skills. Don’t rest on your 

laurels, your team needs to keep up with their peers or your 

operation will be slipping backwards. Also, more motivated 

team members could seek a more forward-thinking employer. 

L. Regular team meetings focus on key targets and help resolve 

any issues. 

Learn from other CICM members about the best ways to 

conduct these. Many large CICMQ accredited teams have 

daily ‘huddles’ around large movable boards that summarise 

progress towards key targets and highlight any issues and 

success. 

M. Managers run events periodically to build commitment 

to stretching credit management targets, involving other 

departments to help achieve goals. 

CICM membership gives access to a wide range of best practice 

ideas to make such events fun and successful. Go for CICMQ 

accreditation to gain access to the CICM Best Practice Network 

to learn more about inspirational CICMQ company events 

which have smashed targets by setting spectacular goals. 

N. Mentoring arrangements with other credit and collections 

specialists are in place to provide relevant additional support 

and encourage progression. 

CICM will be recruiting hundreds of mentors at all levels 

towards the end of the year to join a new online mentor 

platform for members. Whether you are just completing your 

first CICM award or credit controller/collector apprenticeship 

or you are a more experienced member, sign up as a mentor to 

support another CICM member. Look out for more information 

in forthcoming months. 

O. Managers recognise, praise and reward the success of their 

credit/collections team regularly. 

Do you thank and congratulate your team enough? This could 

simply be a ‘thank you’ email to a team member who has 

achieved outstanding results, resolved a particularly difficult 

issue or shown exemplary behaviour. Copy in a senior manager 

to give the opportunity for further recognition. Go for external 

recognition, such as CICMQ accreditation or a British Credit 

Award. Don’t underestimate the sense of pride and impact of 

gaining either of these accolades or even being shortlisted for 

such prestigious awards. You have to be in it to win it. 

How did you score? 

FEW GAPS 

Brilliant. You are probably CICMQ accredited, a CICM learning partner 

or corporate member. If so, why not consider going for CICM Centre 

of Excellence status. This month, two companies, Aimia Foods and 

Adecco UK & Ireland, achieved this highest accolade, joining longestablished 

Centres of Excellence – Aggregate Industries (UK) and 

Veolia Environmental Services UK. 

GAPS IN FIVE TO TEN AREAS 

You have basic HR arrangements in place but they are probably not 

credit management/collections focused enough. Contact the CICM 

Learning and Development department to find out how CICM learning 

partnerships and corporate membership could give you that focus 

and make savings on CICM membership, training and qualification 

fees. 

GAPS IN MORE THAN TEN AREAS 

You need to build from scratch. Contact the CICM to find out how you 

can get started and make the most of your CICM membership. You 

could probably benefit from some credit management specific training. 

Interested in finding our more? Email info@cicm.com with details 

about your main areas of interest so that we can find the best person 

for you to talk to. Good luck with creating the A-Team! 


OPINION 

Money talks 

Rob Thompson explains the recent changes to bring 

greater access to justice and whether they will provide 

better value for money. 

AUTHOR – Rob Thompson, Partner at Brachers LLP, Vice Chair of the Civil Court Users Association. 

Rob Thompson 

The gamble in 

pursuing a money 

claim is not whether 

you will ‘win’ the 

claim, but whether 

the resulting 

Judgment will ever 

be repaid. 

THOSE of us who pursue money 

claims viewed the Supreme 

Court’s recent decision 

regarding employment tribunal 

fees with interest. The court 

ruled that such fees were 

unlawful, forcing the Government to repay 

more than £27 million collected since they 

were introduced in 2013. 

How is this connected to money claims? 

Well, over the last few years money claims 

have seen relentless rises in fees. Issue fees, 

in particular, have increased to the point that 

to issue a single claim can often now cost as 

much as walking into a showroom and buying 

a brand new car. 

I am not suggesting that such a hike in fees 

would necessarily render them unlawful in the 

same way as the introduction of employment 

tribunal fees. Given that the majority of claims 

are brought by large creditors such as financial 

institutions rather than a wronged employee, 

there is also no chance of a concerted 

campaign by the unions, as there was with 

the tribunal fees. For the same reason, there 

is little sympathy and no chance of a media 

storm. It is simply not a story that would sell 

newspapers. 

Yet, from an access to justice perspective 

there are massive similarities. It is generally 

accepted that the imposition of tribunal fees 

did not dissuade workers from pursuing 

hopeless cases, but rather discouraged genuine 

workers from exercising their rights under the 

law. In the same way, I would suggest that it 

is now generally accepted that the massive 

increase in claim fees has been responsible for 

the dramatic decline in larger money claims. 

Let’s consider that for a moment. Hardly 

any money claims are defended. The gamble 

in pursuing a money claim is not whether you 

will ‘win’ the claim, but whether the resulting 

Judgment will ever be repaid. The chance 

of that happening has stayed the same, but 

the stake money has rendered the gamble 

unpalatable to all but the most hardened of 

risk-takers. Better to accept the losses already 

incurred than add to them. Why not buy 

yourself that new car instead? 

The general public may have little sympathy 

for the big businesses who issue many of 

these claims, but that misses the point. This 

is harming businesses and utilities which 

harms all of us. It impacts the UK economy 

and it increases the prices that consumers pay. 

It does also directly impact small businesses 

and the man in the street if they are ever 

unfortunate enough to be owed a large debt 

and are suddenly faced with a huge fee, just to 

exercise their legal right to be repaid. 

It also harms Defendants. As the fees 

increase in line with the size of the debt, there 

is probably now more chance of receiving 

a Judgment against your name if you owe a 

smaller debt than if you owe a large one. What 

message is that sending? 

These fees have largely been responsible 

for the rise in fee income to the civil courts 

to almost £800 million in the last financial 

year, resulting in a surplus to the Government 

once expenses were taken into account of £102 

million. 

So presumably court users are seeing a 

fantastic service in return? That doesn’t seem 

to be the experience of most court users. As 

an example, during the course of that same 

financial year, a change was made to the timing 

of payments to Judgment Creditors under 

Attachment of Earnings Orders. These were 

paid weekly, but this was changed to monthly, 

meaning even more delay before money was 

received. Surely with the amounts of money 

being made, the service should improve, not 

go backwards? 

The fees are too high. However, if they have 

to be that high then at the very least there 

needs to be a superb service in line with the 

fees being paid and the surplus being made. 

There are exciting times ahead with various 

reform projects underway and the promise of 

the new online court. I sincerely hope that the 

starting point is far greater consideration of 

access to justice, together with much improved 

customer service and satisfaction. 


THE 

CREDIT CONTROL 

RECRUITMENT 

SPECIALISTS 

www.portfoliocreditcontrol.com 

WHY USE 

PORTFOLIO CREDIT CONTROL? 

From support level or admin 

positions to Head of Credit Control, 

we know only the best willdo; so our 

consultants guideyou throughthe 

process of attracting and hiring the 

highest quality candidates. 

Our industryexpertise and market 

knowledge makes us proudtobe 

recruitment partners with arange 

of FTSE 100clients throughto 

household names and SME’s 

acrossthe wholeofthe UK. 

At all times we liketogive our 

clients aconsultative and informed 

approach with atruefocus on delivery 

to their requirements which really sets 

our consultants apartacross 

the industry. 

Our highly competitive fee structure 

ensures youacosteffective service 

payable only once acandidate has 

successfully commenced employment. 

THE PORTFOLIO CREDIT CONTROL SALARY SURVEY 2017/2018 

The definitive guide on the market isFREE at request from one of our 

Credit Control Specialists 

The Guide Includes: 

• 30Day Free Trial To Croner’s SalarySearch* • AFree 3Month CICM Taster Membership* 

• ExpansiveInsight &Data On Credit Control Salaries 

CALL US TODAY ON 020 7650 3199 

to receive your FREE Salary Survey. 

*T’s &C’s apply. 

Email recruitment@portfoliocreditcontrol.com 

or visit www.portfoliocreditcontrol.com

VIEW FROM THE SEA FRONT 

The d word 

David Andrews examines the UK’s growing debt 

burden with a wry look at how it all started. 

Dfor Debt, with a capital D 

for emphasis. As if those 

swamped by debt – and 

there are clearly many – 

need any further underlining 

of their plight. 

Wherever you look, it’s everywhere. 

Ubiquitous. Contemporary Western society 

has been built on the foundations of debt. 

From the days of the promise of a sheep 

or a goat in exchange for a spot of land, 

advancing through to the monetarisation 

of modern societies, debt has by turns 

haunted and plagued those who are mired 

in it. 

As debt has evolved, and a necessary 

demarcation between consumer and 

corporate or government debt emerged, 

the term ‘consumer debt’ – a euphemism 

for the medium through which so many 

of us regulate our finances from month to 

month – is rarely far from media headlines. 

I recall making the journey up the A1 

from London to Stamford – home to CM 

magazine – in my battered Alfa Romeo in 

the spring of 1988. A young man, headed 

north for some trial shifts on a magazine 

which I knew little or nothing about. My 

editor in those far off days was Richard 

Smith. Clever, witty, a 30-a-day hack of the 

old school. And a man who knew a thing or 

two about debt. 

Coming as I did from an arts 

background, mostly writing about new 

movie releases, books, theatre and the 

like, my only real knowledge of debt was 

the ever-increasing burden of my monthly 

credit card statements. Plus, the fact that 

my mortgage, which started out at seven 

percent in 1986, had leaped to just shy of 14 

percent by 1988. 

In common with millions of 

homeowners at the time, I was caught up 

in the shocking leap in Bank of England 

base rates, which spiralled ever upwards at 

a giddying pace. 

Many people were effectively ruined 

by this calamitous rise, keys to no longer 

affordable properties were regularly 

posted back to the banks and building 

societies that had agreed the mortgages. 

Hundreds of thousands of properties were 

repossessed. It was a very difficult time. 

“The first thing you should know 

David,” said Richard, ushering me to a desk 

in the corner of a tiny, smoke-filled office 

and deftly switching on the monitor of a 

vintage Amstrad computer, “is that we are 

all screwed. 

“Fine if you’re the Queen or whoever, but 

if you are Joe Schmoe with a big mortgage, 

then you’re going to be in deep crap. 

Who can afford a doubling of their home 

repayments every month,” he reasoned. 

And he was right of course. 

The ghosts of the now long-gone Richard 

Smith, who battled his own demons from 

that tiny newsroom, with its tranquil views 

through a haze of Golden Virginia tobacco 


VIEW FROM THE SEA FRONT 

AUTHOR – DAVID ANDREWS 

“The first thing 

you should know 

David,” said Richard, 

ushering me to a 

desk in the corner of 

a tiny, smoke-filled 

office and deftly 

switching on the 

monitor of a vintage 

Amstrad computer, 

“is that we are all 

screwed’’. 

smoke, and my fellow writer in crime Anthony 

Levy, who I can picture sitting alongside me, 

vigorously attacking the keyboard on his 

Amstrad, haunt me still. 

Now, nearly 30 years on, the D word is once 

again resurgent, as consumers borrow and 

rack up the loading on their plastic like there 

is no tomorrow. 

All those fancy new vehicles you are 

surrounded by when crawling interminably on 

the M25? Nine out of ten are bought on the never 

never. Personal contract plans, HP deals, lease 

agreements, whatever. The overwhelming 

majority are expensive, Bluetooth-optioned 

examples of creaking, groaning debt. 

Although some characteristics of our 

contemporary macroeconomy look similar to 

the late 80s—house price inflation has been 

rapid and household debt has been rising 

strongly—others look rather different. 

The unemployment rate today is vastly 

lower than in the late 80s, and interest rates are 

also at rock bottom relative to the levels of the 

past 30 years, and are expected to remain so by 

market forecasters. 

That said, according to the Bank of 

England’s latest forecast (September 2017), 

British household debt will hit a record high 

next year (2018), surpassing the pre-financial 

crisis peak as a surge in credit card borrowing 

has financed extra spending in recent months. 

The average household had unsecured 

debts amounting to £13,200 at the end of 2016, 

just below the £13,300 level at the end of 2008, 

on the eve of the credit crunch, according to 

recent analysis by the Trades Union Congress 

(TUC). 

That debt is expected to rise to £13,900 by 

the end of this year, £14,300 next year (2018), 

and keep on rising to £15,400 by the end of 

2021. 

One of the biggest culprits in driving people 

into the red is the steady rise in credit card debt 

among UK consumers over the past decade. 

The outstanding debt on our collective 

credit cards rocketed in the immediate 

aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis as 

households struggled to make ends meet – 

then stagnated for a few years, only to start 

climbing again in 2013. 

The level of outstanding debt on credit 

cards has now reached record levels and is 

concerning the Financial Conduct Authority 

(FCA) and the Bank of England. Debt charities 

are also deeply concerned. 

A recent FCA investigation into credit card 

lending proposed a host of rules to help people 

struggling with long-term card debt, including 

ordering card companies to help consumers 

‘by reducing, waiving or cancelling any interest 

or charges’ for those borrowers struggling to 

repay their debts. 

The regulator is now undertaking a similar 

review into all high-cost credit. The FCA’s 

concerns centre on the 3.3 million individuals 

it estimates struggle with so-called ‘persistent’ 

credit card debts, which it defines as people 

who pay more in interest and charges than they 

do repaying their borrowings over an 18-month 

period. 

According to the UK Cards Association there 

are about 64 million credit cards currently 

in use. Data from the Bank of England shows 

families owe a record £68 billion on their 

plastic. 

This Perfect Storm of debt and economic 

uncertainty has prompted around 600,000 

people to contact StepChange, a major debt 

advice charity. StepChange estimates 8.8 

million people have turned to credit to pay for 

everyday household expenses in the past 12 

months. And it’s not as if these borrowers are 

walking the streets. More than half of these 

were in employment with 41 percent in fulltime 

work. 

Lenders of course have been profiting from 

rising debt, just as they have through time 

immemorial. Borrowers typically take decades 

to pay off debt, meaning they pay a lot of 

interest – all good for lenders. 

But if we were to be hit by another recession 

– unlikely as that may seem now – then lenders 

will catch the mother of all colds and an already 

precarious situation could easily escalate into 

another 2008-like meltdown situation. 

The Bank of England estimates total debt to 

individuals to be around £1.5 trillion, which is 

an average of £28,000 for everyone over 16 in 

the UK. 

Most of that – about £1.3 trillion – is made 

up of mortgages. The rest is for credit cards, 

overdrafts and loans to buy anything from 

cars to holidays to the must have latest kitchen 

fittings. It’s a lot of money, and whichever way 

you cut it, it still comes back to the D word. 

I can still see Richard Smith pacing 

nervously up and down the CM newsroom, 

drawing deeply on the 20th rolled fag of the day, 

looking at my screen, clocking the latest debt 

calamity news story and muttering nervously, 

deeply worried. 

“What you’re saying here, basically, is that we 

are up to our necks in the brown stuff, running 

out of the moohlah,” he would say. “You’ve got 

the big mortgage haven’t you David?” I grimly 

nodded my assent. 

“Word to the wise. Make sure you have the 

Screw You war-chest in reserve. The walk away 

wedge. The get you out of trouble, few grand 

stashed away. You’ll need it…” 


OPINION 

Meandering along 

the ‘Right Path’ 

Steve Lewis is at odds with the editor’s suggestion last 

month that late payment among SMEs may be easing. 

AUTHOR – Steve Lewis FCICM, Director – LPL Commercial Services 

Steve Lewis 

I couldn’t help 

thinking that LPL, as 

a commercial debt 

collection agency, is 

operating in a parallel 

universe, and seeing 

a very different world 

to the one recently 

portrayed in the 

magazine. 

HAVING read The Editor’s Column 

in the September edition 

of Credit Management, 

I couldn’t help thinking that 

LPL, as a commercial debt 

collection agency, is operating 

in a parallel universe, and seeing a very 

different world to the one recently portrayed 

in the magazine. 

Over the past six months, we have been 

swamped by clients having problems getting 

paid both from the NHS and the construction 

industry (with the big names frequently being 

the biggest culprits). On that basis, I am not 

quite sure what sources the editor is using to 

form such a contrary view. 

The NHS, in particular, by way of Local 

Health Authorities, is using every credit 

control/accounts payable tactic in the book to 

delay payments and often admit to simply not 

having the money to pay their suppliers. I am 

currently taking legal action against two such 

authorities - not a scenario we relish. Indeed, 

my own firm sometimes needs to make a moral 

judgment on what we do chase, because we 

still see outrageous instances of overcharging 

against the health service, and often wonder 

who they employ to monitor and mange their 

procurement departments. 

Reams of standard white paper that most 

businesses buy for between £1.50-£1.99 is 

being charged to the NHS at double the price, 

even for bulk buying. And this is just a small 

example. But the actions we take against the 

NHS on behalf of our clients is for the usual 

supply of goods and services at extremely 

advantageous prices and generous credit 

terms, but still payment is not forthcoming 

and is often 120 days or more beyond agreed 

payment terms. 

I have to put to one side the emotional, 

moral and political arguments surrounding 

the funding of the NHS and stick to the hard 

facts. Many of my clients are in real trouble if 

they don't get paid. The amounts we are talking 

about are often in the region of £20,000-30,000, 

so not insignificant to a SME. 

So far as the building trade is concerned, 

it is still a minefield of argument, lack of 

paperwork, and naive sub-contractors being 

taken for a ride by unscrupulous contractors, 

which goes down the line from sub to sub and 

beyond. Despite this, we still see the surprising 

demise of some big-name construction 

companies and those who have simply overextended 

themselves in order to take on 

projects. 

It is also worrying when we see evidence of 

a ‘Payment Delay Culture’ built into the modus 

operandi of many major retail companies 

in particular; policies, some unwritten, but 

nevertheless active, which are designed to 

delay payment to suppliers. It becomes 

evident when Account Payable telephone 

numbers become lost in the small print, or are 

not there at all. Emails that only go to central 

information addresses, and of course the old 

chestnut of seeking Order/Purchase Numbers 

or other confirmations that have been changed 

or never given to the supplier in the first place. 

So when I read that the payment culture 

is changing for the better, this is not my 

experience, and not, it seems, the experience 

of most of my SME Clients. 

I will not deny that many large organisations 

are getting their payment terms act together, 

but I have yet to see any real evidence of this 

reaching down to SMEs to any great degree. 

Large suppliers to Government bodies will 

often have more ‘clout’ to insist on prompt 

terms. Funding to the NHS is still a major issue 

so why should any smaller supplier assume 

that there would not be any payment delays, 

even though the Government will say that they 

are keeping to their better payment strategy? 

The headlines last month were screaming 

that SMEs are still owed massive amounts. So 

are we on 'the right path', or is it just business 

as usual? 


OURAML SOLUTION WILL 

HELPYOU SEAL 

THEDEAL 

There’s 

no need 

to make life 

complicated, you 

have three problems; 

we have one solution! 

We deliver AML, Sanctions &PEP checks “all-in-one” 

search, individual checks take 5seconds, business checks 

take longer, 1-2minutes! Daily monitoring of all your clients for 

Sanction &PEP changes for the lifetime of your contract isincluded at 

no extra cost. Automatic enhanced due diligence, biography, adverse media 

and photographic evidence isalso included inyour basic AML price. 

Call us now to book afree demonstration on: 

0113 333 9835 

Or visit us online: 

SMARTSEARCHUK.COM 

POWEREDBY 

SmartSearch delivers UK and International Business checks in the UK and International 

Markets with inclusive Worldwide Sanction &PEP screening, Daily Monitoring, Email 

Alerts and Automated Enhanced Due Diligence. 


OPINION 

What price loyalty? 

Should reputation and quality count for more than 

price in choosing a collections partner. 

AUTHOR – David Sheridan MCICM 

David Sheridan 

THE business of ‘debt collection’ 

has advanced considerably 

in recent years. The sector is 

virtually unrecognisable from 

two decades ago, with much 

higher levels of best-practice 

efficacy and ethical standards, and a real 

focus on creating fair customer outcomes and 

a sincere intent to help customers get back in 

control of their financial future. 

What hasn’t advanced to the same extent, 

however, is how agencies are remunerated; 

the ‘traditional’ services fee model has hardly 

changed, and in the main (with very limited 

exceptions) agencies can only recoup their 

costs through a model that is directly linked 

to commercial success. Of course, it is true to 

say that firms operate balanced scorecards to 

ensure commercial vigour is not at the cost 

of customer detriment, but companies don’t 

make money to cover their whole range of back 

office costs unless they perform commercially. 

In the context of mounting operational 

costs, and the ever-rising cost of compliance, 

it is little wonder that some firms have already 

thrown in the towel. Margins have been 

progressively squeezed as creditors seek to 

drive costs down further through scale and 

the use of intermediaries. Businesses need 

to make a profit, and yet profit has become 

something of a dirty word. 

The companies that have been squeezed the 

most are undoubtedly the smaller players. To 

this end, the warning bell should be sounding 

loudly. Smaller operators are often those 

providing niche services that are greatly valued 

by the clients they serve, and the larger firms 

with whom they collaborate. They have often 

acquired reputations for service excellence 

and built very strong, positive and trusting 

relationships with their clients. The type of 

relationship where client evolving needs are 

not measured in additional costs to the clients 

but delivered as part of the service. Recent 

experience, however, suggests that such skills 

and commitment to a long term, value-adding 

relationship are potentially being ignored in 

an unseemly race for the bottom in terms of 

cost. 

Regardless of the environment in which you 

operate, there will always be some businesses 

that will do anything to win a new contract, 

even if it means they will never break-even. 

Which is an interesting thought: when it 

comes to protecting a client’s reputation, and 

being assured that an agency will deliver fair 

outcomes, shouldn’t a proven track record and 

evident quality of service have a much stronger 

voice than price? 

Some business models claim to offer lower 

rates because they are cheaper/smarter in 

their operation, and to an extent this might be 

true. But do they deliver better returns? More 

likely they manage their costs better to make 

the same return, but I fail to believe that this 

leads to a better client (or indeed customer) 

experience. 

Long-term relationships are not born out of 

poor client or customer experience. They stem 

from creditors who work with their agencies 

on a ‘win/win’ basis, who accept that their 

agency needs to make profit, and are happy to 

see that profit re-invested into the business for 

the future. The Financial Conduct Authority 

(FCA) continues to push firms into embracing 

a customer-centric culture, and creditors must 

look for commercial deals that add value. But 

when that deal looks too good to be true, it 

probably is. Price alone should never be the 

deciding factor. It is reputation and quality that 

really count. 

The companies that 

have been squeezed the 

most are undoubtedly 

the smaller players. To 

this end, the warning 

bell should be sounding 

loudly. 


THE RECOGNISED 

STANDARD 

CICM British Credit Awards 2018 

8 February 2017 

Royal Lancaster, London 

Have you submitted your entries for the CICM British Credit Awards 2018? 

Entries close on Friday 27 October so don’t miss out on 

your chance to win one of the most prestigious awards 

in the industry. 

CICM is the largest recognised professional body in the world 

for the credit management community and is peerless in 

its field of expertise. Promoting best practice in credit and 

collections, CICM delivers resources, training and support 

to members at all levels, and offers a range of qualifications 

that are the recognised standard in the industry. 

The CICM British Credit Awards is central to our ethos, 

rewarding outstanding achievement and innovation shown 

by individuals and organisations. 

