Credit Management Jan:Feb 2019

NEWS
IN BRIEF
CICM TO RELAUNCH
EAST SCOTLAND BRANCH
Loans to SMEs
There were 69,980 new loans and overdrafts
approved for a value of £7 billion in Q3
2018, according to UK Finance data. Banks
approved eight out of ten applications for
SME Finance. Cash held in both immediate
and notice accessible SME accounts
continue to rise. Mike Conroy, Director of
Commercial Finance at UK Finance says:
“Firms continue to build cash deposits and
demand for finance remains subdued and
steady across the UK’s regions and sectors,
suggesting businesses are exercising caution
in the face of future uncertainty. However,
some businesses are now increasing the use
of their agreed overdraft facilities in order to
manage current cashflow but not leveraging
these to their full capacity.”
ukfinance.org.uk
THE CICM is working on a new plan to
relaunch its East Scotland branch later
in the year, with training and networking
events at the top of the list.
The aim is to provide opportunities for
members to talk to like-minded credit
professionals and share experience and
best practice, as well as practical examples
of what has and hasn’t worked in member
organisations.
“We cannot do this without the continuing
support of our existing members and, we are
hoping, some new members too,” says the
CICM’s Claire Bishop. “This is your chance
to get involved and influence the CICM
membership offering and branch activity in
Scotland.”
Paul Taylor, CICM Regional Representative
for Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland,
adds: “We urge all those involved in credit
management and interested in helping
shape the future of credit in Scotland to
contact us and have your voices heard.
Whether you are a studying Member, Fellow,
Affiliate, Member or Associate (or not yet
a member) we want to hear from you.
Get in touch to find out more. There is no
commitment needed, we just want to hear
your ideas.”
If you have a passion for credit
management, call Paul on 028 7035 0682, or
email paul.taylor@lynasfoodservice.com, or
CICM headquarters at branches@cicm.com
or 01780 722903.
Cyber security
A Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) review
of investment managers and wholesale
banks has warned that the industry has only
a limited understanding of cyber risk. The
FCA said bosses tend to dump responsibility
on their IT departments and called for
firms to not see cyber security as the sole
responsibility of their IT function ‘but as a
part of a firm's activities and business as a
whole’. fca.org.uk
Board appointments
THE Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and
Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) Boards
have appointed new members to three
decision-making committees: the FCA’s
Competition Decisions Committee (CDC) and
the PSR’s Competition Decisions Committee
and Enforcement Decisions Committee
(EDC). The three committees are responsible
for taking certain competition law and
regulatory decisions when a settlement
cannot be reached. Lesley Ainsworth, Simon
Polito, David Thomas and Tim Tutton have
been appointed as members of the PSR’s EDC
and the FCA and PSR’s CDCs. Alasdair Smith
has been appointed a panel member of the
FCA’s CDC. fca.org.uk psr.org.uk
New Chair at
Stepchange
STEPCHANGE Debt Charity has a new
chairman in John Griffith-Jones following
the resignation of Sir Hector Sants last
October on his appointment as the Chair of
the new Single Financial Guidance Body.
Chris Stern has been acting as interim Chair
of StepChange Debt Charity for the past three
months. John Griffith-Jones was Chair of
the Financial Conduct Authority from 2013
to 2018, and of its subsidiary, the Payment
Systems Regulator. Before this, he worked at
KPMG from 1975 to 2012, becoming CEO and
subsequently Chairman and Senior Partner
of KPMG in the UK. He is Vice Chairman of
the National Numeracy Trust, and also holds
a number of other voluntary roles.
stepchange.org
PMI shows positive signs
FIGURES from the latest IHS Markit/
CIPS UK Manufacturing Purchasing
Managers’ Index for December 2018 show
strength and a dramatic improvement on
the performance of recent months, at a
six-month high of 54.2 – an impressive
leap forwards compared to November’s
seasonally adjusted 53.6; and even better
considering the disappointing 51.1 result in
October. It is also a strong result compared
to the faltering Eurozone figure of 51.4 for
the same period.
New business has increased steadily
SME confidence on the wane
RESEARCH commissioned by Dun &
Bradstreet suggests UK SME confidence in
future financial success is down 19 percent
compared to