START YOUR ENTRIES TODAY! 

cicmbritishcreditawards.com 

SCAN HERE TO VIEW THE 

FULL LIST OF CATEGORIES 

AND CRITERIA 

ENTRIES CLOSE FRIDAY 

27 OCTOBER AT 5PM! 

SPONSORS: 

PALADIN 


HQ PROFILE – MEMBER ADMINISTRATION 

Membership Administration 

and Engagement 

Continuing its series of profiles of CICM HQ teams, 

Credit Management speaks to those involved on the 

Membership Administration and Engagement side. 

Claire Bishop 

Head of Member Administration 

CLAIRE has spent 20 years working as a 

trainer and in professional bodies with 

the goal of helping people get into and 

progressing in their chosen career. 

She joined the CICM in January this 

year as Head of Member Administration 

– her focus is to help every CICM member 

to achieve the level of professional 

membership that recognises their 

knowledge and experience. Her team 

manage the application process for every 

level of membership, giving advice and 

information at every step. 

Claire is currently working with 

her colleagues to introduce online 

applications for all levels of membership, 

a credit management career map and a 

mentoring service. Her favourite part of 

her job is the reactions from those who 

have been successful in their membership 

upgrade application. 

Previously Claire worked for ten years 

at the Chartered Institute of Personnel 

and Development (CIPD) and ten years 

in training roles for companies such as 

Thomas Cook and More Than Insurance. 

She recently moved back to 

Lincolnshire after 15 years in London, and 

makes the most of her free time with her 

children in the great outdoors, making 

regular trips to London for concerts and 

art exhibitions. She also tries to find the 

time to read, draw and exercise. 

Barbara Spottiswoode 

Membership Administrator 

BEFORE joining the Institute back in June 

1990, Barbara worked as housekeeper in 

various private hospitals and hotels, then 

decided she wanted a change and more 

normal working hours. 

She originally joined the Institute of 

Purchasing and Supply, now Chartered, 

and transferred to the ICM after a year. 

She then moved with ICM from Easton 

on the Hill to the Water Mill in South 

Luffenham. 

Barbara’s first job was in education 

and membership then, when the two 

departments grew and separated, 

chose to stay in membership. She is 

now responsible for looking after all 

membership applications, for new 

members and existing upgrades. 

Barbara spends her free time creating 

and tending to her garden, has a love for 

films of all types and is a regular visitor to 

the cinema, and has plans to reignite her 

love of sailing soon. 

David Harris 

Special Membership Administrator 

FOR nearly 20 years David ran his own 

businesses; Director of a Butterfly Farm 

in Rutland. These years accentuated 

his belief in providing customers with 

the best service he and his staff could 

provide; an ethos he brings to his work at 

the CICM. 

In recent times David has been a 

freelance lecturer, part-time plumber, 

driving instructor, estate agent, and more 

recently a full-time dad to his young 

daughter who has now started school. 

David has been with the Institute for 

only a month as Special Membership Coordinator 

and gets involved with many 

different tasks, from looking after existing 

members to dealing with corporate 

clients. 

Outside of work David has three major 

passions. He is a Leicester City season 

ticket holder of some 40 years. He also 

loves to travel and his heart belongs in 

East Africa where he spent many happy 

years. He also loves the Far East and 

Eastern Europe. He speaks KiSwahili and 

has completed evening classes in Polish. 

Music is also very important to him and 

he has very eclectic taste. He’s married 

with one daughter and lives in Stamford. 

Helping every CICM member to achieve the level of professional 

membership that recognises their knowledge and experience 


w 

HQ PROFILE – MEMBER ENGAGEMENT 

Sue Kettle 

Head of Member Engagement 

SUE brings 19 years of experience 

working for the CICM where she has 

progressed her career through the 

Recruitment Consultancy, recruiting 

credit professionals across all areas of the 

profession. She was promoted to Head 

of Membership where she spent nine 

years recruiting and retaining members, 

and recently established a new Member 

Engagement team responsible for 

connecting with members in a way that 

builds relationships, loyalty and delivers 

value. Sue previously spent 12 years 

in a blue-chip construction company 

working with a large national sales 

force, progressing to the manufacturing 

operations team and latterly co-ordinating 

HR for a workforce of 250 employees. 

Sue is currently renovating her home 

and enjoys live music and football. 

Amanda Aleksova 

Member Engagement Co-ordinator 

PRIOR to working at CICM, Amanda spent 

many years working as a Sales Manager 

for Countrywide Estate Agents. After 

moving abroad in 2006, she worked for 

the Foreign Commonwealth Office based 

at the British Embassy in Macedonia and 

Kosovo. In 2011, Amanda won a Europe 

Directorate In-Year Performance Award 

for immigration checks that were then 

implemented internationally. During 

this time, she also took part in running 

workshops at schools bringing awareness 

of human trafficking and took part 

in election monitoring in Macedonia 

and Kosovo. Part of her job involves 

coordinating a variety of campaigns and 

engagement activity and reporting results 

and trends from feedback received. She 

enjoys running and spending time with 

her husband and two sons. 

Rachael Stewart 

Member Engagement Co-ordinator 

RACHAEL is an enthusiastic and 

ambitious individual who moved into 

her current role as an Engagement 

Coordinator in 2017. Contributing to the 

engagement team’s strategic planning by 

putting forward evidence-based ideas, 

Rachael is now a proud member of the new 

Engagement team, where she coordinates 

various campaigns and engagement 

activity. ‘Protecting Information’ has 

always been key in previous roles and 

proves to be even more so when handling 

campaign data for feedback. Previous 

professional experience includes medical 

secretarial work, target-driven sales 

project management roles and event 

planning for Honda UK. 

Angela Cooper – Membership and Retention Advisor 

ANGELA has worked at the CICM for ten years and joined as a receptionist, and was BT 

trained during her time living in Hampshire. Having come from a building society and 

local government finance background, she moved into the finance department working 

mainly with Membership and Credit Management magazine accounts both current and 

suspended. Customer service has always been a big priority in the customer facing roles 

and her experience has been beneficial in her current position. Since the formation of the 

new Member Engagement department Angela has had a dual role dealing with member 

retention activity and liaising with members to advise on the benefits of continuing their 

membership with CICM. Invoicing for Corporate Partnerships, magazine advertising and 

credit control also form part of her accounts role. She enjoys spending time with her 

family, especially her three-year-old grandson, Zumba and travelling. 

Lindsay Clarke – Engagement Assistant 

LINDSAY has had a varied career since leaving college working as a receptionist for a 

leading house builder, mortgage advisor and a laboratory assistant in an aromatherapy 

factory, before settling into reception and administration roles. She has completed higher 

qualifications and training in business studies, BT telephone training and customer service. 

Lindsay recently celebrated having been with CICM for ten years, starting off as a parttime 

receptionist progressing into the Membership and Support Services department. Her 

main focus is contacting CICM members in a retention, feedback, updating and informing 

capacity. She also assists the Head of Member Engagement looking after branch support 

from providing member information, updating member records, to contacting members 

to generate interest in upcoming branch events. Lindsay lives with her husband and two 

children in Rutland and is interested in renovating properties, exercise, singing, seeing live 

bands, comedy and useless trivia. 


OPINION 

Road to Nowhere? 

James Campbell wonders whether credit reference 

agencies are any good at spotting bogus accounts being 

used for short firm fraud. 

AUTHOR – James Campbell is the Secretary of the European Freight Trades Association (EFTA) – eftaweb.com 

To support my view, I 

have supplied the CICM 

with evidence of what 

I see as a glaring weak 

link in the system. 

SHORT firm fraud, if you fall victim to it, can 

be hugely expensive and, in some cases, fatal 

to your business. It is perpetrated by criminals 

filing bogus accounts at Companies House 

which can then lead to sham companies 

immediately receiving glowing ratings from 

credit reference agencies (CRAs), which enable goods to be 

obtained by way of credit accounts that are not settled, and 

the goods are long gone. 

In these days, when everyone is so very busy and sales 

are in short supply, opening a credit account might not get 

the attention that it deserves, especially when a glance at 

the top of the CRA report gives a big ‘thumbs up, fill your 

boots’ type of recommendation. If suppliers place too much 

reliance on CRA reports, it is all too easy to get suckered 

into extending credit to a short firm fraud company and to 

then supply goods for which you are never going to be paid. 

I believe that many suppliers have become far too 

reliant on CRAs for important credit-related decisions and 

that such entities are not as efficient as they should or 

could be at spotting bogus accounts. To support my view, 

I have supplied the CICM with evidence of what I see as a 

glaring weak link in the system. 

Some of the filed accounts I have highlighted are of the 

‘simply too good to be true’ variety which, if examined in 

the flesh, would cause most credit controllers tasked with 

checking out companies that have applied for credit to 

have second thoughts, and to question what the CRA may 

be recommending. 

Evidence has also been supplied to the Institute 

showing some, but not all, CRAs giving strong credit 

ratings (recommending credit limits running into tens of 

thousands of pounds) based on filed accounts which are 

clearly bogus. If a supplier unquestionably relies on what 

the CRA recommends it is going to get caught and there is 

unlikely to be any comeback due to the small print Terms 

and Conditions of the CRA. 

I recognise that there is a need, and crucial role, for 

CRAs but caution against becoming overly reliant on what 

is being recommended and to always have a look at actual 

filed accounts. 

Accounts can be obtained quickly and for free from 

Companies House Beta (beta.companieshouse.gov.uk) and 

I would encourage all the EFTA Members to look at such 

documentation when opening credit accounts to see if 

they look suspiciously good. Warning signs might include: 

are they amazingly healthy for a first years trading? How 

quickly have the accounts been filed after the year end 

date? Do they look right? It is not an exact science but such 

an exercise can help a supplier get a better feel for the 

applicant company. 

I would also welcome information from the main 

CRAs explaining what, if anything, they are doing to spot 

accounts that can be described as suspiciously good and 

probably bogus. 


TRADE TALK 

The importance of 

Free Trade Agreements? 

With one eye on Brexit negotiations, Mike Josypenko 

considers the importance of Free Trade Agreements. 

AUTHOR – Mike Josypenko is the Institute of Export and International Trade’s Senior Director of Special Projects. 

Mike Josypenko 

WITH the constant 

media and political 

discussions over the 

Brexit negotiations, 

the subject of Free 

Trade Agreements 

(FTAs) crops up frequently in debates. 

‘Remainers’ focus on the potential 

disadvantages of losing access to the 

EU’s network of Free Trade Agreements 

with more than 60 countries worldwide. 

‘Brexiteers’ point out that the UK will 

be better placed to negotiate its own 

agreements with selected partners after 

Brexit, while others criticise the actual 

need for FTAs. 

The purpose of free trade agreements 

is to improve trade in goods and services 

between two or more countries, reducing 

trade barriers that protect local industries 

or companies at the expense of foreign 

traders. Barriers include tariffs and quotas 

to restrict trade in goods, and protectionist 

behaviour in strategic industries, public 

procurement policy or rights, such as 

intellectual property protection. 

So how effective are they in stimulating 

trade between both partners? This can be 

difficult to judge, as international trade 

is affected by numerous influences and 

factors, such as political or social upheaval, 

economic conditions or exchange rate 

fluctuations. One basic way of measuring 

the benefits of FTAs is to examine the 

changes in the cumulative levels of trade 

annually. 

As an example, consider trade between 

the EU and South Korea, before and after 

the introduction of the FTA between both 

parties in 2011. EU Sales of goods and 

services to South Korea jumped from €35.5 

billion in 2010 (before the agreement), to 

€46.8 billion in 2012, and to €58.9 billion in 

2015, while South Korean exports of goods 

and services to the EU went from €43 billion 

in 2010, shrinking to €42.9 billion in 2012, 

before growing to €48.7 billion in 2015. On 

the face of it, this trade agreement appears 

to have benefitted the EU more than South 

Korea. 

Anecdotal feedback from individual 

exporters is more mixed. Many exporters 

see genuine sales benefits from the 

preferential tariffs offered by FTAs, 

however, others fail to take advantage from 

them. In some cases, goods may simply 

not meet the eligibility requirements 

for EU origin products. In other cases, 

traders feel that the administrative and 

documentary burden of proving origin 

does not justify the savings in duty. 

The tariff benefits of FTAs work best 

where the destination country’s import 

tariffs are relatively high, offering more 

substantial savings. The average standard 

tariff rate in South Korea is 16.5 percent. 

By contrast, ‘Most Favoured Nation’ tariffs 

in the USA, considered by many as a 

priority for a UK trade deal, average 3.4 

percent. It is also worth remembering 

that FTAs are bilateral negotiations, 

where both parties seek to get the best 

outcome for themselves, so any positive 

benefits for one country must be weighed 

against the cost and consequences of any 

concessions. 

In the event of a Hard Brexit, with no 

transitional period, UK traders may have 

to operate for some time without access 

to the benefits of Free Trade Agreements. 

The UK cannot even begin to negotiate 

new agreements until Brexit takes place 

in March 2019. Most experts agree that the 

process of negotiating agreements with 

even a small number of partners will be 

long and complex. Some commentators, 

such as former Labour peer Andrew 

Adonis, in a Guardian article, cast doubt 

on whether the UK has sufficient skilled 

and experienced negotiators to deal with 

‘…thousands of pages of detailed texts on 

everything from tax to pharmaceuticals… 

going through dozens of drafts, involving 

hundreds of negotiators…’. 

It is vital for businesses to understand 

the benefits and implications of trading 

with, and without Free Trade Agreements. 

The Institute of Export & International 

Trade offers advice, information, training 

and professional qualifications to help 

businesses to understand the complexity 

of international trade. 


INTERNATIONAL 

TRADE 

Monthly round-up of the latest stories 

in global trade by Andrea Kirkby. 

TRUMP OF DOOM 

FOR LATIN AMERICA? 

SO, Trump is still building a 

wall – although none of his 

government officers seem very 

keen to see it built. But what's 

more worrying is his trade 

policies and his threats against 

Mexico, in particular. How will Latin 

America be affected by US isolationism? 

Coface has attempted to work out the 

winners and losers. There aren't really any 

winners, unless a construction boom in the 

US pushes up copper prices, which would 

help Peru and Chile. As for losers, Mexico 

is by far the most exposed, with 80 percent 

of its exports going to the US. About 45 

percent of Central America's exports go to 

the US, but apart from Ecuador (40 percent) 

the figures are much lower in South 

America, which looks as if it will emerge 

unscathed. Looking at an alternative 

figure, the extent to which GDP depends on 

exports to the US, again South American 

countries look much less dependent, while 

Honduras seems particularly vulnerable. 

If you're exporting to the region, you 

might want to consider your exposure, 

and allocate your working capital where 

there's less of a risk. Of course, currencies 

across the region are also exposed, if fiscal 

tightening by the Fed strengthens the 

dollar; make sure you're hedged. 

While the Mexican peso fell 19 

percent on Trump's accession, it's been 

rebounding lately. That suggests markets 

realise that there's more to Mexico 

than the wall. Mexico is targeting 

diversification, with potential trade 

deals in the pipeline with the EU and 

with Mercosur – and remember, 

Mexico is a member of G20 and has 

shown good economic stability in 

the past, compared to other Latin 

American countries. 

Offshore oil, renewables, waste 

treatment, public transport and 

construction are all key sectors for 

exporters to Mexico. So, of course, is the 

automotive industry – but that's likely 

to bear the brunt of any renegotiation of 

NAFTA. 

BRITISH firms continue to do their best, 

and Norfolk-based Ansible Motion has 

just secured a major overseas contract for 

its Driver-in-the-Loop simulators which 

can help manufacturers of driverless cars 

prevent the passengers getting motion 

sickness. It's a fascinating technology and 

if they're right that driverless is the way of 

the future, there should be more contracts 

on the horizon. 

UK Export Finance (UKEF) was 

FASTER THAN LIGHT? 

instrumental in supporting the transaction 

by giving a government guarantee to the 

company's bank. UKEF's bang per buck 

is actually pretty high – in the East of 

England, £4.7 million of UKEF support 

translated to £33 million overseas sales, a 

return most financial controllers would be 

pretty happy with! 

I was interested to see that Ansible 

Motion is based just around the corner 

from Lotus Cars in Hethel, Norfolk, 

and some staff have links. Another 

example of clustering – larger firms 

spawning smaller specialised businesses 

around them? 

And if you're wondering about the 

headline, the name 'Ansible' comes from 

science fiction; Ursula le Guin coined it 

back in 1966 to describe instantaneous 

communications devices. Neither Ansible 

Motion nor Lotus Cars have yet managed to 

create faster-than-light transport. 


CURRENCY UK 

BREXIT GLOOM 

WE'RE not out of the EU yet but looking at 

the economic stats we might as well be. 

Exports of goods fell nearly five percent 

in June, the biggest monthly fall so far; a 

devalued currency isn't giving exporters 

any more help, and customers are fighting 

shy of what they see as a very uncertain 

situation. 

The biggest difficulty is that no-one 

knows what trade terms will look like after 

Brexit. Will we hit a cliff edge or simply the 

top of a gentle but slippery slope? I'm afraid 

when I look at what the banks are doing, 

it suggests to me that they've made the 

cliff edge favourite in the betting. No-one 

has upped sticks and moved completely to 

Frankfurt, Paris, or Dublin, but every week 

I'm hearing about a bank that moved its 

currency trading operations, its equity back 

office, its fund management centre or its IT 

department abroad. The City is starting to 

die the death of a thousand cuts. What can 

you do? First of all realise that tariffs are 

the last thing you should worry about. 

Make sure you know if you depend 

on country of origin rules or other EU 

ALL GREEK TO ME 

regulations, and plan a way forward – even 

if that means moving final assembly or 

quality control into the EU, or setting up 

service companies abroad and transferring 

employees there. And don't just look at your 

exports to the EU – many exports to third 

countries will be affected when we leave 

EU-wide deals. 

And secondly, sketch out your exposures 

and possible plans of action, even though 

everything is still unclear. You need 

to have at least some idea of what you 

may need to do in the result of different 

eventualities – soft Brexit, hard Brexit, 

sector-specific deals, no deal at all. Lloyds 

Bank said recently that almost half of 

British exporters haven't reviewed their 

plans since Brexit – ‘wait-and-see is not 

an adequate strategy,’ the bank said. That 

sounds like the voice of reason to me! 

FOR THE LATEST 

EXCHANGE RATES VISIT 

CURRENCYUK.CO.UK OR 

CALL 020 7738 0777 

Currency UK is authorised and regulated 

by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). 

HIGH LOW TREND 

GBP/EUR 1.1989 1.0745 Up 

GBP/USD 1.333 1.279 Up 

GBP/CHF 1.279 1.223 Up 

GBP/AUD 1.660 1.618 Up 

GBP/CAD 1.651 1.585 Down 

GBP/JPY 139.452 

146.628 Up 

EASY TEASY EXPORTING 

THERE'S a perception that exporting is for 

companies that already have a track record in 

the UK. But Newcastle-based Easy Teasy doesn't 

think so. The firm only got started – by a couple 

of Northumbria University students – in 2014 and 

already it's exporting its loose-leaf teas, and more 

recently its tea-infused chocolate, to Paris retailer 

Thé Bon Thé Bio. Now it's launching the Estate Tea 

Co which brings single estate tea to the mix. Proof 

that you can start exporting very quickly – it's not 

just for big companies with a long history. 

GREECE is doing better than it was. Moody's 

has increased its rating to Caa2 with a 

positive outlook, while S&P upgraded 

the outlook to positive while keeping the 

rating unchanged at B-. That's still in 

junk territory, but at least now the ratings 

agencies can see a way out; S&P gives a one 

in three chance of an upgrade in the next 

year. 

It will be tough to get there, though. The 

Government still has to cut the debt to GDP 

ratio from 179 to 158 percent in three years. 

Meanwhile the $1.8 billion conditional loan 

the IMF has granted gives the Government 

a window to get reforms through and the 

economy growing again, but no more than 

that. 

Still, the future looks brighter than it 

has done for some time. British exports to 

Greece were worth £2.2 billion in 2015, well 

over half of that in services – consultancy 

to the energy sector, education, and 

shipping related services such as brokerage 

and marine insurance. This might not 

be the worst time to move into the Greek 

market – if you're brave enough. 

NAMIBIAN DOWNGRADE 

MOODY'S just downgraded Namibian debt to 

junk status, with a negative outlook, citing an 

increasing burden of government debt, lack 

of adequate policies to stabilise the fiscal 

situation, and a risk of liquidity pressures 

emerging again. GDP is stagnant, and arrears 

to the private sector are increasing. 

The Government's response was to 

dismiss the downgrade as 'speculation'. 

Somehow that doesn't convince me that 

Moody's has got things wrong – rather 

the opposite. 

South Africa was already downgraded 

to junk status in April; Botswana's status 

remained unchanged at A- but with a 

negative outlook. It looks as if the whole 

of southern Africa is facing a credit 

crunch – so watch out if you're trading 

there. And remember that governments 

which argue with credit rating agencies 

often have something to hide – and 

might not be the most reliable payers in 

town. 

WHISKY IN THE JAR 

COULD Scotch whisky be another victim of 

Brexit? Scotch is responsible for £4 billion of 

exports and 20,000 jobs – but the industry body 

points out that English law contains no legal 

definition of Scotch, which is protected only by 

EU legislation (among other things, demanding 

that it's been matured for three years before 

bottling). 

A big worry is that the US would love the 

definition to be relaxed, allowing cheaper 

volume products to compete with 'real' Scotch. 

Would a British Government trade the future 

of Scotch whisky for a good US trade deal? No 

wonder so many Scots want independence! 


International Debt Collections 

Prevent and protect against unpaid invoices 

There are always buyers that take a little longer to pay, but 

there are others that will repeatedly push your payment 

terms and goodwill to breaking point and no matter how 

hard they’re pursued it seems as if you’ll never get paid. 

Sounds familiar? Atradius Collections has the answer! 

Wherever you trade, Atradius Collections can help you 

secure payments and improve cash flow by collecting 

outstanding debts using our experience, expertise and a 

clearly focused results driven approach. 

Our reputation and position as one of the world’s largest 

credit insurers and debt collection specialists gives us 

leverage. Debtors know us. They know that failing to pay 

will damage their creditworthiness and purchasing power. 

We can transform 

debt collection from 

a frustration into an 

effective financial 

solution for your 

company. 

Transform debt collection from a frustration into an 

effective solution within your company. 


Who we are 

covering 

96% 

of the world 

servicing over 

10K 

customers 

collecting 

since 

1925 

present 

28 

in 

countries 

What we do 

Our collection services 

We specialise in business-to-business debt 

collections services, globally and locally, 

all the while offering: 

1Local expertise and global reach 

Detailed local expertise, covering a diverse 

range of business cultures, laws and regulations, 

can achieve exceptional results when they’re linked 

together in our integrated network to deliver a flexible 

international solution. 

2Greater control 

By allowing us to take responsibility of your 

outstanding debts, you gain greater control over 

your receivables and remove worry, enableing your 

team to focus on your business. 

3An extension of your business 

Every aspect of our extensive resources exists 

purely to support our customers, while ensuring 

we deliver results consistently and to the highest 

standards. 

4Trust and confidence 

By choosing Atradius Collections as your 

collections solution, you can trust that your 

business is supported by an unrivalled network of 

specialists, which operate together with the single aim 

of delivering results for your business. 

5Solid business relationships 

Our team understands the valuable relationship 

between you and your client, and therefore we 

ensure continuity of your business relationships. 

Need help collecting debt? 

+44(0)29 20 82 47 00 

atradiuscollections.com/uk 


COUNTRY FOCUS 

Adam Bernstein 

looks at the laws and 

cultural challenges 

of doing business in 

Nigeria. 

Nigeria: Part two 

ABOVE 

THE LAW 

Oil tanker departing from Lagos, Nigeria, Africa 


COUNTRY FOCUS 

AUTHOR - ADAM BERNSTEIN 

AS with other nations, 

Nigeria offers incentives 

to those wanting to invest 

in its country. The Nigerian 

Investment Promotion 

Commission outlines most 

of what an investor would want to know 

with details of the incentives etc. at nipc. 

gov.ng/index.php/invest-in-nigeria/investment-incentives.html. 

The Ernst and Young document notes 

that the federal government is contributing 

to the expansion of existing, as well as the 

development of new, export processing 

and special economic zones, which will be 

developed in partnership with the private 

sector. 

LEGALITIES 

Every form of commercial operation has 

to be registered with the Corporate Affairs 

Commission (new.cac.gov.ng/home/). As 

with other countries, business can be 

conducted through a number of means, 

the most common of which are the setting 

up of a partnership with a local Nigerian 

firm; the establishment of a Nigerian 

subsidiary that itself is registered as 

a Nigerian company; or through a 

foreign company that registers itself 

in Nigeria. All of the detail on the 

forms of business entity, together with 

forms can be seen under the services tab 

of the website. Trading in Nigeria means 

complying with the Companies and Allied 

Matters Act which covers the formation 

and registration of businesses. 

Naturally each form of business 

carries its own legal and tax obligations 

and advice should be sought. The UK 

Government has prepared a list of English 

speaking Nigerian lawyers – see gov.uk/ 

government/publications/nigeria-listof-lawyers. 

The list was, however, last 

updated four years ago. Lawyers in Nigeria 

are heavily regulated and the UK’s Law 

Society offers more background on this 

at lawgazette.co.uk/analysis/nigeria-risksand-growth/70235.article 

as does a link to 

Nigeria’s Legal Practitioners Act (nigerialaw.org/Legal 

percent20Practitioners 

percent20Act.htm). 

In terms of corporate compliance, 

attention needs to be paid to matters 

such as oil and gas regulation (ncdmb. 

gov.ng/), the Insurance Act 2003 

(placng.org/lawsofnigeria/laws/I17.pdf), 

and the activities of the National Agency 

for Food and Drug Administration and 

Control which regulates and controls the 

importation, exportation, manufacturing, 

advertisement, distribution, sale and 

use of food, drugs, cosmetics, medical 

devices, bottled water and chemicals 

(nafdac.gov.ng). 

As for intellectual property (IP) rights, 

the Trademarks, Patents and Designs 

Registry (iponigeria.com/#/) administers 

protection of trademarks, patents and 

designs in Nigeria. Five governmental 

agencies are responsible for enforcement 

of IP rights – National Agency for Food, 

Drug, Administration and Control, Nigeria 

Custom Services, Standards Organisations 

of Nigeria, Consumer Protection Council, 

Nigeria Copyright Commission (NCC). 

Good background to IP rights in Nigeria 

can be read at pennjil.com/intellectualproperty-rights-enforcement-in-nigeriaregulatory-agencies-to-the-rescue/. 

A complete listing of Nigerian legislation 

can be found at placng.org/lawsofnigeria/ 

index.php. 

"Nigeria has a poor 

reputation for bribery 

and corruption and 

it is observable from 

the highest levels of 

government to the 

lowest level on the 

street." 

TAXATION 

Detail on Nigerian tax law is available 

from a particularly user-unfriendly Federal 

Inland Revenue Service website at firs. 

gov.ng/Tax-Management/Pages/Tax- 

Legislations.aspx. Its website is not easy 

to navigate and many links are broken so 

good advice is crucial. That said, the key 

taxes to note are: 

• Companies Income Tax: A 30 percent 

tax chargeable on all companies profits 

(other than Companies engaged in 

petroleum operations) registered in 

Nigeria 

Personal Income Tax: A tax of between 

seven percent and 24 percent payable by 

all individuals and registered businesses 

and partnerships except those registered 

under Part A of Companies and Allied 

Matters Act 1990 

• 

• 

Education Tax: A tax of two percent 

chargeable on all companies registered 

in Nigeria on their chargeable profits as 

contribution to the Education Tax Fund 

• 

• 

Withholding Tax: An advance payment 

of tax (set at between five to ten percent) 

Value Added Tax: A tax payable by the 

consumer at five percent of the net value. 

All registered businesses are expected 

to register and have a VAT registration 

certificate, and boldly display their VAT 

registration number on all invoices. 

Nigeria has a double taxation agreement 

with the UK. Thus, foreign tax paid may 

be credited against the total tax payable 

in Nigeria. Visit hmrc.gov.uk/ for more 

information. 

CULTURAL MATTERS 

While regulatory matters are important, so 

are the social niceties of doing business. 

Office hours are usual 0800 to 1700, 

Monday to Friday and business dress is 

smart, stylish and dark colours. 

When greeting someone, for men a 

warm handshake is fine. However, because 

of a large Muslim population, observant 

men are forbidden from shaking hands 

with women; a safe, traditional greeting 

would be for a man to bow his head slightly 

when introduced. Similarly, Nigeria is 

still a patriarchal society, with traditional 

roles for men and women largely adhered 

to. And with so many different cultures 

and ethnic divisions, Business etiquette 

therefore demands that visitors remain 

flexible and willing to improvise. 

As we’ve seen, perhaps more than any 

other country in Africa, Nigeria has a poor 

reputation for bribery and corruption and 

it is observable from the highest levels of 

government to the lowest level on the street. 

Forming connections with prominent 

ministers and governors is essential for 

those wanting to be successful at business 

in Nigeria. Although not advocated, and 

under UK law it’s illegal, it’s an unfortunate 

reality that many companies have a very 

wide margin written into their budgets 

for bribes, given not just to legislators 

and decision-makers but also to their 

assistants, and often security guards and 

even receptionists. 

Lastly, anyone travelling to, or going 

to work in Nigeria, must hold a valid visa 

before entering the country. These can take 

three weeks or more to be granted and so 

this should be planned for when making 

applications. 


INTERVIEW 

FECMA Country Profile 

Sean Feast talks to Péter Szentirmay at the Hungarian 

Credit Management Association, in the first in a new 

series of profiles on members of the Federation of 

European Credit Management Associations (FECMA). 

HUNGARY is a unitary 

parliamentary republic 

in Central Europe that 

covers an area of 93,030 

square kilometres and is 

bordered by Slovakia to 

the north, Romania to the east, Serbia to the 

south, Croatia to the southwest, Slovenia 

to the west, Austria to the northwest, and 

Ukraine to the northeast. 

With about ten million inhabitants, 

Hungary is a medium-sized member state of 

the European Union. The official language 

is Hungarian, the most widely spoken 

Uralic language in the world. Hungary's 

capital and largest city and metropolis is 

Budapest, a significant economic hub, 

classified as a leading global city. 

Well-known for its rich cultural history, 

Hungary has contributed significantly to 

arts, music, literature, sports and science 

and technology. Hungary is the 11th most 

popular country as a tourist destination in 

Europe, attracting 14.3 million international 

tourists in 2015. 

Hungary has the world's 57th largest 

economy by nominal Gross Domestic 

Product (GDP), as well as the 58th largest 

by Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) out of 191 

countries measured by the International 

Monetary Fund (IMF). As a significant 

player in many industrial and technological 

sectors, it is the world's 35th largest exporter 

and 34th largest importer of goods. 

Hungary is an OECD high-income 

economy with a very high standard of 

living. It performs well in international 

rankings – 20th in terms of quality of life, 

24th in the Good Country Index, 28th in 

inequality-adjusted human development, 

32nd in the Social Progress Index, 33rd in 

Global Innovation Index and ranks as the 

15th safest country in the world. 

Hungary is the 11th most 

popular country as a 

tourist destination in 

Europe, attracting 14.3 

million international 

tourists in 2015. 

Péter Szentirmay 

How many members do you have? 

We have corporate memberships only 

and to date have 60 members. 

How is the HCMA run? 

Every year we have our annual congress 

and, depending on our resources, we 

run three or four additional events (such 

as workshops, factory visits hosted by 

our members, networking and social 

events, etc). We also publish a members’ 

magazine, four times a year, and 

organise two prestigious awards: the 

CFO of the Year and Credit Management 

Team of the Year. 

What does your association 

do in relation to learning and 

development? 

We do not deliver qualifications or 

accreditations as such, but we do 

organise various workshops and round 

tables to appeal to different sectors and 

different audience. 

Describe your country’s cultural 

attitudes to late payment. 

Late payment is unfortunately quite 

common although general attitudes 

have improved during recent years. Our 

average payment terms (contractual) 

are currently 31 days, although ‘real’ 

payment (i.e. Days Sales Outstanding 

- DSO) is 37 days according to Atradius 

Payment Practices Barometer. 

Are there any specific laws/policies 

to protect businesses against late 

payment? 

Legislation is certainly a key tool in 

helping to improve payment attitudes, 

and so we not only look to the EU 

Late Payment Directive but also other 

legislation such as maximum 30-day 

payment terms within the agrifood 

sector and retail sector (Act 2009/XCV), 

and implementing a Performance 

Certification Export Body in the 

construction sector (act 2013/XXXIV). 

Contacts for further information: 

Péter Szentirmay 

Chairman 

E: peter.szentirmay@hcma.co. 

T: +36 20 480 4000 


THE B2B DEBT RECOVERY SPECIALISTS 

The Debt Recovery Pre-Action Protocol 

goes live in less than one week 

Your last chance to get PAP ready 

If you are still unsure about the steps that you need 

to take, download our Pre-Action Protocol toolkit 

which contains various checklists, flowcharts, tips, 

advice and atimeline for you to consider ahead 

of 1st October deadline. 

We offer acomplete commercial debt recovery service, from outsourced 

‘Early Arrears Collections’ through to expert Litigation, all handled in-house 

by amulti-award winning law firm. 

CCR 

credit 

excellence 

awards2015 

in association with 

WINNER 

Would your credit process benefit from 

an increase in effective cash collection 

calls every month? 

FBCollections are aprofessional outsourced function, managing 

bulk cash-collections for national brands at an ‘early arrears’ stage. 

We offer acost-effective, ‘white-labelled’ solution to collect payment of your overdue 

invoices. We do this either to replace or to supplement your in-house collection teams. 

Our dedicated client teams use the latest dialler technology to maximise your 

collections, whilst acting professionally and compliantly throughout. 

FBCollections can help you to: 

• Increase your collection call volumes and overall productivity 

• Decrease your amount of delinquent accounts due to no contact 

• Reduce your headcount and overhead costs 

• Latest Ofcom approved dialler system with bespoke M.I. to your requirements 

Contact us for an exploratory discussion 

or to benchmark our results against your 

in-house team or your current provider. 


OPINION 

Making your mark 

Adam Bernstein looks at how businesses can 

protect themselves against imitations. 

AUTHOR – Adam Bernstein is a freelance business writer. 

THE problem of protecting 

the goodwill of a business 

from abuse by another, 

especially where the internet 

is concerned, is nothing 

new. Cases involving L’Oreal 

v eBay, Interflora v M&S, Lush v Amazon 

have all proved the point. More recently, a 

case involving the kitchens and bathrooms 

sector – Victoria Plum Ltd (t/a Victoria 

Plumb) v Victorian Plumbing was ruled 

on by the High Court in November 2016. 

Without delving too deeply into the case 

as it’s been widely reported, it involved 

the alleged misuse of Victoria Plum’s 

trademark (and passing off) by a rival, 

Victorian Plumbing, through the use of 

Google keywords ‘Victoria’, ‘Victorian’ and 

‘Plumbing’. 

WHAT ARE TRADEMARKS? 

Trademarks, in their modern form, have 

been around since the end of the 19th 

century. The internet has been around only 

from the end of the 20th century. Politicians 

have never bothered to make much specific 

law to regulate the internet, let alone the 

use of trademarks on the internet. Given 

that the internet is a global phenomenon, 

it’s not unsurprising that the interaction 

between trademarks and the internet is a 

complex issue, even for lawyers. 

Dai Davis, a solicitor and chartered 

engineer at daidavis.com, says that the 

starting point for any firm wanting to 

protect its brand and position is to note that 

historic trademark laws govern the use of 

trade marks – even on the internet. 

“Trademarks can protect goods, 

services or both, and they exist in two 

forms – registered and unregistered. As 

the name suggests, to obtain a registered 

trademark requires the applicant to pay 

monies to a government agency that will 

grant the registration if it’s satisfied that the 

mark satisfies the criteria (below) and is 

otherwise registerable.” Davis explains that 

in essence, registration can be obtained 

for anything which is (i) capable of being 

represented graphically and (ii) capable 

of ‘distinguishing goods or services of 

one undertaking from those of another 

undertaking’. This definition covers not 

just the obvious word, sign or phrase but 

even such options as colours, sounds (eg a 

jingle) and even smells. 

Interestingly, an unregistered 

trademark exists automatically as soon as 

someone uses it. As Davis points out, even 

the ‘look and feel’ of a shop or internet site is 

automatically protected as an unregistered 

trademark right. He says these or analogous 

rights exist in most countries of the world. 

In the UK, they are also referred to as the 

tort (ie legal wrong) of passing off. 

“But where industries 

converge life can become 

difficult, originally 

there were two ‘Apple’: 

the Beatles record 

label and the computer 

company. It wasn’t until 

the advent of music 

being sold in digital 

format that litigation 

ensued between these 

companies.” 

When it comes to enforcement, the 

right to bring an action for passing off 

exists where the plaintiff can show that it 

has sufficient reputation in a mark; that 

as a result of a misrepresentation by the 

defendant a significant proportion of the 

public has been confused into believing 

the goods or services of the defendant 

are connected with those of the plaintiff; 

and that the plaintiff has suffered loss 

(which will usually be the case if there is 

confusion). 

REGISTRATION IS GOOD 

“As might be expected,” says Davis, 

“unregistered trademark rights are nothing 

like as strong as registered rights, not least 

because to show infringement the owner 

of the unregistered trademark must show 

actual (or likely) confusion in the minds 

of customers (or potential customers) 

by the use of the mark (or in the case of 

an internet site the ‘look and feel’ of the 

site) by another company.” In practice, he 

says this will involve obtaining survey 

evidence that is usually unreliable and 

expensive. 

But what if a rival abuses the ‘design or 

get up’ of a product, service or website? 

Well that too is protected. Davis cites 

the Jif Lemon case. “Here an action was 

successfully brought under the laws of 

passing off to restrain use of the wellknown 

yellow lemon-shaped container 

even though the defendant used the name 

‘Real Lemon’.” 

TRADEMARK LIMITATION 

Firms can’t just assume that trademark 

law will stop all use of similar marks as 

protection is limited by territory. “When 

trademarks are used or registered in one 

territory,” says Davis, “it does not provide 

any protection in another territory”. For 

example – the use or registration of a mark 

in the UK does not provide protection in 

Jersey and Guernsey which are different 

countries for these purposes.” That said, 

some countries group themselves together 

to provide protection through a single 

registration – the European Union being 

an example of this. Particularly wellknown 

marks have automatic rights in 

those countries that ascribe to the Paris 

Convention for the Protection of Industry 

Property – ‘Harrods’, ‘Kodak’, ‘Coca Cola’ 

and the ‘Mickey Mouse’ character for 

example. 

Another limitation is that unregistered 

or registered rights only protect the goods 

or services for which the mark is used 

or registered respectively. This means a 

trademark can be safely used or registered 

by different businesses simultaneously. A 

good illustration of this is the word mark 

‘lotus’ which in the UK has been successfully 

registered by many companies. 

shoe company – lotusshoes.co.uk 

sports car company – lotuscars.com 

• software company, now owned by IBM 

(which is where lotus.com takes you) 

• toilet paper company, recently 

• 

rebranded to ‘tork’, that uses 

lotusprofessional-eu.com and 

Algerian food distribution company – 

lotus-distribution.com. 

In addition, the mark is used by numerous 

Chinese restaurants up and down the 

country. For the most part, all of these 

companies can coexist without one 

treading on another’s toes. 

“But where industries converge life can 


OPINION 

AUTHOR – ADAM BERNSTEIN 

become difficult,” says Davis. “Originally 

there were two ‘Apple’: the Beatles record 

label and the computer company. It wasn’t 

until the advent of music being sold 

in digital format that litigation ensued 

between these companies.” 

ONLINE WORLD 

So where does that leave the use of 

trademarks on the internet? Where do 

firms stand in a global internet age where 

protection is granted on a country-bycountry 

basis? What if a business uses a 

trade mark lawfully in one country but 

then breaches rights elsewhere? Davis 

says that while there are few specific 

national laws and no international 

conventions dealing with the issue, many 

countries legal systems, including those 

of the UK and the European Union, have 

tended towards the view that so long as a 

website is not targeted or directed at the 

second country, use of the trademark will 

not be actionable in the second country. 

The biggest issue at hand is that 

trademarks overrule everything else – 

company names, domain name, twitter 

handles, or the account names of social 

media businesses such as Facebook or 

LinkedIn. Davis makes this further point: 

“Just as in a single country there can 

be several businesses who can use the 

same business name (as we saw in the 

Lotus example) there are often several 

businesses internationally who can use 

the same trade mark.” So, while you might 

wish to shop online today at ‘asda.com’, 

This means a trademark 

can be safely used 

or registered by 

different businesses 

simultaneously. A good 

illustration of this is 

the word mark ‘lotus’ 

which in the UK has been 

successfully registered 

by many companies. 

originally your shopping would have 

been somewhat limited as it would have 

taken you to the Arizona School of Dental 

Assisting who were the first to register 

that web address. Similarly, computer 

consultancy Boston Business Computing 

eventually sold ‘bbc.com’ to the British 

Broadcasting Corporation. 

DISSIMILAR USE 

Davis says that in the examples of ‘asda. 

com’ and ‘bbc.com’ no legal wrong was 

being committed, ‘since each entity was 

entitled to use that trademark in the 

limited manner of its use, it was simply 

a case of first come, first served.’ There 

could be no cause for complaint provided 

the dental assistants had not begun to 

sell groceries in the UK. Likewise, Boston 

Business Associates was entitled to use 

the domain ‘bbc.com’ since they were not 

competitors of the British Broadcasting 

Corporation. Because of this they can 

continue to use their present web domain 

name: ‘bosbbc.com’. 

ENFORCEMENT COSTS 

The organisations behind the common 

internet domain suffixes (such as VeriSign 

in the case of the ‘.com’ domain or Nominet 

in the case of the ‘.co.uk’ domain) have 

mandatory dispute resolution procedures 

in the case of alleged trade mark 

infringement. Those procedures bind 

companies who have those domain name 

addresses and in any event, are invariably 

cheaper to invoke than national law. It 

is still open for a business that owns a 

trade mark to use the national courts to 

prevent the misuse of a trade mark on the 

internet. 

There have been many examples 

of where a trademark has been used 

incorrectly on social media by a company 

other than the registered owner. For the 

most part, these are resolved by the social 

media company taking action to prevent 

that infringement since that use is usually 

in breach of the social media companies 

own terms of use. An exception can be 

where the social media company is itself 

commercialising the use of the trademark 

– and that will usually entail expensive 

litigation. 

The lesson from all of this is that 

firms should proactively register 

their trademarks, protect those marks 

appropriately, and save on cost by 

pursuing only those that impinge on their 

line of business. Before throwing money 

at expensive and potentially PR-damaging 

cases, good advice should be sought. 


PAYMENT TRENDS 

A cup three-quarters full 

Jason Braidwood FCICM(Grad), Head of Credit and 

Collections at Creditsafe Business Solutions, analyses 

the latest monthly business to business payment 

performance statistics. 

A 

shock to the system is often 

not a bad thing. There are 

obvious exceptions to this 

rule, but when the outcome 

is a pleasant surprise, then 

the shock is well worth it. 

Happily, a pleasant shock has come about 

in this month’s payment performance 

figures with 75 percent of industry sectors 

reporting a drop in their payment days 

beyond terms (DBT). And this isn’t just 

an industry anomaly, the positive trend 

continues across every region we monitor 

on a monthly basis. 

Last month we reported that the 

industry average for bill paying had fallen 

to ten days beyond terms – marking a 

performance record for the last three years. 

The good news is that the downward, yet 

positive, trend continues this month, which 

is great to see and proof that we weren’t 

experiencing just a ‘silly’ summer season. 

Let’s now dig a bit deeper and take a 

closer look at where the biggest and best 

shocks come from this month. 

INDUSTRY SECTORS 

The celebrations start with the Financial 

and Insurance sectors which had a return 

to a much improved DBT score of just over 

ten days. This is an improvement of nearly a 

week (6.5 days) compared with last month, 

which will be welcome news to the many 

services and technologies suppliers. 

In close second place is Business Admin 

and Support, arguably the backbone of many 

organisations and rarely a sector that gets 

the spotlight it possibly deserves. But this 

is the month to champion administration, 

with the sector seeing a decrease of over 

six days DBT from last month, and its best 

payment performance for the year to date. 

Also featuring in our ‘Top Five’ best 

performing sectors are the Real Estate and 

IT sectors – both succeeded in dropping 

their DBT score by five days or more in the 

last month. With both industries falling 

well within single figures – they’re back on 

terms with performances we saw earlier in 

the year. 

We recently heard warnings in the news 

from the Specialist Engineering Contractors 

Group (SEC) that the current cashflow 

problems in the construction industry are 

unsustainable, with too many contracting 

authorities not considering themselves 

as compliant with agreed payment terms. 

Interestingly, from our own data we have 

seen the construction industry hovering 

around the 13/14 DBT mark, which puts 

the sector in the top 50 percent of slowest 

payers, but equally out of the Top Five worst 

offenders for 2017. It is also worth noting 

that the construction industry enjoyed its 

most successful month of prompt payment 

for the year to date, and more notably still 

since April 2016. No mean feat and we hope, 

a sign of renewed commitment toward 

better payment practices. 

And while we’re keen to keep the mood 

buoyant, it would be too hasty of me to 

imply that every sector delivered a personal 

best. For home businesses, the contrast 

on last month’s performance was 

concerning, rocketing to over 17 days 

beyond terms, and now the worst paying 

industry. We hope that home-working 

SMEs, entrepreneurs and freelancers 

manage to get back on track before we 

hit Q4 and the nights inevitably begin to 

draw in. 

REGIONS 

The second pleasant surprise is that despite 

a bad month in August, the South West has 

come back fighting and regained its crown 

as the promptest paying region in the UK, 

bringing its total DBT down to 8.5 days – a 

reduction of over five days. 

The South West’s gain was East Anglia’s 

loss, which fell to second place this month, 

but still with an impressive fall to over 

nine DBT compared with double figures in 

the previous month. We can see a contest 

heating up between these two regions; 

feel free to place your bets but we won’t be 

supplying odds! 

With all this positivity, it’s important to 

not forget the very important issue at hand 

here. Late payment, whether it’s by sector 

or by region, continues to be a chronic 

issue. Many businesses, particularly SMEs 

and even more so micro-businesses, need to 

be paid promptly in order to keep a healthy 

cashflow as they simply do not have the 

luxury of being able to absorb late or nonpayment. 

Shifting this culture of routine 

late payment is a challenge still to solve and 

when we do – that will be the biggest shock 

of all. 


PAYMENT TRENDS 

Sector 

Sector 

Scotland 

10.4 DBT 

Getting Better 

Getting Worse 

Financial & 

Insurance 

-6.5 

Business 

from Home 

+2.9 

Business Admin 

& Support 

-6.3 

Public 

Administration 

+2.1 

Real Estate 

-5.8 

Sector 

Water 

& Waste 

+0.9 

IT and Comms 

-5.0 

Mining 

& Quarrying 

+0.5 

Professional 

& Scientific 

-3.5 

Hospitality 

+0.1 

Region 

Northern 

Ireland 

10.1 DBT 

Bottom Five Poorest Payers 

Wales 

-0.4 

South West -5.1 

South East Top Five -0.8 Prompter Payers 

Top Five Prompter Payers 

East Midlands -1.9 


Region August 17 Change from July 17 

East Anglia -2.5 

Wales Scotland 13.0 Top Five -2.1 -0.4 Prompter Payers 

Wales -0.4 

North West 11.7 -0.2 

Yorkshire and Humberside North 11.1 West International -0.2 -1.3 Bodies South West 5.9 -5.1 -2.4 

Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing 6.3 -0.5 

South East 11.0 -0.8 

Yorkshire & Humberside IT and Comms -1.3 South East 7.3 

-0.8 

-5.0 

London 11.0 Entertainment -2.5 

7.9 

-2.5 

-1.7 

London 

West Midlands Real Estate -1.5 

8.0 -5.8 

Northern Ireland -2.4 

East Midlands 

East Anglia 

London 

-1.9 

-2.5 

-2.5 

South West 8.5 -5.1 

East Anglia 9.4 -2.5 

Northern 

-2.4 

Ireland 10.1 -2.4 

Scotland 10.4 -2.1 

Getting Worse East Midlands 10.8 -1.9 

Northern Ireland 

Sector 

Region Wales 

13 DBT 

North West 

11.7 DBT 

Top Five Prompter Payers August 17 Change from July 17 

Yorkshire International & Bodies 5.9 -2.4 

Humberside 


11.1 DBT 

IT and Comms 7.3 -5.0 

Entertainment 7.9 -1.7 

Real Estate 

East 

8.0 -5.8 


Midlands 

10.8 DBT 

West 

Midlands 

10.9 DBT 

8.5 DBT 

East Anglia 

9.4 DBT 

London 

Financial & Business Admin 

11 DBT 

Insurance Getting & Better Support 

South East 

Getting Better -6.5 -6.3 

South West 

11 DBT 

Scotland 

Getting Worse North West -0.2 

Yorkshire & Humberside +2.9 -1.3 

West Midlands -1.5 

Business 

from Home 

Public 


+2.1 


Getting Worse 

-2.1 

Sector 

Region 


The Recognised Standard / www.cicm.com / October 2017 / PAGE 39 


Bottom Five Poorest Payers August 17 Change from July 17 

It is also worth noting that 

the construction industry 

enjoyed its most successful 

Scotland 

-6.5 -2.1 -6.3 

month of prompt payment 

Getting Worse 

North West Business -0.2 

for the year to date, from Home and 

Yorkshire & Humberside 

more notably still 

+2.9 -1.3 

since 

West Midlands -1.5 

April 2016. 

Professional 

IT and Comms East Midlands -1.9 

& Scientific 

-5.8 -5.0 East Anglia -3.5 -2.5 


Wales -0.4 

Real Estate 

Region 

Business from Home 17.2 2.9 

Mining and Quarrying 14.2 0.5 

Public 

Financial 


& Business 

13.1 

Admin 

2.1 

Hospitality Insurance Getting & Better Support 12.4 0.1 Real Estate 

Construction 12.1 -0.8 

Public 


+2.1 

Water 

Mining 

Hospitality 


& Waste & Quarrying 

International Bodies 5.9 -2.4 

+0.9 +0.5 South West +0.1 -5.1Scotland 

10.4 DBT 


IT and Comms South East 7.3 

-0.8 

-5.0 

Entertainment 7.9 

-2.5 

-1.7 

London 

Real Estate 8.0 -5.8 

Northern Ireland -2.4 


Getting Northern Worse 

Ireland 

Bottom Five Poorest Payers August 17 Change from July 17 

10.1 DBT 

North West 

Business from Home 17.2 2.9 

11.7 DBT 

Mining and Quarrying 14.2 0.5 

Scotland 

Public Administration 13.1 2.1 

10.4 DBT 

Hospitality 12.4 0.1 

Construction 12.1 -0.8 


Wales 

13 DBT 


South West 8.5 -5.1 

East Anglia Northern 9.4 -2.5 South West 

Northern Ireland Ireland 

10.1 -2.4 8.5 DBT 

Scotland 10.1 DBT 10.4 -2.1 

North West 

East Midlands 10.8 -1.9 

11.7 DBT 


South West 

8.5 DBT 

-5.8 

Yorkshire & 

Humberside 

11.1 DBT 

West 

Midlands 

10.9 DBT 

East 

Midlands 

10.8 DBT 

London 

11 DBT 

Yorkshire & 

Humberside 

11.1 DBT 

Region August 17 Change from July 17 East 

Midlands 

Wales 13.0 -0.4 

10.8 DBT 

North West 11.7 -0.2 West 

Yorkshire and Humberside 11.1 -1.3 Midlands 

Wales 

South East 11.0 -0.8 10.9 DBT 

13 DBT 

London 11.0 -2.5 

London 

11 DBT 

Wate 

& Was 

+0.9 

Bott 

Botto 

Busi 

Mini 

Publ 

Hosp 

Cons 

Bott 

East A 

9.4 

Regio 

South 

WaleE 

Nort 11 DB 

Yorks 

Sout 

Lond 

E 

Sou 

1

LEGAL MATTERS 

Defended debt cases to take 

brunt of fixed-fee reforms 

Lord Justice Jackson has issued his final report in respect 

of fixed fees. On the whole the news was fairly positive. 

DD +44 113 261 6533 E james.perry@dwf.law W www.dwf.law/recover 

James Perry 

Director - Technical Recoveries 

IT is proposed that these cases are 

put into a Band 1 category which 

is a banding for cases considered 

to be the simplest type to deal 

with. Consequently, these will be 

the ones where the least sums are 

going to be recoverable from opponents if 

you win your claim. To make matters worse 

‘defended debt cases’ are also dragged 

into a new intermediate track as well so 

this regime will apply to cases worth up 

to £100,000; a very substantial sum for 

many businesses who rely on a good Court 

system to ensure their cashflow remains 

healthy and they do not find themselves in 

financial dire straits. 

Presumably this has been done because 

general debt recovery is not considered 

to be anything too difficult to deal with – 

which I completely agree with if a case is 

capable of being determined at an early 

stage of proceedings. However, I think 

it is wrong for ‘defended debt cases’ that 

run beyond this stage to be tarred with the 

same general debt recovery brush, and I 

think the error in this report shows a real 

lack of understanding and appreciation of 

this area of the law. When a debt claim 

has to run beyond case allocation, and 

there is no opportunity for a cheap and 

cheerful early determination, then it is 

likely to no longer be a simple debt claim 

but something fairly technical. 

Firstly, perhaps someone can explain 

to me what a ‘defended debt case’ actually 

is. It is such an incredibly wide definition 

because, unlike the other types of law 

within the bandings, a debt case can throw 

up many a wide and varied type of defence. 

The last three files I have picked up today 

have all been ‘debt’ claims. The first was 

a Social Care Act ‘defended debt case’ for 

a local authority concerning a deceased's 

estate and the transfer of a property. The 

second was a ‘defended debt case’ based 

on an alleged misrepresentation made by 

the sales agent at the point of contract and 

the third ‘defended debt case’ is based on 

the supply of steel which is allegedly not 

fit for purpose. All three claims of course 

stem from a failure to pay an invoice 

but so what – the unpaid invoice is not 

the primary point of reference when 

resolving the case. The commonality of 

there being an unpaid invoice for each 

claim is actually only a secondary issue 

when trying to resolve the dispute. 

If the debt claim you are dealing with 

is not something that is suitable for early 

determination (ie summary Judgment) 

then the chances are a significant amount 

of work needs to be done on your case. 

Pulling in such a wide and varied area of 

the law into a fixed fee regime is likely 

to be very damaging to UK businesses, 

especially smaller businesses who have 

deterred debtors for hundreds of years 

by relying on the threat of the loser in 

litigation footing their legal bill. It was 

the weight of this threat which gave them 

adequate access to justice. 

If these proposals are accepted then 

as soon as a debt case becomes mildly 

complicated, and there is a serious risk 

that the case will become uneconomical 

to pursue, then it will become ‘futile 

or irrational to bring a claim’ which as 

Lord Reed put it only the other month 

at paragraph 96 of the Unison v Lord 

Chancellor case ([2017] UKSC 51) would 

be considered to be something which 

‘prevent[s] access to justice.’ I suspect the 

impact will be that UK businesses will just 

increase their prices and we will all be 

made to suffer. 

One thing I think which should happen 

is that the Courts should allow a refund 

in part of the issue fee in circumstances 

where a default Judgment is obtained or 

settlement is achieved at an early stage in 

proceedings. How can it be fair to suggest 

that for a Band 1 claim worth £24,999.99 

a Court clerk who merely books a claim 

into their system, gives it a claim number, 

adds a response pack to it and files and 

serves it is entitled to a fee of £1,249.95 

for their administrative efforts; whereas 

a qualified lawyer who has attempted to 

settle a dispute, has diligently reviewed 

all the papers, given professional advice, 

drafted the claim form and sent it to Court 

for issuing is only entitled to recover a 

maximum of £500 to pay for their client's 

costs? 

Just like the removal of the 

recoverability of success fees and 

insurance premiums when litigating 

this report simply provides another 

opportunity to maintain an unreasonable 

tax on civil justice, introducing further 

uncertainty for claimants which in turn 

erodes adequate access to justice. 

This information is intended as a general 

discussion surrounding the topics covered 

and is for guidance purposes only. It does 

not constitute legal advice and should 

not be regarded as a substitute for taking 

legal advice. DWF is not responsible for 

any activity undertaken based on this 

information. 

AS A CICM MEMBER YOU CAN RECEIVE FREE LEGAL ADVICE FROM 

DWF VISIT THE CICM WEBSITE AND CLICK ON THE FREE ADVICE LINE. 


OPINION 

Unintentional 

consequences 

Karen Chapman explains why the introduction of the 

new Pre-Action Protocol for Debt Claims on 1 October 

may lead to an unintended rise in the number of 

insolvency actions – particularly for undisputed debts. 

AUTHOR – Karen Chapman is a Chartered Legal Executive and an Associate at Clarke Willmott LLP specialising in all aspects of 

debt recovery and debt recovery litigation for both individuals and commercial entities. 

Karen Chapman 

Issuing a Statutory 

Demand may seem like 

an easy alternative to 

County Court action, 

but there is no definitive 

answer. Each case should 

be considered on its 

merits and if unsure, 

the advice of a specialist 

debt recovery lawyer 

should be sought. 

THE Ministry of Justice’s new 

protocol will potentially 

make it a longer and more 

onerous process to recover 

debts from sole traders or 

individuals. 

Under the new protocol, when a 

creditor is pursuing a County Court claim 

against an individual or sole trader, the 

debtor must be allowed 30 days to reply 

to the letter of claim (currently 7-14 days). 

The creditor will also have to supply more 

information and additional documents 

with the letter of claim. 

Despite these additional requirements 

on the creditor, debtors may simply 

go through a ‘tick box exercise’ on the 

new Reply Form and potentially gain 

themselves yet more time by requesting 

further information or seeking debt advice. 

As a result, the process becomes longer 

and more onerous for creditors to recover 

their debts and potentially makes it easier 

for unscrupulous debtors to deliberately 

delay the process or raise spurious 

defences. 

Where there is no material dispute, and 

the debtor is simply unwilling or unable 

to pay, this could lead some creditors to 

decide that insolvency action is preferable, 

despite the fact it is not a debt recovery 

tool. 

For debts of £5,000 or more, issuing a 

Statutory Demand may appear a quicker 

and more straightforward option. (A 

Statutory Demand is a demand for 

payment in a specific form as required by 

the Insolvency Rules 2016). 

Once a Statutory Demand is served, a 

debtor has three weeks to pay the debt or 

to secure or compound it to the reasonable 

satisfaction of the creditor. Unlike action in 

the County Court, the inability to repay the 

debt will not be taken into account. In fact, 

an admission of this nature will simply 

substantiate the creditor’s submission 

that the debtor cannot pay their debts as 

and when they fall due. Alternatively, the 

debtor can apply for it to be set-aside 

within 18 days of Service. 

To avoid the possibility of a Bankruptcy 

Order, many debtors faced with a Statutory 

Demand will quickly make repayment 

arrangements. This can therefore be a 

relatively inexpensive and a faster way of 

obtaining payment/assessing a debtor’s 

intent to repay the debt. 

However, the purpose of a Statutory 

Demand is to take the first step in an 

insolvency action and should not be 

served indiscriminately. 

If the debtor fails to pay and the creditor 

decides to proceed with a Bankruptcy 

Petition, this can turn into a much more 

expensive route and the amount recovered 

is not guaranteed; it will depend on the 

value of the debtor’s assets, and the total 

amount of outstanding debts he/she has. 

Issuing a Statutory Demand may 

seem like an easy alternative to County 

Court action, but there is no definitive 

answer. Each case should be considered 

on its merits and if unsure, the advice of a 

specialist debt recovery lawyer should be 

sought. 

Few businesses are currently aware of 

the protocol, but many will be affected. 

My advice to any business that deals with 

sole traders or individuals, or plans to 

do so in the future, is to review its credit 

control processes now, before the protocol 

comes into effect. 

With only a few weeks to go, businesses 

should check the legal status of customers 

to whom they extend credit and be careful 

to distinguish between sole traders and 

partnerships or companies, as potentially 

different debt recovery processes will be 

needed. 

Making any changes necessary to 

comply with the new protocol now will 

help firms to maintain their ability to 

quickly and effectively recover the monies 

owed them through the existing County 

Court process. 


LEGAL MATTERS 

Don’t make a 

bad bargain! 

The courts will sometimes intervene to amend a 

poorly drafted contractual clause. But not always. 

AUTHOR – Peter Walker 

CREDIT Managers should 

have no difficulties in 

collecting interim payments 

in construction contracts, 

because such a contract 

will stipulate when those 

payments will be made. Life and building 

projects are, however, not that simple, 

as illustrated by a case considered by the 

judges of the Court of Appeal, i.e. Grove 

Developments Ltd v Balfour Beatty Regional 

Construction Ltd [2017] 1 WLR 1893. Some 

aspects of their judgement are relevant to 

contracts generally. 

The judges firstly had to find out what 

happened in relation to the proposed 

construction of a hotel and serviced 

apartments at Greenwich Peninsular in the 

south-east of London. The claimant in the 

case appointed the defendant to design and 

construct the buildings for a sum of over 

£121 million. The defendant did not want to 

wait for full payment at the completion of 

the project. The claimant would therefore 

make interim payments as is common in 

the construction industry. 

The contractual obligations were 

governed by a JCT (or Joint Contracts 

Tribunal) Design and Build Contract 

2011 form. Another factor was section 

109 of the Housing Grants, Construction 

and Regeneration Act 1996, although 

the principles in the judges’ decision are 

relevant more generally. 

That section of the Act stipulates that a 

party to a construction contract is entitled 

to stage payments and the like unless the 

duration of the work is less than 45 days, 

or the parties agree that the duration of 

the work is estimated to be less than that 

period. The parties are free to agree the 

amounts of the payments and when, or in 

what circumstances, they are to be made. If 

they cannot agree, they can fall back on the 

provisions of the Scheme for Construction 

Contracts (England and Wales) Regulations 

1998 (SI1998/649). There is an equivalent 

scheme in Scotland, i.e. the Scheme 

for Construction Contracts (Scotland) 

Regulations 1998 (SI1998/687). They set out, 

among other stipulations, rules for monthly 

interim payments. 

These provisions were not immediately 

relevant, because there was a contract, and 

clause four allowed for one of two payment 

methods. Alternative A provided for stage 

payments and Alternative B applied to 

periodic payments. Whatever the method, 

the contractor had to apply to the employer 

for payment, and to state the basis of the 

application. There were rules about the 

ascertainment of amount payable, and so 

on. The parties chose Alternative A, but 

were unable to agree a list of stages to be 

incorporated into that Alternative. 

DELAYS 

Work started on the project, and the 

claimant made various interim payments 

in accordance with the defendant’s 

applications. There were delays, and the 

contract was overrunning. The defendant 

applied for an interim payment, but 

the claimant issued ‘a pay less’ notice 

in accordance with the contractual 

procedure. The amount to be deducted was 

£2 million, because there was a dispute 

about an extra-contractual payment made 

by the applicant. The claimant paid the net 

amount to the defendant. 

The defendant demanded the £2 million, 

but the parties failed to agree the applicable 

dates for interim payments after the expiry 

date for such payments stipulated in the 

contract. The reason for the difficulty 

was that the work had overrun, and the 

contract did not foresee this possibility. The 

claimant further claimed an entitlement to 

damages for the delay in completing the 

work, and that those damages extinguished 

any payments due. The defendant claimed 

that it was entitled to interim payments. 

Grove LJ in the Court of Appeal 

consequently observed, ‘Accordingly in 

order to resolve that dispute [the claimant] 

commenced the present proceedings.’ 

That is an expensive solution, and there 

was more expense to come. The court at 

first instance found that the defendant 

had no contractual right to make interim 

applications after the stipulated contractual 

expiry date, so the dissatisfied defendant 

appealed to the higher court. 

There the first question was whether 

under Alternative A there was indeed a 

contractual interim period at that date. The 

previous payments, for example, had been 

made at times other than those stipulated 

in the contract. The defendant asserted 

that it was commercial nonsense to expect 

it to wait until the albeit delayed end of the 

contract to receive the remaining payment 

in full, when the intention was to make 

interim payments throughout. 

COMMERCIAL SENSE OR NONSENSE? 

Commercial sense or commercial nonsense 

was a topic earlier for the judges of the 

Supreme Court in Arnold v Britton [2015] 

AC 1619. They were considering some 

chalets in a leisure park in the picturesque 

Gower peninsula in Wales. Each of those 

chalets were subject to 99-year leases 

commencing on Christmas Day 1974. Some 

of the service-charge clauses were certainly 

no gifts to the chalet leaseholders. 

Their service charges started at a 

reasonable £90 a year, but some of the 

chalet holders would have to pay a charge 


LEGAL MATTERS 

compounded by ten percent every three 

years. There were variations in other 

leases, some of which provided for an 

increase of ten percent compounded every 

year, perhaps reasonable at a time when 

inflation was very high. Lord Neuberger 

pointed out that on the assumption of a 

lease commencing in 1980 the service 

charge would be £2,500 in 2015, and over 

£550,000 by 2072. 

The leaseholders thought this to be 

absurd, and wanted to pay a fair cost 

of the services provided, i.e. a variable 

amount. The Lessor disagreed and wanted 

the Court to declare that the clause meant 

payment of the specified fixed sum. 

The judges will sometimes interpret 

contractual terms as they did in another 

the Supreme Court case. In Rainy Sky v 

Kookmin Bank [2011] UKSC 50 six shipowning 

companies each ordered to buy a 

ship from a Korean shipbuilding company. 

Each ship would cost US$ 33 million and 

the first instalment was conditional on a 

refund guarantee provided by a Korean 

bank. That bank would pay refund should 

the ships not be built. 

The bank provided advanced payment 

bonds, but the wording of those bonds 

did not match that in the contracts. The 

agreements stated that if the shipbuilder 

went into insolvency, the buyers could 

Each ship would cost 

US$ 33 million and the 

first instalment was 

conditional on a refund 

guarantee provided by a 

Korean bank. That bank 

would pay refund should 

the ships not be built. 

rescind the contracts and be entitled to 

refunds. The bonds merely stated that the 

buyers would be entitled to refunds only 

if they exercised their rights to terminate, 

cancel or rescind their contracts – i.e. no 

mention of insolvency. 

The buyers’ case was that this 

exception did not make any business 

sense. Lord Clark in the Supreme 

Court was influenced by the words of 

Longmore LJ in Barclays Bank plc v HHY 

Luxembourg SARL [2010] EWCA Civ 

1248. He thought it was possible where a 

clause could have two meanings so that 

either of them ‘will flout common sense’. 

It would therefore be more appropriate 

‘to adopt the more, rather than the less, 

commercial construction’. 

In that case, the commercial logic was 

that the insolvency of the shipbuilder 

would trigger the refund guarantee, the 

reason for the need for the security of the 

repayment bond. The bank therefore had 

to pay up, but behind the judgment there 

was an important factor – the contractual 

situation was ambiguous. 

That could not be said of those chalet 

leases with their onerous service-charge 

clauses. Lord Neuberger warned that 

commercial common sense should not 

undermine the language of the contract. 

If that wording was not clear that the 

court may be prepared to depart from the 

natural meaning. Commercial common 

sense was to be assessed at the date of 

the contract, but a court would be slow to 

reject the natural meaning merely because 

the term was imprudent. Surrounding 

facts would only be taken into account if 

reasonably known to the parties. On the 

occurrence of an unanticipated event the 

court will give effect to the clear intention 

of the parties if they had contemplated 

the event. There was furthermore no 

special rule of interpretation of service 

charge clauses. 

The chalet leaseholders therefore were 

stuck with those escalating service charges 

and with accommodation that they could 

not sell. The good news for them was 

that the leaseholder was reported to be 

willing to change the clauses to tie the 

increases to the retail price index – if only 

this solution had been offered before the 

litigation! 

THE POWER OF WORDS 

The judgment plus some others led 

Jackson LJ in the Grove case to conclude 

that the contract provided for an 

end of interim payments to end on 

the completion date specified in the 

agreement. Section 109 of the Housing 

Grants, Construction and Regeneration 

Act 1996 furthermore referred to interim 

payments for ‘any work done’. This did not 

mean all work done particularly because 

section 109(3) meant that the provision 

did not apply where there was already 

an agreement. Jackson LJ could not find 

evidence of any agreement between the 

parties as to interim payments other 

than those specified in the contract. The 

claimant therefore won the case. 

This is bad news for any business 

which enters into a contract discovering 

it has made a bad bargain. Although in 

some circumstances consumers have 

some legal protection, the courts will 

generally not come to the rescue of 

businesses unless, for example, there is 

some ambiguity. Read and analyse your 

contract before sign it! 


OPINION 

GETTING THE 

JOB DUNN 

Chris Sanders explores the new technology being 

deployed in collections management. 

AUTHOR – Chris Sanders FCICM is Head of Accreditation – CICMQ 

Chris Sanders 

CHASING customers for money 

has been around since trade 

between one person and another 

first began and surprisingly 

the word ‘dunn’, which means 

to make ‘persistent demands 

for payment’, has been around since the 17th 

century. It pre-dates the early days of Dun & 

Bradstreet by a couple of hundred years, if 

online sources are to be believed. So, when we 

say dunning it means more than just reminder 

letters. 

Standardised and ‘persistent’ collections 

processes have been around for a while and 

if you think about it, they have remained 

pretty much the same; a series of steps taken 

at various intervals after the invoice is sent or 

becomes due. No rocket science there! The 

type of interaction has, of course, developed as 

technology has changed, starting with letters, 

telephone, telex for international, fax, text and 

email. Segmentation of customers has moved 

on from alphabetical order to matching the 

collections function resources, or splitting 

out residential, small business, national, 

major, strategic, etc. This segmentation is in a 

constant state of change in some organisations 

especially those aligned with the salesforce. 

The constant striving for increased 

collections and reduction of debt now means 

that the number of tools that perform these 

tasks and strategies has grown exponentially, 

but at the heart of these systems and processes 

lies a single objective – to influence a customer’s 

behaviour usually after the event – the event 

being the invoice. Of course, some customer 

behaviour is fixed, based their processes for 

payment and the myriad of steps that seem 

to prevent the payment being made – some 

offshore accounts payable functions are a case 

in point! The ‘five invoices at a time’ rule, and 

never speaking to the same person twice, are 

common credit controller experiences. 

The development of systems that sent 

‘automatic collection letters’ when a debt 

was overdue at pre-determined intervals 

was a huge step forward, even though in my 

organisation in the 90s there were only three 

reminder letters of escalating severity, and 

the segmentation of the customer base was 

they either got the letters (residential and 

small business) or not (major accounts). The 

game changer in my department back in 1993 

was linking this system to a predictive dialler, 

possibly the first in a collections environment, 

and with this came a 300 percent improvement 

in productivity. Suddenly customers at the 

bottom of the priority list with smaller values 

were being contacted for the first time. The 

telephone collections call centre was born: as 

inbound and outbound calls could be blended 

at busy times, and thousands of customers 

contacted by relatively few credit controllers 

every day. These tools were great for smaller, 

non-disputed debt, but for everything else 

it was still a laborious process of account 

reconciliation, query and dispute chasing. 

Additionally, calls were made to customers 

who would pay anyway and the whole process 

remained essentially reactive, aside from the 

new customer welcome calls and pre-due calls 

for the much larger customers. 

‘Know Your Customer’ is a simple statement 

but it has become an industry in itself, 

from confirming who your customer is to 

regulatory compliance, but from a collector’s 

perspective, understanding your customer is 

about behaviour and this is the game changer 

of today. I mentioned in a previous article 

‘Robot Wars’ (Credit Management July/August 

2017) that some software companies believe 

that 70 percent of the collections effort is 

wasted and we have all heard experienced 

credit controllers say things like ‘he always 

pays on the second of the month’. This 70 

percent wasted effort is because of the reactive 

nature of collections – we issue an invoice 

and chase it regardless. The experience and 

knowledge a credit controller has about their 

ledger is critical. I knew a credit controller, we 

shall call him Jeff (this is his real name), whose 

knowledge of his section of the debtors’ ledger, 

customers, payment patterns, disputes was 

encyclopaedic and this knowledge ensured 


OPINION 

AUTHOR - CHRIS SANDERS 

that his team hit their target. If they did 

not, he knew why to the penny. His focused 

approach to his ledger and knowledge of 

his customers meant that he knew when, 

or if to call. 

Understanding customer behaviour is 

now what drives the major corporations like 

Amazon and Facebook, and retail loyalty 

cards and competition for customers is 

now across industry. We compare one 

service offering to another; for example, 

remember when ‘allow 28 days for delivery’ 

was the norm. Today we compare delivery 

times of unrelated businesses ‘if X can get 

this to me tomorrow 

why can’t you?’ This is 

a key factor in buying 

decisions; everyone is 

in competition with 

everyone else. 

The same has always 

been true of 

collections teams – 

everyone is in competition 

to get paid. 

The question is whose 

strategies will win and 

gain a share of that 

finite pot and whose 

strategies will result 

in non-payment. It 

stands to reason that 

those companies who 

rely on systems, processes and strategies 

that are reactive will suffer, but those who 

understand their customers and are able 

to influence customer behaviour early in 

the customer lifecycle will be the winners. 

We need a system called ‘Jeff’. I mentioned 

in the ‘Robot Wars’ article that robotic automation 

can be implemented if there is a 

predicable outcome and the order to cash 

process outcome is just that, predictable. 

But to get to the automation stage truly 

understanding the processes and the behaviour 

of customers is critical. Back in 

1921 the word ‘workflow’ was first coined 

in manufacturing, I think I first heard 

this back in the 90s relating to credit control 

along with ‘Quality Action Teams’, but 

that is the genesis of where we are today 

– understanding processes and outcomes 

and making improvements to gain better 

outcomes. This is now what is being automated 

through artificial intelligence and 

Robotic Process Automation (RPA). 

Currently, we have a desired outcome, 

we want to be paid, and we try to influence 

customers to do just that. We know 

the outcome and in some cases, like Jeff, 

we know the customer behaviour. Predictive 

Analytics tries to predict the outcomes 

of our actions, but if we know the 

outcomes already, and how we got to that 

point, achieving our targets would be easy. 

Do this and get that. Back in the 90s the 

systems capable of this sort of functionality 

were only for the large corporates, 

banks and financial institutions and were 

hugely expensive like the predictive diallers 

mentioned before. These needed 

significant use with millions of customers 

to make the business case stack up. 

Not anymore – you can rent space in a 

SaaS (Software as a Service) cloud-based 

system, or pay per 

click, per account, 

There is no doubt that 

‘dunning’ for the vast 

majority of collections 

teams will continue 

in some form, but the 

decisions leading to 

the type and frequency 

of the dunning will be 

determined by outcomes 

of previous actions at a 

customer level. 

per transaction. 

Cost of ownership 

of these systems 

has all but gone, organisations 

with access 

to the web can 

gain access to these 

systems, no more 

change requests to 

update the system 

for new legislation 

changes, and corporate 

IT departments 

are getting smaller 

as they shift to 

online cloud based 

systems making 

home working easier. 

Major corporates still have the big 

ERP systems but these are becoming the 

background engine rooms providing data 

for the smaller specialist systems used by 

the front-line credit controllers. Risk tools, 

diallers, collections systems, allocation 

tools, query management systems, 

workflow. This growth in specialist niche 

systems is fuelling the development of 

‘aggregator’ systems that collect relevant 

data from different systems and present 

the information in one view to the user. 

The credit controller and the manager can 

now log into the office via a smartphone 

app and check on the performance of their 

ledger or team and receive alerts when 

customers pay or not – just what you need 

when you are on the beach or with the kids 

at Disney. Actually, that may be a welcome 

diversion! 

With greater automation, and more 

organisations gaining access to smarter 

systems that can predict behaviour and 

adapt processes to deliver better outcomes, 

being able to do more with less is becoming 

easier as we no longer need to waste effort 

on the 70 percent of customers who pay. 

While these systems are with us now, 

and the early adopters are experimenting 

with them, the second and third followers 

are waiting to see the impacts. Credit 

management still doesn’t get the priority it 

deserves, but when our accountant friends 

start to look at the cost to serve again in 

the shared service centres, especially 

those that are offshore, this will come 

under greater scrutiny. Questions whether 

offshoring has a long-term cost benefit are 

now being asked. 

There is no doubt that ‘dunning’ for 

the vast majority of collections teams will 

continue in some form, but the decisions 

leading to the type and frequency of the 

dunning will be determined by outcomes 

of previous actions at a customer level. Jeff 

may be safe for a while, but re-training as 

a business and process analyst may be a 

good long-term career move. 

For more information about the CICM 

Best Practice Network, contact or visit the 

CICMQ page on the CICM website cicm. 

com. 


EDUCATION 

The Global reach challenge 

Hilary Lewis, CICM Corporate Member Co-ordinator, 

explains how ABB has succeeded in delivering an 

inspirational training programme for its global credit team. 

Neil Murdy, 

ABB Group Vice President, 

Accounting Centres, GF-FCA 

Uptake for this 

inspirational 

programme has 

been impressive 

with an uplift in 

knowledge, skills 

and significant 

performance across 

the board. 

ABB is a pioneering, global technology 

company based in 100 

countries that specialises in 

power and automation for the 

utilities, industry, transportation 

and infrastructure sectors. 

THE CHALLENGE 

With more than 500 credit management staff 

based around the world, ABB needed a training 

programme which would unify and upskill 

employees in the company’s goals of improving 

collection profiles and reducing DSO. 

The visionary behind the programme, Neil 

Murdy, ABB Group Vice President, Global 

Business Services leader for receivables, also 

expressed his personal passion for developing 

his staff and improving productivity while 

raising confidence and engagement. 

Corporate Membership offered a cost effective 

and supportive package for achieving these 

ambitions. 

THE SOLUTION 

CICM has worked with ABB, and Intermediary 

Training Manager, Dave Dyer, to implement a 

tailored three tier learning programme that has 

embedded learning in the workplace and has 

resulted in industry standard qualifications. 

The uniquely named, CICM Professional 

Certificate, is made robust by rigorous 

mapping of course content against CICM Level 

2 qualification criteria. 

As part of the Corporate Membership 

agreement, Debbie Tuckwood, CICM Head 

of Education and Professional Development, 

devised this carefully staged bespoke 

programme in which ABB learners first 

complete Foundation and Core Levels in both 

mandatory and elective topics. As they progress 

through the programme, learners tackle more 

complex company-specific areas and develop 

higher level skills. In the final tier, learners 

work through three CICM assignments relevant 

to their job roles, enabling them to achieve the 

highly respected CICM Level 2 Certificate in 

Credit Management. 

The programme is made up of a rich blend 

of CICM webinars together with other methods 

including e-Learning, on the job assessment 

and project work. Interactive teacher-led web 

sessions are combined with more traditional 

techniques including workshops and face-toface 

sessions to reach learners based as far 

afield as Mexico in the West and New Zealand 

in the East with the UK, Europe, Middle East 

and Asia in between. Coaching support for 

assignments is provided via telephone, e-mail 

and mutual support from other learners; 

managed through the CICM Corporate 

Membership contact. 

THE OUTCOME 

Uptake for this inspirational programme has 

been impressive with an uplift in knowledge, 

skills and significant performance across the 

board. ABB keeps in touch with their learners 

via regular learner reviews and their successes 

are celebrated monthly in the Corporate 

Membership newsletter, Ebuzz. 

Motivation and achievement are high: 

. There are currently more than 90 learners on 

the programme who progress at their own 

pace. 

. The desire to achieve has already enabled 

more than 30 learners to progress through 

the Foundation Level to date. 

. Additionally, ten learners have completed 

the Core Level and have begun their CICM 

assignment journey. 

. The programme is very flexible and learners 

work at their own pace, receiving joint ABB 

and CICM certificates for the Foundation 

and Core Levels and full CICM accreditation 

on completion of the assignments. 

. In August, ABB celebrated the first learner 

to complete the assignments and receive 

the CICM Level 2 Certificate in Credit 

Management. 

This is a constantly evolving programme with 

the focus firmly on the learners’ needs. The 

arrangement is a true partnership and has 

required close coordination and monitoring 

by both CICM and ABB to run smoothly and 

successfully. 

For more information on CICM 

Corporate Membership contact the Corporate 

Membership Co-ordinator: T: 01780 722909. 


EDUCATION 

IN BRIEF: 

ABB is a pioneering, global 

technology company based in 100 

countries with over 500 working in 

credit management. 

THE CHALLENGE 

To develop a training programme 

that would unify and upskill 

employees in order to improve 

collection profiles and reduce DSO. 

THE SOLUTION 

Development of a bespoke CICM 

Professional Certificate; a rich mix 

of CICM and ABB learning delivered 

online, or by specialist teachers 

either face-to-face or through 

webinar technology to learners 

globally. 

THE OUTCOMES 

Global credit specialist programme 

delivered resulting in high levels of 

engagement, motivation and skills 

gained. 


w 

EDUCATION 

Outstanding achievement 

Debbie Tuckwood, CICM Head of Education and 

Professional Development, reports on Simeon Smith’s 

achievements and the excellent degree programme at the 

University of the West of England, Bristol. 

“Following completion 

of their second 

year, students have 

the opportunity to 

complete a year-long 

industrial placement 

with local, national 

and international 

employers.” 

DEBBIE Tuckwood was 

pleased to award the 

CICM Prize for Excellence 

in Credit Risk: 

Analysis and Management 

to Simeon Smith 

at his Graduation ceremony at Bristol Cathedral. 

The outstanding student also won 

the ICAEW prize for the Best Accounting 

in Context Project. 

“I am delighted to have received the 

CICM prize as it has reinforced my selfbelief 

and left me with a great sense 

of achievement,” Simeon said after the 

ceremony. “While studying BA Accounting 

and Finance at the University of the West 

of England (UWE Bristol), I enrolled on to 

both Credit Risk and Credit Management 

modules’’. 

“The analytical nature of the subjects 

appealed to me, particularly the use of 

statistics to inform decision-making. 

Having recently secured my place on the 

Finance Graduate Programme at Airbus, 

I am confident that the skills I have 

acquired on these modules will mean I 

am better equipped to make key strategic 

decisions.” 

Anthony Bray, UWE Senior Lecturer in 

Accounting and Finance, emphasised the 

value of academic prizes for inspiring and 

rewarding their top students. “The credit 

management programmes continue to 

flourish at the Bristol Business School, 

with many opting for a placement year to 

gain valuable work experience.” 

“The BA Accounting and Finance 

degree that Simeon completed is highly 

respected by local and national employers, 

as well as achieving student satisfaction 

of 90 percent. The Bristol Business School 

has been shortlisted for the Business 

School of the Year category of the Times 

Higher Education Awards 2017,” Anthony 

adds. 

“Simeon chose to study credit 

management alongside a hundred of his 

peers from a range of degree programmes 

offered by the Bristol Business School. 

“The credit management 

programmes continues 

to flourish at the Bristol 

Business School, 

with many opting for 

a placement year to 

gain valuable work 

experience.” 

During their second year, students 

have the opportunity to study trade 

and consumer credit assessment and 

management, with a selected final year 

module covering aspects of sovereign and 

banking risk.’’ 

“Following completion of their second 

year, students have the opportunity to 

complete a year-long industrial placement 

with local, national and international 

employers. These placements give 

students an opportunity to gain first-hand 

experience of daily life in their chosen 

career. Businesses benefit from a valuable 

employee for the year, with many being 

offered graduate positions when they 

have completed their degrees,” Anthony 

concludes. 

Currently 200 Bristol Business School 

students complete a placement each 

year and the university is keen to recruit 

more credit management departments 

that could offer work experience. If 

your organisation would be interested 

in recruiting students for an industrial 

placement or as a graduate, please contact 

careers@uwe.ac.uk. 


THE CICM MAGAZINE FOR CONSUMER AND 

COMMERCIAL CREDIT PROFESSIONALS 

CM April 2016.indd 1 22/03/2016 11:42 

JAN / FEB 2017 £10.00 



CM Jan/Feb 2017.indd 1 20/01/2017 11:51 



CM September 2016.indd 1 23/08/2016 14:30 

NOVEMBER 2016 £10.00 



CM November 2016.indd 1 21/10/2016 12:56 



CM MAY 2017.indd 1 21/04/2017 11:37 

CM 

Credit Management magazine for consumer 

and commercial credit professionals 


CM 

APRIL 2016 £10.00 

FALLING STAR 

THE INDUSTRY SPEAKS OUT 

ON THE EU REFERENDUM 

www.cicm.com 


POWERING 

AHEAD 

ROLLS-ROYCE AND THE 

IMPORTANCE OF CICMQ 


CM 

SEPTEMBER 2016 £10.00 

DESERT STORM 

THE CHALLENGE OF DOING 

BUSINESS IN SAUDI 

www.cicm.com 


ROCK 

STEADY 

CREW 

MEETING THE CREDIT TEAM 

AT AGGREGATE INDUSTRIES 

www.cicm.com 


CM 

MAY 2017 £10.00 

BROADCAST 

NEWS 

LENDERS FOCUS ON 

NEW FUNDING CHANNEL 

THE CICM'S HIGHLY ACCLAIMED MAGAZINE 

SPECIAL 

FEATURES 

IN DEPTH 

INTERVIEWS 

ASK THE 

EXPERTS 

GLOBAL 

NEWS 

LEGAL 

MATTERS 

INTERNATIONAL 

TRADE 

CURRENCY 

EXCHANGE 

HR 

MATTERS 

MOBILE DIGITAL 

EDITION 

EDUCATIONAL 

STUDIES 

THE LEADING JOURNAL FOR CONSUMER AND COMMERCIAL CREDIT PROFESSIONALS 

TO SUBSCRIBE CONTACT: T: 01780 722903 E: ANGELA.COOPER@CICM.COM 

THE 2017 CICM 

TURNER 

LECTURE 

Friday 17 November 

You are invited to the 2017 Turner Lecture, an interactive debate/question and answer session 

focusing primarily on the “The Varied Aspects of Credit Management". Panel members include Mark 

Preston of Dun & Bradstreet, Simon Marshall of Co-Pilot, Adrian Dante of MHA McIntyre Hudson and 

Mike Watson of Funding Business. This event is free of charge to all CICM Members. 

Additionally, after the event, you are invited to join us for dinner, also being held at the Law Society. 

Ticket prices for the dinner are £59.50+VAT 

For more information, please contact Richard Seadon at Richards@tgbaynes.com, 

or to book your place, please visit www.cicm.com/events. 


HR MATTERS 

EU 

Are 

allowed here? 

Gareth Edwards looks at all the various 

machinations for citizens living, working and visiting 

the UK post Brexit. 

AUTHOR – Gareth Edwards is a partner in the employment team at Veale Wasbrough Vizards. gedwards@vwv.co.uk 

A 

recently published Government 

paper discussed 

proposals to allow EU 

citizens living in the UK to 

stay beyond Brexit in the 

expectation that UK nationals 

living across the EU will be treated 

in the same way. 

For any policy on immigration to work 

there will need to be a cut-off date – which 

the Government is terming ‘the specified 

date’ – which will be somewhere between 

29 March 2017, the date that Article 50 was 

triggered, and the date of the UK's actual 

withdrawal from the EU. 

Assurance has been given to Irish 

citizens that the Common Travel Area 

arrangements between the UK and Ireland 

are to be protected. It’s proposed that EU 

residents in the UK will continue to enjoy 

the rights they presently have under EU 

Treaties, but after the UK has left the EU 

there will be new rights created under UK 

law. In essence, EU citizens will have to 

apply for their residence status. 

Under the Government’s proposals, 

qualifying EU citizens (those EU citizens 

who have been resident in the UK for a 

period of a continuous five years) will be 

able to apply for 'settled status' (indefinite 

leave to remain under the Immigration Act 

1971) as long as they are still resident in 

the UK. If an EU citizen has already been 

resident in the UK for a continuous period 

of five years before the specified date they 

will be eligible to apply for permission for 

settled status. 

If an EU citizen already has a document 

certifying permanent residence in the UK, 

this will not be automatically replaced with 

a grant of settled status. 

Where an EU citizen wants to apply to 

become a British citizen they have to show 

they have permanent residence in the UK 

by having a document certifying their 

permanent residence. But what application 

can an EU citizen make to remain in the UK 

if they arrived in the UK before the specified 

date, but have not yet been resident for five 

years? Here, the Government has stated 

they will be allowed to stay in the UK until 

they reach the five-year point, but then 

they will need to apply to the Home Office 

for a temporary residence document to 

remain in the UK once the UK has left the 

EU. It’s proposed that EU citizens will have 

a grace period between the moment that 

free movement ends, and the time they 

can obtain their residence document – 

probably up to two years. 

Anyone who arrives prior to the UK's 

withdrawal from the EU, but between the 

specified date and the date the UK leaves 

the EU will continue to exercise free 

movement rights up until the UK leaves. 

From then on the grace period will apply. 

If the specified date is set at the date of the 

UK's withdrawal from the EU, new post-exit 

arrangements would automatically apply to 

EU citizens and their family members who 

arrive after that date. 

Clearly EU citizens who want to come to 

the UK to live after the UK has left the EU 

and after the grace period has expired, will 

have to comply with future immigration 

controls in place at the time. 

Family members of EU citizens who 

arrived in the UK before the specified date, 

who come to the UK after the UK has left 

the EU, for example a future spouse, will be 

subject to the same rules that apply to non- 

EU nationals joining British citizens. At 

present these rules state the British citizen 

has to earn at least £18,600 to bring their 

spouse to the UK, or meet the other ways 

in which the financial requirement can be 

met – for instance through savings. 

Those employing EU citizens will see 

no change to the rights and status of their 

employees. It is only after the UK leaves 

the EU that EU citizens will need to apply 

for documentation to prove they have 

permission to work legally in the UK. 

Similarly, employers will have to ensure 

that they make checks on the right of 

EU individuals to work in the UK. The 

Government says that it will engage closely 

with businesses and others on how they 

will be affected by those changes. 

Of course, these are the UK Government’s 

proposals which will form the basis of its 

position when negotiating the issue with 

the EU. By definition, there is therefore no 

certainty at this stage that these proposals 

will be accepted. 


OPINION 

How to make your 

CV stand out 

How to give your CV that extra special something 

to secure an interview. 

AUTHOR – Karen Young – Director at Hays 

Karen Young 

It’s good practice to 

be able to back up 

your statements; in an 

interview it’s highly 

likely you will be asked 

to share examples 

of how you refined a 

particular skill 

ONE of the most important 

aspects to remember when 

writing your CV is its purpose 

as a sales tool to help 

secure you the interview. A 

poorly put together CV could 

prevent you from being invited to interview, 

no matter how well your qualifications fit 

the role. 

PRESENTATION 

It goes without saying that the overall 

appearance of your CV should make it easy 

to read for whoever will be looking at it. Your 

CV should look clean and well structured, and 

ideally no longer than two pages although 

depending on your experience can run to three 

pages. Your structure should follow along the 

lines of name and basic contact details first, 

then your personal statement, skills summary, 

relevant work experience, achievements, 

education and training, interests and lastly, 

reference details. 

To keep your CV looking simple, use a font 

such as Arial in 10-12pt, and keep formatting 

like italics and underlining to a minimum. 

Bullet points are useful as they allow you to 

highlight key points succinctly while keeping 

your CV looking tidy and well presented. Start 

each one with an action verb such as ‘created’, 

‘managed’ or ‘improved’, rather than starting 

with ‘I’, but make sure the tense of the verb is 

consistent. 

Spelling and punctuation must also be 

accurate, so after you’ve proofread make sure 

you have someone else read over your CV to 

make sure that there are no errors. 

PERSONAL STATEMENT 

A concise personal statement should sit 

directly beneath your contact details, 

providing employers with a snapshot of your 

key skills and work ambitions. It’s the first 

place an employer or recruiter is likely to look, 

so it’s vital you detail your key achievements, 

as well as making sure it is tailored for a 

particular role, such as Credit Manager or a 

Credit Controller. 

JOB DESCRIPTION 

It’s important to try to use adjectives that are 

similar to those used in the job advertisement 

without replicating the text. For example, if 

the employer is looking for someone with 

‘effective leadership skills’, then make sure you 

demonstrate yours within the first part of your 

personal statement. 

AVOID CLICHÉS 

Remember that employers are interested in 

tangible evidence of your abilities, skills and 

achievements, not just a list of adjectives. Many 

people claim to be hard-working, loyal and a 

good team player, however you need to be able 

to demonstrate this with solid evidence. 

It’s good practice to be able to back up your 

statements; in an interview it’s highly likely 

you will be asked to share examples of how you 

refined a particular skill, or how you tackled a 

certain problem. 

PROVIDE EVIDENCE 

Similarly, when listing achievements, if you 

can tangibly show an improvement using data 

or certain measures – your potential employers 

will be impressed. For example, the amount of 

savings you made the business in a year. 

MAKE SURE YOU FEATURE 

This may seem like a strange point to make, 

however remember that you are using your 

CV to sell yourself. Using phrases such as ‘was 

involved in’ and ‘assisted’ implies that you were 

more of a bystander, rather than an instigator. 

Instead use strong action verbs and take credit 

where credit is due. 

Just remember to not get caught out – if 

you claim you instigated a project when you in 

fact were only a small part of it, it is likely to 

trip you up at the interview if you are asked a 

question you don’t know the answer to. 

TAKE YOUR TIME 

Take into account this advice – but don’t forget 

that one of the most important elements is to 

take your time when preparing your CV. Seek 

the advice of your recruiter if you are working 

with one, and make sure you are thorough in 

checking what you’ve written. 

CV writing is not a difficult skill, and if you 

get the basics right then you increase your 

chances of success significantly – remember 

to keep it structured, relevant and interesting. 

For more CV and careers advice, visit hays. 

co.uk/creditcontrol. 


MEET THE PARTNERS 

THEY'RE WAITING TO TALK TO YOU... 

For further information and to discuss the opportunities of entering into a Corporate 

Partnership with the CICM, contact Peter Collinson, Director of Business Development 

and Marketing on 01780 727273 or email peter.collinson@cicm.com 

Hays Credit Management is the award winning national specialist 

division of Hays Recruitment, dedicated exclusively to the recruitment 

of credit management professionals in the public and private 

sectors. Whether you are looking to further your career in credit 

management, strengthen your existing team, or would simply like an 

overview of the market, it pays to speak to the market leaders. 

www.hays.co.uk 

HighRadius is the leading provider of Integrated 

Receivables solutions for automating credit, collections, 

cash allocation, deductions and eBilling operations. 

The solutions are delivered as a software-as-a-service 

(SaaS) or as SAP-certified Accelerators for SAP 

Finance Receivables Management. With a track record 

of reducing days sales outstanding (DSO), bad-debt 

and increasing operational efficiency, HighRadius 

solutions help teams achieve payback within a year. 

www.highradius.com 

We offer the most powerful comparable data 

resource on private companies. 

We capture and treat private company 

information for better decision making and 

increased efficiency, so we’re ideally suited to help 

credit professionals. 

Orbis, our global company database has 

information on 250 million companies, and offers: 

Standardised financials 

Financial strength metrics 

Extensive corporate structures 

www.bvdinfo.com 

Sanders Consulting is a niche consulting firm 

specialising in improving Credit Management 

Leadership & Performance for our clients. 

We provide people and process focussed 

pragmatic solutions, consultancy, strategy days and 

performance improvement workshops and we 

are proud to manage and develop the CICMQ 

Programme and the Best Practice Network on 

behalf of the CICM. For more information please 

contact: enquiries @chrissandersconsulting.com. 

www.chrissandersconsulting.com 

Key IVR provide a suite of products to 

assist companies across Europe with credit 

management. The service gives the end-user 

the means to make a payment when and 

how they choose. Key IVR also provides a 

state-of-the-art outbound platform delivering 

automated messages by voice and SMS. In a 

credit management environment, these services 

are used to cost-effectively contact debtors and 

connect them back into a contact centre or 

automated payment line. 

www.keyivr.co.uk 

CreditForce by Innovation Software is the leading 

Collections and Working Capital Management 

Systems used globally in over 26 countries and by 

over 20 percent of the Top 100 Global Law Firms. 

Our systems improve cash flow, reduce DSO, 

automate cash allocation, control risk, automatically 

generate intelligent workflows and tasks, speed up 

query resolution and manage the entire end-toend 

collections cycle. Fully integrated with over 40 

leading ERP and Accounting systems and delivered 

locally or through Microsoft-Azure’s secure cloud 

solutions. 

www.creditforceglobal.com 

American Express is a globally recognised provider 

of payment solutions to the business sector 

offering flexible collection capabilities to meet 

company cashflow objectives across a range of 

industries. Whether you are looking to accelerate 

cashflow, create a competitive advantage to drive 

business or looking to support your customers 

in their growth American Express can tailor a 

solution to support your needs. 

www.americanexpress.com 

Credica are a UK based developer of specialist 

Credit and Dispute Management software. We 

have been successfully implementing our software 

for over 15 years and have delivered significant 

ROI for our diverse portfolio of customers. We 

provide a highly configurable system which enables 

our clients to gain complete control over their 

debtors and to easily communicate disputes with 

anyone in their organisation. 

www.credica.co.uk 


Proud supporters 

of CICMQ 

With over 90 years’ experience, we have an 

in-depth understanding of the importance of 

maintaining customer relationships whilst efficiently 

and effectively collecting monies owed, we deliver 

when it comes to collecting outstanding debts. 

Our Client focus is reflected in the customer 

relationships. Structuring our service to meet your 

specific needs, providing a collection strategy that 

echoes your business character, trading patterns 

and budget. 

www.atradiuscollections.com/uk/ 

Graydon UK provides its clients with Credit 

Risk Management and Intelligence information 

on over 100 million entities across more than 

190 countries. It provides economic, financial 

and commercial insights that help its customers 

make better decisions. Leading credit insurance 

organisations, Atradius, Coface and Euler Hermes, 

own Graydon. It offers its seamless service 

through a worldwide network of offices and 

partners. 

www.graydon.co.uk 

Rimilia provides award winning Cash Application 

& Cash Allocation software products that deliver 

industry leading tangible benefits like no other. 

Having products that really do what they say 

is paramount – add to that a responsive and 

friendly team that are focused on new and 

ongoing benefit realisation and you have the 

foundations for successful long term business 

relationships. 

www.rimilia.com 

Safe’s Credit Control module manages the entire 

credit lifecycle, from credit checking through to 

cash collection and beyond, providing detailed 

analysis of performance. Safe’s single, intuitive and 

easy-to-use application seamlessly brings together 

the necessary data and tools you require to 

achieve your objective of creating a profit centre 

culture within your credit control function. 

www.safe-financials.co.uk 

Dun & Bradstreet grows the most valuable 

relationships in business. Whether your customer 

portfolio spans a city, a country or the globe, Dun 

& Bradstreet delivers the data, analytics and insight 

to grow your most profitable relationships and 

obtain a global, unified view of your customer 

relationships across credit and collections. 

www.dnb.co.uk 

Bottomline Technologies (NASDAQ: EPAY) helps 

businesses pay and get paid. Businesses and banks 

rely on Bottomline for domestic and international 

payments, effective cash management tools, 

automated workflows for payment processing 

and bill review and state of the art fraud 

detection, behavioural analytics and regulatory 

compliance. Every day, we help our customers by 

making complex business payments simple, secure 

and seamless. 

www.bottomline.com/uk 

Data Interconnect provides integrated e-billing 

and collection solutions via its document delivery 

web portal, WebSend. By providing improved 

Customer Experience and Customer Satisfaction, 

with enhanced levels of communication between 

both parties, we can substantially speed up your 

collection processes. 

www.datainterconnect.com 

DWF is one of the UK’s largest legal businesses 

with an award-winning reputation for client service 

excellence and effective operational management. 

Named by the Financial Times as one of Europe’s 

most innovative law firms and independently 

ranked first of all top 20 law firms for quality of 

legal advice and joint first of all national law firms 

for service delivery and responsiveness. 

www.dwf.law/recover 

Tinubu Square is a trusted source of trade 

credit intelligence for credit insurers and for 

corporate customers. The company’s B2B 

Credit Risk Intelligence solutions include the 

Tinubu Risk Management Center, a cloud-based 

SaaS platform; the Tinubu Credit Intelligence 

service and the Tinubu Risk Analyst advisory 

service. Over 250 companies rely on Tinubu 

Square to protect their greatest assets: customer 

receivables. 

www.tinubu.com 

Moore Stephens is a top ten accounting and 

advisory network. Our national creditor services 

team has expert insights in debt recovery. This, 

combined with unparalleled industry and sector 

knowledge, enables our team to assist creditors in 

recovering outstanding debts. 

www.moorestephens.co.uk 

Organisations around the world rely on Company 

Watch’s industry-leading financial analytics to drive 

their credit risk processes. Our financial risk 

modelling and ability to map medium to long-term 

risk as well as short-term credit risk set us apart 

from other credit reference agencies. With our 

unique H-Score® predicting almost 90 percent 

of corporate insolvencies in advance, it is the risk 

management tool of choice, providing actionable 

intelligence in an uncertain world. 

www.companywatch.net 

The Recognised Standard 


HOW I GOT INTO CREDIT MANAGEMENT 

What a difference 

a year makes 

In the second in the series of ‘how I got into credit 

management’, Morgan Sheldon tells how he swapped the 

Police for the enforcement industry. 

AUTHOR – Morgan Sheldon – morgan@morgansheldon.com 

OCTOBER 2016, shortly 

after my 37th birthday, 

I made the decision to 

venture into a new career 

in enforcement. 

Well I say a new career, 

when in fact it was more of a return as I 

previously served six years as a Police Constable 

with Hampshire Constabulary before 

leaving to go into business. 

I initially undertook and passed some 

Bailiff training sourced from an online 

search at the same time I made contact 

with Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal 

Service (HMCTS) to arrange a hearing. 

Apparently, this isn't the usual route into 

this kind of work, but I wasn't going to let 

it stop me. 

I secured my bond, complied with the 

checks and references and printed off 

all of the forms ready for my hearing at 

Southampton County Court in December. 

Fortunately, before attending the hearing 

I discovered the CICM and the L2 Taking 

Control of Goods qualification. I am 

fortunate for two reasons; I obtained a 

qualification that is nationally recognised 

and I saved myself a great deal of 

embarrassment by not turning up and 

standing in front of the judge with my 

original ‘qualification’. I mean we aren’t 

even referred to as Bailiffs anymore! 

Following a slight adjournment 

and some very intense revision for the 

short notice exam, I was granted my 

Enforcement Agents Certificate on 19 

December 2016. The very same day I 

started looking for work, I attended several 

interviews looking for the right part-time 

position that would allow me to continue 

studying. I eventually discovered the right 

role with Marston High Court, and have 

been a self-employed Enforcement Agent 

(EA) for the past six months, working three 

days a week and studying the days I am not 

out on the road. 

You could say I got the enforcement 

study bug; in February 2017, I passed 

my LIBF L3 certificate in Consumer 

Debt Collection, followed by the CLT 

L6 Paralegal Practice Qualification in 

Debt Recovery in April 2017. I have just 

two further CICM units to complete my 

ACICM. More recently, and I am very 

proud to say, I was accepted as a student 

member of the High Court Enforcement 

Officers Association (HCEOA) and I am 

now studying towards the L4 CICM High 

Court studies. As I complete the academic 

modules, I am aware I will need to have 

a log book signed off by a current HCEO, 

which may mean I need to come off the 

road. 

Fortunately, before 

attending the hearing 

I discovered the CICM 

and the L2 Taking 

Control of Goods 

qualification. 

In addition to the enforcement side of 

things, having met with many vulnerable 

debtors and those struggling to repay their 

debts, I have been working on a completely 

amicable, pre-legal recovery process that I 

hope will offer some creditors an initial, 

less formal way to allow their customers 

to repay what they owe without the need 

for litigation. While it is still a very new 

project, I have been in talks with a leading 

debt charity, gained the support of my MP 

and presented the idea to the leader of my 

local council. 

I know I have quite some way to go, 

but one day I would love to own my own 

enforcement company. So far, it’s a big 

thank you to the CICM (especially Tanya) 

for the ongoing support and guidance, 

the HCEOA for accepting me as a student 

member, and Marston High Court for 

giving me my first taste of enforcement 

work. 

Morgan is a self-employed Enforcement 

Agent who has been enforcing High Court 

Writs across the south of England, and 

Taken Control of Goods at both commercial 

and residential premises. 


Stalemate -aposition counting as adraw, in which aplayerisnot in check 

but cannot move except into check.Sounds familiar? 

Does your current High CourtEnforcementprovider saythey have done 

all they can with ahigh proportion of writs? In particular,outstanding 

CCJs thathave subsequently been transferreduptothe High Courtand 

still no successful outcome? 

Areyou getting the impression from your current enforcementservice 

provider thatthey arejust processing cases -rather than treating and 

working on each one individually? Andthe onus fornextaction 

increasingly comes back to you-the client? 

As one of the owners of CourtEnforcementServices,Ican assureyou,we 

areresults orientated, highly proactiveand provide averypersonal 

servicetoeach client. Ourclients will testify to that! 

So whynot give me,Wayne,acall.Itcould prove to be amatch-winning 

move -Checkmate! 

Wayne WhitfordFCICM MBPA, Director 

M: 07834 748183 E: wayne@courtenforcementservices.co.uk 

www.courtenforcementservices.co.uk 

UP COMING 

CICM EVENTS 2017 

HAPPY COLLECTING 

WORKSHOP 

A modern approach to trade and consumer collections that 

maximises the customer experience 

MANCHESTER : Wednesday 11th October 

TURNER LECTURE 

2017 

An interactive debate/question and answer session focusing 

primarily on the “The Varied Aspects of Credit Management" 

LONDON : Friday 17th November 

LAW CONFERENCE 

An essential legal update hosted by 

CICM Legal Partner, DWF LLP 

London : Thursday 30th November 

To book a place at any of these events, 

please visit www.cicm.com/events 


FORTHCOMING EVENTS 

Full list of events can be found on our website: www.cicm.com/events 

CICM EVENTS 

11 OCTOBER 

CICM WEST MIDLANDS BRANCH – 

CHANGING TIMES (2 CPD HOURS) 

STOKE-ON-TRENT 

Debt collecting, Insolvency and the real effects of the New 

Government and Brexit on the economy. 

Key Speaker: Local representative from the Bank of 

England. Meeting sponsored by Moore Stephens LLP 

CONTACT : Places are limited to 40, to reserve a place 

please contact Andrew Hignett on 

E: ahignett@johnson-tiles.com or 

E:westmidlandsbranch@cicm.com 

VENUE : JOHNSON TILES (FACTORY SITE), HAREWOOD 

STREET, TUNSTALL, STOKE-ON-TRENT, ST6 5JZ 

17 OCTOBER 

CICM EAST OF ENGLAND BRANCH – FRAUD, 

RISK AND CYBERCRIME CONFERENCE (5 CPD 

HOURS) 

LONDON 

Fraud, Risk and Cybercrime Conference - more details 

online. 

CONTACT : To book your free place please email: 

eastofenglandbranch@cicm.com. 

VENUE : HAYS CREDIT MANAGEMENT, 107 CHEAPSIDE, 

LONDON, EC2V 6DN 

25 OCTOBER 

GETTING AHEAD IN CREDIT WITH HAYS 

LONDON 

Recruitment experts from Hays will be hosting a 

presentation which will be of interest to all credit 

controllers and credit managers and, it is hoped, those 

currently studying for the Institute’s exams, the future of 

the Institute. The presentation will outline what is involved 

in a career in credit and how this fits into the ever-changing 

job market. 

CONTACT : Email Glenn Walker, Branch Treasurer 

gwalker@formost.co.uk, should you wish to attend. 

VENUE : RADISSON BLU HOTEL, EAST MIDLANDS 

AIRPORT, PEGASUS BUSINESS PARK, HERALD WAY, 

DERBY, DE74 2TZ 

31 OCTOBER 

CICM NORTH EAST BRANCH – 

HALLOWEEN AT BEAMISH 

NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE 

The CICM North East of England Branch invite you to join 

us for Halloween at Beamish Musuem, for a fun filled night! 

CONTACT : Please email: northeastbranch@cicm.com or 

Paul Card (01740 ) 617667 or 07775 670666 

VENUE : http://www.beamish.org.uk/events/halloweenevenings-at-beamish/ 

TRAINING DAYS 

5 OCTOBER 

CICM WEBINAR - NEGOTIATING & INFLUENCING SKILLS 

VENUE : ONLINE 

5 OCTOBER 

INVOICING AND RECEIPTING 

VENUE : LONDON 

10 OCTOBER 

GETTING STARTED IN CREDIT CONTROL AND COLLECTIONS 


11 OCTOBER 

HANDLING YOUR OWN SMALL CLAIMS CASES 


OTHER EVENTS 

8 OCTOBER 

CCRINTERACTIVE AND THE CREDIT 

EXCELLENCE AWARDS 2017 

LONDON 

CONTACT : To book to attend in 2017, contact Stephen at 

stephen@ccrmagazine.co.uk or 07766 416693 or Alison at 

alison@ccrmagazine.co.uk or 01702 341948. 

VENUE : GUOMAN TOWER HOTEL, ST KATHARINE'S WAY, 

LONDON, E1W 1LD 

8-10 OCTOBER 

ICTF’S INTERNATIONAL CREDIT 

PROFESSIONALS SYMPOSIUM – CAP D’AIL 

(NICE), FRANCE 

Details to follow. 

CONTACT : * 

VENUE : RIVIERA MARRIOTT HOTE, PORT DE CAP D'AIL, 

CAP D'AIL (NICE) 06320, FRANCE 

10 OCTOBER 

FORUMS INTERNATIONAL – CREDIT 

PROFESSIONALS FORUM (CPF) 

BRACKNELL 

CONTACT : For more information email: 

cpf@forumsinternational.co.uk 

VENUE : COPPID BEECH HOTEL, JOHN NIKE WAY, 

BRACKNELL, RG12 8TF 

10 OCTOBER 

BCR PUBLISHING – RECEIVABLES FINANCE 

MASTERCLASS 2017 

LONDON 

10% Discount for CICM members. 

A clearer understanding of receivables has never been 

more important, this Receivables Finance Masterclass will 

provide your company with a comprehensive overview of 

the key topics. 

CONTACT : http://bcrpub.com/contact-us 

VENUE : STEPHENSON HARWOOD LLP, 1 FINSBURY 

CIRCUS, LONDON, EC2M 7SH 

11 OCTOBER 

FORUMS INTERNATIONAL – SAP USER GROUP 

(SAP-UG 

NOTTINGHAM 


sapug@forumsinternational.co.uk 

VENUE : EXPERIAN OFFICES, NOTTINGHAM 

11 OCTOBER 

HAPPY COLLECTING WORKSHOP 

MANCHESTER 

A modern approach to trade and consumer collections that 

maximises the customer experience. 

This event runs from 09:30 – 16:00 and includes lunch and 

plenty of opportunities to network. This is a free event for 

CICM members. 

CONTACT : https://form.jotformeu.com/71973393010353 

VENUE : DWF LLP. 2 Hardman St, Manchester M3 3AA 

12 OCTOBER 

FORUMS INTERNATIONAL – IT DISTRIBUTOR 

& RESELLER CREDIT FORUM (DRF) 

STRATFORD UPON AVON 


drf@forumsinternational.co.uk 

VENUE : STRATFORD MANOR, STRATFORD UPON AVON 

17 OCTOBER 

FORUMS INTERNATIONAL – SENIOR 

MANAGEMENT CREDIT FORUM (SMF 



smf@forumsinternational.co.uk 


18 OCTOBER 

FORUMS INTERNATIONAL – 

PHARMACEUTICALS & MEDICAL DEVICES 

CREDIT FORUM (PMF) 



pmf@forumsinternational.co.uk 


13 NOVEMBER 

ACCA – RUNNING THE UK (SWANSEA) 

SWANSEA 

ACCA has run seven roadshows across the country which 

will provide you with insights on what late payment is, the 

effect it has on business and why it is an issue. 

CONTACT https://events.accaglobal.com/ACCA/ 

desktopdefault.aspx 

VENUE : SWANSEA, TBC 


NEW CICM MEMBERS 

THE INSTITUTE WELCOMES NEW MEMBERS 

WHO HAVE RECENTLY JOINED 

MEMBER 

NAME 

Lesley Geeves 

Lloyd Hinton 

Richie Pamma 

Simon Peck 

Phoebe Ukata 

COMPANY 

Performance Health 

Insolve Plus Ltd 

Hewlett-Packard Enterprise 

Ethos Energy GB Ltd 

Voltic NIG Ltd 

ASSOCIATE 

NAME 

Shalitha Appuhamy 

Kirsty-Marie Gregory 

Matt Spiceley 

COMPANY 

Commercial Bank of Cylon PLC 

Informa UK Ltd 

Re:Sources UK 

AFFILIATE 

NAME COMPANY NAME COMPANY 

Shakil Ali 

Taylor Atkins 

Sophie Ball 

Alexandra Baltatu 

Radu Belibov 

Robin Benn 

Jane Bowyer 

Michael Bradburn 

Katherine Bull 

Elaine Bullock 

Mark Burrows 

Elena Cabrelli 

Kellie Callan 

Elizabeth Carr 

Reece Carroll 

Lee Conroy 

Yvette Cottrell 

Julie Cox 

Helen Dines 

Natalie Fforde 

Stephen Finter 

Petr Frydl 

Alexander Goodall 

Lawrence Grix 

Manon Guillemin 

Leanne Hedley-Harper 

Kinga Hejasi 

Eszter Heredi Szabo 

Alberto Hernandez Rivas 

Libby Houghton 

Clive Humphries 

Sarah Jayne Hurk 

Rightmove Group Limited 

Adecco Group UK & Ireland 

Abcam Plc 

CJL Debt Recovery Ltd 

MWUK T/A Alexandra 

LHi Group 

London Borough of Brent 

Daisy Wholesale 

Buildbase 

Buchhalter Accounting & Taxation Services 

AB Agri Limited 


Hills Group Ltd 


BT Plc 

Interquest Group Plc 

FCC Environment 

NCG 

Autobar Vending 

Re:Sources UK 


Legal Aid Agency 

Phoenix High Court Enforcement 

Abcam Plc 

Apetito Ltd 

Avis Budget Group 

Joseph Joseph Ltd 

Abcam Plc 

Phoenix Healthcare Distribution Ltd 

Altran U.K. Ltd 

The Symphony Group Plc 

Ryan Jones 

Ruth Kempster-Smith 

Daniel King 

Sarah Kinnie 

Adam Littlewood 

Kelly Long 

Carolyn Mackay 

Gemma Martin 

Daniel McCredie 

John McGowan 

Corinne McLuckie 

Albertine Moody 

Thomas Moore 

Michael Murrell 

Giri Nambiath 

Danny Nightingale 

Joseph Oyediran 

Luminita Panaite 

Caroline Parry 

Nayan Patel 

Gary Quilligan 

Maciej Raczynski 

Sebastian Raczynski 

Frederick Roe 

Francesca Russon 

Luke Sidwell 

Samantha Squires 

Karen Stilgoe 

Aaron Thurgood 

George Whiting 

Laura Wood 

Helen Worsley 


Wigan Council 

Kinnie & Kinnie Ltd 

Avis Budget Group 

Contract Scotland Ltd 

GDC Group Ltd 

Worldpay (UK) Ltd 

JDM Investments limited 


Cummins 

Aggregate Industries 

Newcastle & Stafford Colleges Group 

Brightstone Law 

CJL Debt Recovery Ltd 

Repair Products Limited 

Navolio Ltd T/A Off to Work 

Purchasing Systems Ltd 

Aggregate Industries 

Andrew Wilson & Co 

Worldpay (UK) Ltd 

Your World Recruitment 

Aston University 

loveholidays 

Crown Paints 

Chandlers Limited 

Bristow & Sutor 

Simcott Personnel Management Ltd 

Hilti (Gt Britain) Ltd 


BRANCH NEWS 

Tour of the 

Rebellion 

Brewery 

Thames Valley 

Branch 

AFTER a very blustery and stormy day 

of weather, committee members of the 

Thames Valley Branch and their guests 

gathered at The Rebellion Brewery for a 

tour of the facilities and to enjoy tasting 

various ales and beers on offer. It turned 

out to be a very enjoyable evening both 

weather wise and socially. 

We joined a significant number of 

people at this wonderful place (the 

monthly open evening) where we all 

gleefully parted with our money to be 

given a pint glass and drinks vouchers. 

The employees of the brewery were 

lovely, encouraging you to have tasters if 

you were not sure what you wanted for 

your first choice and happily assisting 

you to make sure you had a drink(s) you 

would enjoy. 

Outside in the brewery yard was a 

barbecue from which you could purchase 

burgers, hotdogs and vegetarian options. 

I can vouch for the food, it was delicious, 

generous and reasonably priced. 

Those who wished to take part in the 

tour, were invited to attend at 8.00pm 

which, I am told, was very interesting 

and presented by the owner. For the 

duration of the talk drinks were free – our 

youngest guest thought all his birthdays 

and Christmases had come at once! 

In the main brewery building you 

were able to purchase products which 

included branded clothes, big jars of pork 

scratchings and cold meats among other 

things. 

All who attended agreed that they had 

a great evening and would not object if 

this was put on the agenda again. If we 

organise one again do come along, I think 

you will thoroughly enjoy it. 

Author: Dee Weston 

Improving credit 

management in the 

workplace 

East of England Branch 

BRANCH Chairman Richard 

Brown welcomed over 

60 credit professionals, 

including CICM members 

from seven branches, to 

the free conference at 

Goodman Masson’s London office. 

Chris Parker, branch committee 

member, and Lola Awosika, both from 

Goodman Masson’s credit management 

recruitment team, updated delegates 

on recruitment trends, and the benefits 

which employers now need to offer to 

influence and attract candidates. 

With performing well in interviews 

being top of the agenda, Mike McNulty, 

the Performance Business, literally 

had everyone on their feet during his 

presentation on preparing for interviews 

and body language. 

An informative presentation on 

increasing relationships within the 

enterprise and the best way to improve 

collections was then given by Russell 

Robinson, FICO. 

Taking us into the future, John Duffy, 

VoiceSage, explored the smart use of 

data and new technologies, and proactive 

messaging. 

Andrew Jenkins, PDX Consulting, 

had delegates hanging on his every word 

ALTHOUGH their sales teams often 

compete in the credit and risk 

management market, Creditsafe and Dun 

& Bradstreet worked together recently to 

deliver a joint presentation to the Thames 

Valley Branch about the evolution of 

business information at Avnet’s offices in 

Bracknell. 

The speakers were Jason Braidwood, 

Head of Credit & Collections at Creditsafe 

Group and Mark Preston, Senior 

Consultant Trade Credit Risk & External 

Affairs at Dun & Bradstreet. Mark and 

Jason gave some interesting background 

history on each organisation, and an 

during his enthusiastic presentation 

on developing the qualities of a growth 

mindset to lead a team and harness 

conflict. 

Branch Committee member Katherine 

Bailey, Valor Hospitality, outlined the 2017 

Branch Charity Unlock a Life for Lockey, 

and accepted the generous donation on its 

behalf from John Duffy. 

After a splendid buffet lunch courtesy 

of Goodman Masson, branch committee 

member Atul Vadher, French Connection, 

shared his thoughts on being a credit 

manager. 

Andrew della Casa, The Wine 

Investment Fund, detailed its risk 

approach, before generously donating a 

bottle of fine wine for the Business Card 

draw prize. 

The lively Q&A Speakers and Expert 

panel, was joined by Simon Marshall of 

Co-Pilot and Ian Stuart of Altis Consulting. 

Richard Brown thanked our hosts for 

kindly sponsoring all aspects of the day, 

and the speakers for giving their time 

voluntarily. He also thanked conference 

organiser Carol Baker, and everyone for 

attending and participating in this highly 

enjoyable and successful conference. 

Authors: Carol Baker and 

Richard Brown. 

Growing importance of 

business information 

Thames Valley Branch 

overview of the current challenges that 

both organisations face in a world where 

there is an increasing demand for business 

information. 

Dun & Bradstreet was initially established 

as a mercantile agency in New York in 1841 

and over its 176-year history four future 

US Presidents worked for the Company 

and Marilyn Monroe advertised the Dun 

& Bradstreet Reference Book in the 1950s! 

The organisation has continued to embrace 

new technology from the typewriter 

and telephone, to APIs and cloud-based 

platforms in more recent times. Dun & 

Bradstreet has undergone significant 


BRANCH NEWS 

60SECONDS 

WITH 

FULL NAME: Valentino Compino 

CURRENT JOB TITLE: 

Credit Control Manager 

CURRENT COMPANY NAME: 

Ocean Media Group Limited 

NUMBER OF YEARS IN CREDIT 

MANAGEMENT: 25 

NUMBER OF YEARS IN CURRENT ROLE: 

One year 

transformation since the launch of a 

new, global strategy in 2014. Creditsafe 

was founded in Norway in 1997 for credit 

reporting in the Nordics region. Within 

three years it launched in the UK and quickly 

spread its Business throughout Europe and 

more recently to the US in 2012 and Japan 

last year. Although Creditsafe hasn’t been 

around as long as Dun & Bradstreet, it has 

grown to be a major force in the industry. 

After providing us with some 

background, Mark and Jason explained that 

a commercial credit reference agency uses 

a blend of public, restricted, third party and 

proprietary data to build their database. 

The more information that is available 

on a business, the more informed and 

accurate credit and risk assessments can 

be made. Creditsafe and Dun & Bradstreet 

are members of the Business Information 

Providers Association (BIPA) and take 

part in regular discussions on the hot 

topics in the credit and risk management 

industry. BIPA was formed to primarily 

protect the availability of, and access to, 

publicly available and regulated business 

information and data. BIPA recognises that 

small businesses (SMEs) account for 99.3 

percent of all private sector businesses in 

the UK and aims to make information such 

as VAT data available to improve credit 

scores and credit limits for SMEs. The 

release of this data is expected to make a 

huge impact in the credit industry. 

Mark and Jason also touched on the 

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 

which comes into force in May 2018 and 

the impact it will have in the way that all 

businesses can store and handle data. With 

so many businesses and services operating 

across borders, international consistency 

around data protection laws is critical and 

will need to be compliant. 

We want to thank both speakers as well 

as Dee Weston for allowing us to host the 

event at Avnet Technology Solutions. 

HOW DID YOU GET INTO CREDIT 

MANAGEMENT? 

By default, I started off as a Management 

Accountant and then grew into a Credit 

Management role. 

WHAT IS THE BEST THING ABOUT 

WHERE YOU WORK? 

It’s a challenge and there is a lot of change, 

within the structure of the business. 

WHAT MOTIVATES YOU? 

Being the best at what I do, and I love 

being targeted in my work. 

WHAT SKILL DO YOU THINK HAS 

HELPED YOU MOST IN YOUR CREDIT 

CAREER SO FAR? 

Constantly improving upon my 

management skills has helped me over the 

years, in order to make sure my team do 

their best. 

NAME THREE PEOPLE YOU WOULD 

INVITE TO A DINNER PARTY AND WHY? 

Roy Ayers – Musically amazing, Michael 

Jackson (if only he was alive!) - I would tell 

him to do a live performance and teach me 

how to dance his cool moves and Martin 

Luther King Jr – so he could see his dream 

come true. 

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE PASTIME/ 

RELAXATION ACTIVITY? 

Spending time with my family and going 

to the gym 

WHAT IS THE BEST/WORST QUALITY IN 

A LEADER? 

The best quality in a leader is to listen, the 

worst is to make people unhappy at work. 

WHO IS YOUR BUSINESS OR PERSONAL 

HERO? 

My personal hero is Nelson Mandela, and 

what he stood for. 

WHAT CAN'T YOU LIVE WITHOUT? 

My family, who mean everything to me. 

WHAT’S BEEN YOUR MOST REWARDING 

MOMENT IN YOUR CREDIT CAREER? 

Setting up the credit control department 

was the most rewarding, and building a 

team. 

WHAT HAS SURPRISED YOU THE MOST 

ABOUT WORKING IN CREDIT? 

Credit processes are so different from 

business to business, but that’s what makes 

it so interesting from role to role. 

IF YOU WEREN’T WORKING IN CREDIT 

MANAGEMENT, WHAT WOULD YOU BE 

DOING? 

I would love be a lawyer with my own 

practice. 

WHERE DO YOU SEE YOUR CAREER IN 

FIVE YEARS’ TIME? 

I would like to be the Head of Credit 

Control, in another country, preferably a 

warm one! 


TAKE CONTROL 

OF YOUR CREDIT 

CAREER 

BILLING MANAGER 

REVIEW PROCESSES AND 

IMPLEMENT CHANGE 

Manchester, £40,000-£50,000 

A leading construction business seeks a talented billing 

manager to join its new shared services centre. Joining 

the Credit Management team, you will head up a new 

team and have opportunities to implement your own 

procedures and best practice whilst being a key part of 

the critiquing and development of all existing processes 

in place. This job will be heavily business-critical upon 

identifying key areas of improvement, producing training 

material and implementing effective training. To be 

successful, you will have prior experience of leading 

a billing team of more than five as well as knowledge 

of using SAP, Oracle or a similar large ERP. Ref: 3004859 

Contact David Busfield on 0161 236 7272 

or email david.busfield@hays.com 

ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE TEAM LEADER 

DRIVE TEAM EFFICIENCIES 

Bedford, up to £35,000 

This expanding organisation with a friendly, collaborative 

culture and stylish offices has an excellent opportunity 

for a proficient accounts receivable supervisor. 

Leading and motivating a team of five, you will be 

hands on with achieving deadlines and be responsible 

for cash allocation, direct debit administration, bank 

reconciliations and invoice query resolution. You will 

have a proven track record in accounts receivable/sales 

ledger and existing staff supervisory experience. The job 

offers an excellent benefits package, including 28 days’ 

holiday plus bank holidays which increases with service, 

private health insurance, contributory pension scheme, 

life assurance, parking and more. Ref: 3105107 

Contact Emily Oakes on 07872 158536 

or email emily.oakes@hays.com 

MEDIA CREDIT MANAGER 

LEAD, MOTIVATE AND BUILD 

London, £40,000-£45,000 + benefits 

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a motivated 

media credit manager to join an international media 

tech business that has doubled its turnover in the last 

three years. Reporting to the FC, you will be given the 

chance to maintain your own ledger alongside staff 

management and team motivation. You will be heavily 

involved in reviewing procedures and putting in place 

strategies to improve cash flow and team performance. 

With a resilient and forward thinking mind-set, you will 

collaborate effectively with internal stakeholders and 

build strong relationships with clients. This is an amazing 

company who genuinely care about its employees with 

90% staff retention rate. Ref: 3105756 

Contact Julia Foster on 020 3465 0020 

or email julia.foster2@hays.com 

ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE MANAGER 

MANAGE KEY ACCOUNTS 

Glasgow, £27,000-£35,000 

A rare and exciting opportunity has arisen in an 

international organisation on the outskirts of Glasgow as 

it now requires a capable accounts receivable manager 

to take ownership of all credits and accounts receivable 

processes. Managing a team of two, you will be entrusted 

with handling all escalated issues, managing key accounts 

and general development of both the function and the 

team. You will have proven experience creating and 

implementing policies and processes. This is a great 

opportunity if you are an experienced AR manager or 

alternatively an AR/credit supervisor who is looking 

to take the next step in your career. Ref: 3102476 

Contact Linda Brownlee on 0141 212 3666 

or email linda.brownlee@hays.com 

hays.co.uk/creditcontrol 


SENIOR CREDIT CONTROLLER 

BUILD STRONG RELATIONSHIPS 

Manchester, £28,000-£30,000 

One of Manchester’s leading professional services 

organisations is looking to bolster its revenue and 

capital team by bringing in a confident and personable 

team leader to support its commercial services team. 

Leading a team of ten credit controllers, you will be 

the key point of escalation within the team to resolve 

business-critical issues by working closely with various 

internal stakeholders across finance, billing and with the 

fee earners. Prior experience supervising and developing 

a team will be key in this position, particularly as it is 

a business which is proactive in bringing trainees and 

graduates through the ranks. Ref: 3100251 

Contact David Busfield on 0161 236 7272 

or email david.busfield@hays.com 

CREDIT CONTROLLER 

MANAGE NATIONAL ACCOUNTS 

Teesside, up to £19,000 

A leading provider of industrial cleaning solutions with 

a national site base has an opportunity for a highly 

motivated key account manager. With a strong emphasis 

on detailed credit control, you will be responsible for 

a number of key accounts nationally, producing weekly 

and monthly reports on account activity. You will 

also be responsible for identifying and eliminating 

opportunities to delay payments and determine 

and resolve invoice queries. A depth of credit control 

experience knowledge as well as sales ledger is 

required, as well as proven planning, organisational and 

negotiation skills. This is a great opportunity to achieve 

results and have accountability of your own national 

accounts database. Ref: 3110553 

Contact Emma Phillips on 01642 226716 

or email emma.phillips@hays.com 

COMMERCIAL CREDIT ANALYST 

INSTIL POLICIES AND PROCEDURES 

Teesside, up to £25,000 

A leading provider of business solutions with a network 

of over 20 sites and with the capacity to secure business 

solutions to safeguard companies throughout the UK 

is looking for an intelligent commercial credit analyst. 

With a strong emphasis on risk management strategies, 

you will ensure policies and procedures reflect the best 

practice and SOX compliance. You will be responsible for 

performing process risk reviews and ensuring compliance 

to company standards including liaison with internal 

and external auditors. This is a fantastic chance for you 

to achieve results and make a difference to the credit 

department as a whole. Ref: 3106906 

Contact Emma Phillips on 01642 226716 

or email emma.phillips@hays.com 

DDS MEDIA BILLING ANALYST 

WORK WITH A GLOBAL BUSINESS 

London, up to £16 per hour 

This internationally recognised business renowned within 

the media industry is currently looking for a media billing 

analyst to join its team on a three month contract basis. 

Working with a high level of autonomy, your responsibilities 

include raising invoices and ensuring all clients are billed 

according to the contractual agreements. You will have 

previous experience working within billing, ideally within 

media, as well as knowledge using DDS/MediaOcean 

systems. In return, you will be able to gain experience in 

a globally recognised organisation. This position is for an 

immediate start or a maximum of one week notice period. 

Ref: 2813045 

Contact Summer Mostafa on 020 3465 0020 

or email summer.mostafa@hays.com 

This is just a small selection of the many 

opportunities we have available for credit 

professionals. To find out more email 

hayscicm@hays.com or visit us online. 


View our digital version online at www.cicm.com 

Log on to the Members’ area, and click on the tab labelled 

‘Credit Management magazine’ 

Just another great reason to be a member 

Credit Management is distributed to the entire UK and international 

CICM membership, as well as additional subscribers 

The Recognised Standard 

www.cicm.com The | Recognised +44 (0)1780 Standard / www.cicm.com 722901 / October | 2017 editorial@cicm.com 

/ PAGE 62

Cr£ditWho? 

CICM Directory of Services 

FOR INFORMATION, 

OPTIONS AND PRICING 

PLEASE EMAIL: 

anthony.cave@cabbell.co.uk 

ANTI MONEY LAUNDERING 

COLLECTIONS LEGAL 

CONSULTANCY 

THE ONLY AML RESOURCE YOU NEED 

SmartSearch 

Harman House, Station Road, 

Guiseley, Leeds, LS20 8BX 

T: 01132387660 

F: 0113 238 7669 

E: info@smartsearchuk.com 

W: www.smartsearchuk.com 

KYC, AML and CDD all rely on a combination of deep data with 

broad coverage, highly automated flexible technology with an 

innovative and intuitive customer interface. Key features include 

automatic Worldwide Sanction & PEP checking, Daily Monitoring, 

Automated Enhanced Due Diligence and pro-active customer 

management. Choose SmartSearch as your benchmark. 

COLLECTIONS 

Controlaccount PLC 

Compass House, Waterside 

Hanbury Road, Bromsgrove 

B60 4FD 

T: 01527 549522 (Sales dept) 

E: sales@controlaccount.com 

W:www.controlaccount.com 

Controlaccount has over 30 years of Credit Management and 

Debt Recovery experience, helping National and International 

SMEs and blue chip organisations, across a wide range of sectors. 

We provide a fast, proactive collection service on a no-collection, 

no-fee basis, and for some clients a zero cost option, 

utilising the late payment act to fund collection procedures. Our 

trained collectors take into account your need to recover debts, 

whilst maintaining your reputation and preserving customer relationships. 

If we can’t recover your outstanding debts through our 

collection process, then our service won’t cost you a penny; and 

with our additional in-house legal & Trace service as well as our 

credit reporting and corporate monitoring services we are ready 

to help you every step of the way. 

Atradius Collections Ltd 

3 Harbour Drive, 

Capital Waterside, 

Cardiff Bay, Cardiff, CF10 4WZ 

United Kingdom 

T: +44 (0)2920 824700 

W: www.atradiuscollections.com/uk/ 

Atradius Collections Ltd is an established specialist in business 

to business collections. As the collections division of the Atradius 

Crédito y Caución, we have a strong position sharing history, 

knowledge and reputation. 

Annually handling more than 110,000 cases and recovering 

over a billion EUROs in collections at any one time, we deliver 

when it comes to collecting outstanding debts. With over 90 

years’ experience, we have an in-depth understanding of 

the importance of maintaining customer relationships whilst 

efficiently and effectively collecting monies owed. 

The individual nature of our clients’ customer relationships is 

reflected in the customer focus we provide, structuring our 

service to meet your specific needs. We work closely with clients 

to provide them with a collection strategy that echoes their 

business character, trading patterns and budget. 

For further information contact: Hans Meijer, UK and Ireland 

Country Director (hans.meijer@atradius.com). 

Blaser Mills LLP 

Rapid House 

40 Oxford Road, High Wycombe, 

Buckinghamshire. HP11 2EE 

T: 01494 478660/478661 

E: Jackie Ray jar@blasermills.co.uk or Gary Braathen 

gpb@blasermills.co.uk 

W: www.blasermills.co.uk 

Established in 1888, leading multi-disciplinary law firm Blaser 

Mills specialises in services for businesses and individuals. 

The Firm has particular expertise in Dispute Resolution and 

Debt Recovery working with experienced credit managers and 

finance directors providing solutions to both contested and 

uncontested claims. 

Blaser Mills provides an experienced team including CICM 

qualified legal representatives and the Firm is cited in the 

Legal 500 law directory based on quality of work and strong 

client feedback. 

Offices in Aylesbury, London (Central), London (Harrow), Old 

Amersham, Rickmansworth, Staines-on-Thames. 

Lovetts Solicitors 

Lovetts, Bramley House, The Guildway, Old Portsmouth 

Road, Guildford, Surrey GU3 1LR 

T: +44(0)1483 457500 E: info@lovetts.co.uk 

W: www.lovetts.co.uk 

Lovetts has been recovering debts for 30 years! When you 

want the right expertise to recover overdue debts why not use a 

specialist? Lovetts’ only line of business is the recovery of 

business debts and any resulting commercial litigation. 

We provide: 

• Letters Before Action, prompting positive outcomes in more than 

80 percent of cases • Overseas Pre-litigation collections with 

multi-lingual capabilities • 24/7 access to our online debt 

management system ‘CaseManager’ 

Don’t just take our word for it, here’s recent customer feedback: 

“...All our service expectations have been exceeded...” 

“...The online system is particularly useful and is extremely easy 

to use... “...Lovetts has a recognisable brand that generates 

successful results...” 

STRIPES SOLICITORS LIMITED 

St George’s House, 56 Peter Street, Manchester, M2 3NQ 

W: www.stripes-solicitors.co.uk 

T: 0161 832 5000 

95percent success rate in disputed 

litigation cases over several decades 

Stripes technical excellence, tenacity and commercial insight has 

led to this 95 percent success rate over several decades. We have 

been particularly recommended as a leading law firm by the Legal 

500 in the litigious field for representing clients with significant and 

complex issues. 

Our specialist commercial debt recovery and insolvency team work 

with businesses ranging from SMEs to larger PLCs recovering 

business debts on a no cost or fixed fee basis and often 

recovering debts within days. We aim to understand your business 

and tailor our services to suit your requirements. Our online service 

provides you with 24/7 access to manage your account, to upload 

new debtor cases and to generate new legal instructions. 

Sanders Consulting Associates Ltd 

T: +44(0)1525 720226 

E: enquiries@chrissandersconsulting.com 

W: www.chrissandersconsulting.com 

Sanders Consulting is an independent niche consulting firm 

specialising in leadership and performance improvement in all 

aspects of the order to cash process. Chris Sanders FCICM, the 

principal, is well known in the industry with a wealth of experience 

in operational credit management, billing, change and business 

process improvement. A sought after speaker with cross industry 

international experience in the business-to-business and businessto-consumer 

markets, his innovative and enthusiastic approach 

delivers pragmatic people and process lead solutions and significant 

working capital improvements to clients. Sanders Consulting are 

proud to manage CICMQ on behalf of and under the supervision 

of the CICM. 

COURT ENFORCEMENT SERVICES 

Court Enforcement Services 

Wayne Whitford – Director 

M: +44 (0)7834 748 183 

T : +44 (0)1992 663 399 

E : wayne@courtenforcementservices.co.uk 

W: www.courtenforcementservices.co.uk 

High Court Enforcement that will Empower You! 

We help law firms and in-house debt recovery and legal teams to 

enforce CCJs by transferring them up to the High Court. Setting us 

apart in the industry, our unique and Award Winning Field Agent 

App helps to provide information in real time and transparency, 

empowering our clients when they work with us. 

• Free Transfer up process of CCJ’s to High Court 

• Exceptional Recovery Rates 

• Individual Client Attention and Tailored Solutions 

• Real Time Client Access to Cases 

CREDIT INFORMATION 

Creditsafe Business Solutions 

Bryn House, Caerphilly Business Park, Van Rd, 

Caerphilly, CF83 3GG 

T: 0292 088 6500. 

E: ukinfo@creditsafeuk.com 

W: www.creditsafeuk.com 

Creditsafe is Europe’s most used supplier of credit & business 

intelligence. Creditsafe have helped over 60,000 customers 

across Europe and the USA with a range of products which 

includes our UK, European and International Company Credit 

Reports, which reach over 129 countries and 90m companies; 

customer and supplier Risk Tracker and our 3D Ledger product 

which has captured over 35 million Trade Payment Data 

Experiences since its launch in 2012. All of which will help 

companies manage their exposure to risk, make informed 

decisions in relation to credit limits whilst looking at how you 

can identify gaps within your sales ledger to prioritise collections 

and leverage sales. 

continues on page 64 > 


Cr£ditWho? 




PLEASE EMAIL: 


CREDIT INFORMATION 

CoCredo Limited 

Missenden Abbey, Great Missenden, Bucks, HP16 0BD 

T: 01494 790 600 

E: customerservice@cocredo.com 

W: www.cocredo.co.uk 

Celebrating 15 years in business, CoCredo’s award winning credit 

reporting and monitoring systems have helped to protect and secure 

over £27 billion of turnover on behalf of our customers. Our company 

data is updated 500,000 per day and ensures customers have the 

most current information in the market place. Access to the online 

portal is available 365 days a year 24/7 from anywhere in the world. 

At CoCredo we aggregate data from a range of leading providers 

across the globe so that our customers can view the best available 

data in one easy to use report. We also offer customers XML 

Integration and D.N.A. Portfolio Management. 

From simply looking at a prospect through to acquisition, to 

monitoring, we pride ourselves on helping our customers every step of 

the way. CICM members receive their first five credit reports for free. 

Graydon UK 

66 College Road, 2nd Floor, 

Hygeia Building, Harrow, 

Middlesex, HA1 1BE 

T: +44 (0)208 515 1400 

E: customerservices@graydon.co.uk 

W: www.graydon.co.uk 

Graydon UK is a specialist in Credit Risk Management and Intelligence, 

providing access to business information on over 100 million entities 

across more than 190 countries. Its mission is to convert vast amounts 

of data from diverse data sources into invaluable information. Based 

on this, it generates economic, financial and commercial insights that 

help its customers make better business decisions and ultimately 

gain competitive advantage. Graydon is owned by Atradius, Coface 

and Euler Hermes, Europe's leading credit insurance organisations. It 

offers a comprehensive network of offices and partners worldwide to 

ensure a seamless service. 

Credica Ltd 

Building 168, Maxell Avenue, Harwell Oxford, Oxon. OX11 0QT 

T: 01235 856400E: info@credica.co.uk 

W: www.credica.co.uk 

Our highly configurable and extremely cost effective Collections and 

Query Management System has been designed with three goals in 

mind: 

• To improve your cashflow • To reduce your cost to collect 

• To provide meaningful analysis of your business 

Evolving over 15 years and driven by the input of 1000s of Credit 

Professionals across the UK and Europe, our system is successfully 

providing significant and measurable benefits for our diverse 

portfolio of clients. 

We would love to hear from you if you feel you would benefit from 

our ‘no nonsense’ and human approach to computer software. 

Company Watch 

Centurion House, 37 Jewry Street, 

LONDON. EC3N 2ER 

T: +44 (0)20 7043 3300 

E: info@companywatch.net 

W: www.companywatch.net 

Organisations around the world rely on Company Watch’s 

industry-leading financial analytics to drive their credit risk 

processes. Our financial risk modelling and ability to map medium 

to long-term risk as well as short-term credit risk set us apart 

from other credit reference agencies. 

Quality and rigour run through everything we do, from our unique 

method of assessing corporate financial health via our H-Score®, 

to developing analytics on our customers’ in-house data. 

With the H-Score® predicting almost 90 percent of corporate 

insolvencies in advance, it is the risk management tool of choice, 

providing actionable intelligence in an uncertain world. 

BUREAU VAN DIJK 

Northburgh House, 10 Northburgh Street, London, EC1V 0PP 

T: +44 (0)20 7549 5000E: bvd@bvdinfo.com 

W: www.bvdinfo.com 

We offer the most powerful comparable data resource on private 

companies. We capture and treat private company information for 

better decision making and increased efficiency, so we’re ideally suited 

to help credit professionals. Orbis, our global company database has 

information on 250 million companies, and offers: 

• Standardised financials so you can assess companies globally 

• Financial strength metrics using a range of models and including a 

qualitative score for when detailed financials aren’t available 

• Projected financials 

• Extensive corporate structures so you can assess the complete group 

– or take the financial stability of the parent into account 

Credit Catalyst is a platform where you can combine information from 

Orbis with you own knowledge of your customers and get dashboard 

views of your portfolio. 

Register for your free trial at bvdinfo.com. 

CREDIT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE 

Prof. Schumann GmbH 

innovative information systems 

Weender Landstr. 23, 37130 Göttingen, Germany 

T: +49 551 38315 0 F: +49 551 38315 20 

E: info@prof-schumann.de W: www.prof-schumann.de 

Our Credit Application Manager (CAM) is a leading credit risk 

management solution for major corporations, as well as insurance, 

factoring and leasing companies. In their daily work, CAM allows 

credit and sales managers to call up all the available information 

about a customer or risk in a few seconds for decision support: realtime 

data from wherever they are. CAM keeps an eye on customers 

whose payment behaviour stands out or who have overdue invoices! 

CAM provides an up-to-date forecast of customers’ payments. 

Additionally, CAM has automated interfaces for connecting to 

leading suppliers of company credit data, payment record pools and 

commercial credit insurers. The system is characterised by its great 

flexibility. We have years of experience in consulting and software 

support for accounts receivable management. 

Top Service Ltd 

2&3 Regents Court, Farmoor Lane, Redditch, 

Worcestershire, B98 0SD 

T: 0152 750 3990. 

E: enquiries@top-service.co.uk 

W: www.top-service.co.uk 

Top Service is the only credit reference and debt recovery 

agency to specialise in the UK construction sector. Top Service 

customers benefit from sector specific information, detailed 

payment history intelligence and realtime trade references in 

addition to standard credit information. There are currently 

3,000 construction sector companies subscribing to the service, 

ranging from multi-national organisations to small family firms. 

The company prides itself on high levels of customer service 

and does not tie its customers into restrictive contracts. Top 

Service offers a 25 percent discount to all CICM Members as 

well as four free credit checks of your choice. 

Innovation Software 

Innovation Software, Innovation House, 

New Road, Rochester, Kent, ME1 1BG. 

T: +44 (0)1634 812300 

E: jay.inamdar@innovationsoftware.uk.com 

W: www.creditforceglobal.com 

Innovation Software are the authors of CreditForce, the leading 

Collections and Working Capital Management Systems. Our solutions are 

used in over 26 countries and by over 20 percent of the Top 100 Global 

Law Firms. 

Our solutions have optimised Accounts Receivables processes for over 

20 years and power Business Intelligence, with functionality to: 

• improve cash flow • reduce DSO • control risk 

• automate cash allocation • speed up query resolution 

• improve customer relationship management 

• automatically generate intelligent workflows and tasks 

• manage the entire end-to-end collections cycle. 

Fully integrated with over 40 leading ERP and Accounting systems, 

including SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics and product partners with 

Thomson Reuters Elite we can deliver on either your own computing 

infrastructure or through Microsoft Azure’s award winning and secure 

cloud service.CreditForce remains the choice solution for world class 

businesses. 

Book a demonstration by calling T: +44 (0)1634 812 300 or visit 

www.creditforceglobal.com for more information. 


Cr£ditWho? 




PLEASE EMAIL: 


FINANCIAL PR 

Safe Computing Limited 

20, Freeschool Lane, Leicester, LE1 4FY 

T: 0844 583 2134 

E: info@safecomputing.co.uk 

W: www.safe-financials.co.uk 

Designed to manage your customer credit accounts effectively, 

Safe Credit Control enables your credit management team to: 

• Improve cash flow 

• Reduce debtor days 

• Increase customer service 

• Cut the cost of cash collection 

• Eliminate manual processes 

• Speed up the query resolution process 

Safe’s unique approach is centred on changing the perception 

of the credit control function from a series of reactive processes 

to proactive ones. Credit controllers are traditionally regarded 

as an essential element in business to chase late payments 

and respond to customer queries. Safe Credit Control has taken 

the concepts of customer relationship management (CRM) and 

applied it to the credit control function, providing a softer, 

service orientated team of customer service representatives. 

STA International 

3rd Floor, Colman House, King Street Maidstone , ME14 1DN 

T: +44(0)844 324 0660. 

E: enquiries@staonline.com 

W: www.stainternational.com 

GETTING BUSINESS PAID 

STA is an award winning B2B and B2C debt collection, confidential 

credit control and tracing supplier. ISO9001 quality accredited, and 

with the CSAs Collector Accreditation Initiative, duty-of-care is as 

important to us as it is to you. Specialising in international debt, in the 

past 12 months we’ve collected from 146 countries worldwide. “Your 

Debts Online” gives you transparent access to our collection success 

and detailed management information, keeping you in control of your 

account. We look forward to getting your business paid. 

Tinubu Square UK 

Holland House, 

4 Bury Street, London . EC3A 5AW 

T: +44 (0)207 469 2577 / 

E: uksales@tinubu.com W: www.tinubu.com 

Tinubu Square offers companies across the world the appropriate 

SaaS platform solutions and services to significantly reduce their 

exposure to risk, and their financial, operational and technical 

costs. Easy to implement, our solutions provide an accurate 

picture of a customers’ financial health through the entire 

order-to-cash cycle, improve cash flow, and facilitate control 

of risk across the organization whether group-wide or locally. 

Founded in 2000, Tinubu Square is an award winning expert in 

the trade credit insurance industry, with offices in Paris, London, 

New York, Montreal and Singapore. Some of the largest 

multinational corporations, credit insurers and receivables 

financing organizations depend on Tinubu to provide them with the 

means to drive greater trade credit risk efficiency. 

Data Interconnect Ltd 

Unit 7, Radcot Estate, 7 Park Rd, Faringdon, 

Oxfordshire. SN7 7BP 

T: +44 (0) 1367 245777 F: +44 (0) 1367 240011 

E: sales@datainterconnect.co.uk 

W: www.datainterconnect.com 

Data Interconnect provides integrated e-billing and collection 

solutions via its document delivery web portal, WebSend. By 

providing improved Customer Experience and Customer Satisfaction, 

with enhanced levels of communication between both parties, we 

can substantially speed up your collection processes. 

Proud supporters 

of CICMQ 

Rimilia 

Corbett House, Westonhall Road, Bromsgrove, B60 4AL 

T: +44 (0)1527 872123 E: enquiries@rimilia.com 

W: www.rimilia.com 

Rimilia excels in the design, development and implementation of 

Intelligent Finance Solutions that drive value from existing manually 

intensive finance processes associated with accounts receivable, 

cash allocation, credit management, bank reconciliation and cash 

forecasting. Based in the heart of the UK, our operations extend to 

Europe, USA and Asia. Experienced in the field of technology and 

accounting, our approach to business revolves around integrity 

and enabling organisations to unlock their full potential though 

innovation. Rimilia is proud to be a leading innovative supplier of 

finance solutions that make a positive change to the blue chip clients 

it supplies. 

HighRadius 

T: +44 7399 406889 

E: gwyn.roberts@highradius.com 

W: www.highradius.com 

HighRadius is the leading provider of Integrated Receivables 

solutions for automating receivables and payment functions such 

as credit, collections, cash allocation, deductions and eBilling. 

The Integrated Receivables suite is delivered as a software-as-aservice 

(SaaS). HighRadius also offers SAP-certified Accelerators 

for SAP S/4HANA Finance Receivables Management, enabling 

large enterprises to maximize the value of their SAP investments. 

HighRadius Integrated Receivables solutions have a proven track 

record of reducing days sales outstanding (DSO), bad-debt and 

increasing operation efficiency, enabling companies to achieve an 

ROI in less than a year. 

DATA AND ANALYTICS 

Dun & Bradstreet 

Marlow International, Parkway Marlow 

Buckinghamshire SL7 1AJ 

Telephone: (0800) 001-234 Website: www.dnb.co.uk 

Dun & Bradstreet grows the most valuable relationships in business. 

By uncovering truth and meaning from data, we connect our 

customers with the prospects, suppliers, clients and partners that 

matter most, and have since 1841. Whether your customer portfolio 

spans a city, a country or the globe, Dun & Bradstreet delivers the 

data, analytics and insight to grow your most profitable relationships 

and navigate credit risk. By combining your insights with our own, 

Dun & Bradstreet facilitates a global, unified view of your customer 

relationships across credit and collections. 

Gravity London 

Floor 6/7, Gravity London, 69 Wilson St, London, EC21 2BB 

T: +44(0)207 330 8888. E: sfeast@gravitylondon.com 

W: www.gravitylondon.com 

Gravity is an award winning full service PR and advertising 

business that is regularly benchmarked as being one of the best 

in its field. It has a particular expertise in the credit sector, building 

long-term relationships with some of the industry’s best-known 

brands working on often challenging briefs. As the partner agency 

for the Credit Services Association (CSA) for the past 13 years, 

and the Chartered Institute of Credit Management since 2006, it 

understands the key issues affecting the credit industry and what 

works and what doesn’t in supporting its clients in the media and 

beyond. 

INSOLVENCY 

Moore Stephens 

Moore Stephens LLP, 

150 Aldersgate Street, 

London EC1A 4AB 

T: +44 (0) 20 7334 9191 

E: Brendan.clarkson@moorestephens.com 

W: www.moorestephens.co.uk 

Moore Stephens is a top ten accounting and advisory network, with 

offices throughout the UK. 

Our clients range from individuals and entrepreneurs, through 

to large organisations and complex international businesses. We 

partner with them, supporting their aspirations and helping them 

to thrive in a challenging world. 

Our national creditor services team has expert insights in debt 

recovery which, combined with their unparalleled industry and 

sector knowledge, enables them to assist creditors in recovering 

outstanding debts. 

LEGAL MATTERS 

DWF LLP 

Neil Jinks FCICM – Director 

M: +44 (0)7740 179 515 T: +44 (0)121 516 7462 

E: neil.jinks@dwf.law W: www.dwf.law/recover 

Described by market commentators as “blazing a trail”, DWF is one 

of the UK’s largest legal businesses with an award-winning reputation 

for client service excellence and effective operational management. 

Named by the Financial Times as one of Europe’s most innovative 

law firms and independently ranked first of all top 20 law firms for 

quality of legal advice and joint first of all national law firms for service 

delivery and responsiveness. DWF offers a full range of cost effective 

debt recovery solutions including pre-legal collections, debt litigation, 

enforcement, insolvency proceedings and ancillary services including 

tracing, process serving, debtor profiling and consultancy. 

continues on page 66 > 


Cr£ditWho? 




PLEASE EMAIL: 


PAYMENT SOLUTIONS 

American Express 

76 Buckingham Palace Road, 

London 

SW1W 9TQ 

T: +44 (0)1273 696933 

W: www.americanexpress.com 

American Express is working in partnership with the CICM and is 

a globally recognised provider of payment solutions to businesses. 

Specialising in providing flexible collection capabilities to drive a 

number of company objectives including: 

•Accelerate cashflow 

•Improved DSO 

•Offer extended terms to customers 

•Provide an additional line of bank independent credit to drive 

growth 

•Reduce risk 

•Create competitive advantage with your customers 

As experts in the field of payments and with a global reach, 

American Express is working with credit managers to drive growth 

within businesses of all sectors. By creating an additional lever 

to help support supplier/client relationships American Express is 

proud to be an innovator in the business payments space. 

Bottomline Technologies 

115 Chatham Street 

Reading 

Berks RG1 7JX | UK 

T: 0870 081 8250 

E: emea-info@bottomline.com 

W: www.bottomline.com/uk 

Bottomline Technologies (NASDAQ: EPAY) helps businesses pay 

and get paid. Businesses and banks rely on Bottomline for domestic 

and international payments, effective cash management tools, 

automated workflows for payment processing and bill review and 

state of the art fraud detection, behavioural analytics and regulatory 

compliance. Businesses around the world depend on Bottomline 

solutions to help them pay and get paid, including some 

of the world’s largest systemic banks, private and publicly traded 

companies and Insurers. Every day, we help our customers by 

making complex business payments simple, secure and seamless. 

PROFESSIONAL BODIES 

Chartered Institute of 

Credit Management (CICM) 

The Water Mill, Station Road, South Luffenham, 

OAKHAM, LE15 8NB 

T: 01780 722910 E: info@cicm.com 

W: www.cicm.com 

The Chartered Institute of Credit Management (CICM) is Europe’s 

largest credit management organisation. The trusted leader 

in expertise for all credit matters, it represents the profession 

across trade, consumer, and export credit, and all credit-related 

services. Formed over 70 years ago, it is the only such organisation 

accredited by Ofqual and it offers a comprehensive 

range of services and bespoke solutions for the credit professional 

(www.cicm.com) as well as services and advice for the 

wider business community (www.creditmanagement.org.uk). 

CICMos (CICM Online Services) WWW.CICM.COM 

T: 01780 722 907. E: training@cicm.com 

W: www.cicmos.com 

CICMOS has been designed to help busy credit managers by 

providing them with a suite of online tools to support and 

quickly develop their teams. The virtual learning centre is an 

open platform system, accessed via the website, which is 

easy to use, modular and each module is completely optional, 

which means the system can be tailored to suit specific 

requirements and time constraints. This wide ranging system 

is more than just a training tool it is easy to set up and use 

and can be accessed securely via the CICMOS website for a 

low annual subscription. 

RECRUITMENT 

PORTFOLIO 

CREDIT CONTROL 

Hays Credit Management 

107 Cheapside, London, EC2V 6DN 

T: 07834 260029 

E: karen.young@hays.com 

W: www.hays.co.uk/creditcontrol 

Hays Credit Management is working in partnership with the CICM 

and specialise in placing experts into credit control jobs and 

credit management jobs. Hays understands the demands of this 

challenging environment and the skills required to thrive within 

it. Whatever your needs, we have temporary, permanent and 

contract based opportunities to find your ideal role. Our candidate 

registration process is unrivalled, including face-to-face screening 

interviews and a credit control skills test developed exclusively 

for Hays by the CICM. We offer CICM members a priority service 

and can provide advice across a wide spectrum of job search and 

recruitment issues. 

ATTENTION 

PRODUCT 

& SERVICE 

PROVIDERS 

You can connect with them 

all now by having a listing in 

CreditWho. 

FOR JUST 

£1,247 + VAT per annum: 

- your business will be listed in 

Credit Management magazine, 

which goes out to all our 

members and subscribers and 

has an estimated readership of 

over 25,000. 

TO BOOK YOUR 

LISTING IN CREDITWHO CONTACT: 

ANTHONY CAVE ON: 020 3603 7934 

Portfolio Credit Control 

Portfolio Credit Control, New Liverpool House, 

15 Eldon Street, London, EC2M 7LD 

T: 0207 650 3199 

E: recruitment@portfoliocreditcontrol.com 

W: www.portfoliocreditcontrol.com 

Portfolio Credit Control, solely specialises in the recruitment of 

permanent, temporary and contract Credit Control, Accounts 

Receivable and Collections staff. Part of an award winning 

recruiter we speak to and meet credit controllers all day everyday 

understanding their skills and backgrounds to provide you with tried 

and tested credit control professionals. We have achieved enormous 

growth because we offer a uniquely specialist approach to our 

clients, with a commitment to service delivery that exceeds your 

expectations every single time. 


Puzzle by © 2012 Mirroreyes Internet Services Corporation. All Rights Reserved - CROSSWORD October 2017 

CREDIT CONUNDRUM 

NAME .................................................................................................................................... 

ADDRESS .............................................................................................................................. 

............................................................................................................................................... 

POST CODE .................................. TELEPHONE NUMBER ..................................................... 

The CICM is registered with the UK’s Information 

Commissioner under the Data Protection Act 1998 (the 

"Act"). All the data contained on this form, is held and 

processed electronically in accordance with the Act. 

The Institute holds and processes your personal data in 

order to give you the full benefits of being a member and for 

administrative purposes. 

We might from time to time notify you by post or email of 

details of CICM events or other similar CICM services or 

products which we think September be of interest to you. If 

you do not wish to receive such notification please 

tick here q 

MONTHLY PRIZE CROSSWORD 

For all email entries for the crossword please email: andrew.morris@cicm.com 

If you subsequently decide that you do not wish to 

receive such notifications please email the Institute at 

unsubscribe@cicm.com or write to the Data Controller at 

the address given below. 

The Data Protection Act gives you the right at any time to 

see a copy of all the data that we hold about you. If you 

would like a copy, please send a letter requesting this 

information together with a cheque for £10 payable to : 

The Chartered Institute of Credit Management 

to: Data Controller, CICM, The Water Mill, Station Road, 

South Luffenham, OAKHAM, LE15 8NB. 

£20 CROSSWORD PRIZE 

THREE PRIZES OF £20 DRAWN EVERY MONTH 

YOU NEED TO BE A MEMBER TO ENTER 

ACROSS: 

1. Bites 

5. Supplications 

10. Annoyance 

14. Bright thought 

15. Oblivion 

16. Dwarf buffalo 

17. Gar 

19. Russian emperor 

20. Glass container 

21. Foreword 

22. Country bumpkins 

23. Helps 

25. Rhinoceros 

27. Operative 

28. Temporary cessation 

31. Rinds 

34. Fine dinnerware 

35. Rechewed food 

36. Competent 

DOWN: 

1. Martial arts expert 

2. Anagram of "Aside" 

3. Equals 

4. Unhappy 

5. A full supply 

6. Elevators (British) 

7. Arab chieftain 

8. Engrossing 

9. Comes after Mi and Fah 

10. Verdigris 

11. Settled 

12. Saturate 

13. Sailors 

18. Speech defects 

22. Hello 

24. Small island 

26. Female chickens 

28. Coming up 

29. Adorable 

37. Adolescents 

38. Celebration 

39. Foot digit 

40. Internment camp 

41. Bygone 

42. Unrestrained 

44. Consumed food 

45. Tall woody plants 

46. Demesnes 

50. A cheap cigar 

52. Make fun of 

54. Not in 

55. Rubber wheel 

56. Tableware 

58. Distinctive flair 

59. Fertile areas 

60. Smell 

61. Defrost 

62. Consecrate 

63. Being 

30. Biblical garden 

31. A Maori club 

32. Black, in poetry 

33. Relating to elections 

34. Heavenly 

37. Pipe 

38. Parasitic insect 

40. Midway between white and black 

41. Aquatic mammal 

43. Imperative 

44. Judge 

46. Roof overhangs 

47. Batrachians 

48. European currency 

49. Cubic meter 

50. Flower stalk 

51. Scrabble piece 

53. If not 

56. Weep 

57. Suffering 

CLOSING DATE: 12 OCTOBER 

LAST MONTH'S 

CROSSWORD WINNERS 

Jon Kennaway ACICM, Frank Carroll MCICM 

and Brian McGill MCICM(Grad) 

For the chance of winning £20, forward your completed solution to: 

Art Editor, Andrew Morris, Chartered Institute of Credit Management, 

The Water Mill, Station Road, South Luffenham, OAKHAM, LE15 8NB. 

Old TV Shows 1 - Word Search 

Find the words hidden in the grid of letters. 

H E E H A W Y M P F O D T D Z O E 

R F S N W V P D R M T F E O H T K 

S T U N H R S E O H A H K W A A O 

T W H L S O I A E O C V R B Z R M 

R I B G L S J W J T D O E M E Z S 

U N G P A H A R I L T Y M R L A N 

O P Z R V L O W A C Z X D B I N U 

C E F H T U E U O E N X I W H C G 

T A W O X B G D S L D C C N O L K 

H K N Q H H Q Y W E T P O O N H I 

G S Y L I M A F S M A D D A H A D 

I O G N T X C H I N A B E A C H M 

N A M T A B Y L P L X I L A P H N 

Y N N A N E H T O R O S E A N N E 

Large Print Word Search Puzzles 

http://www.puzzles.ca/large_print_word_search.html 

Copyright © 2012 Livewire Puzzles 

ADDAMS FAMILY 

BATMAN 

BEWITCHED 

CHINA BEACH 

COACH 

DEAR JOHN 

DOCTOR WHO 

FRASIER 

FULL HOUSE 

GUNSMOKE 

HAZEL 

HEE HAW 

HOWDY DOODY 

I SPY 

LAUGH IN 

MANNIX 

MAVERICK 

NIGHT COURT 

ROSEANNE 

TARZAN 

THE NANNY 

THE WALTONS 

TWIN PEAKS 


Abrand new 

way tosave face with your 

collections team. 

Coming soon. 

tel. +44 1634 812 300 

info@e-mailguardian.com 

e-mailguardian.com

Credit Management magazine October 2017

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?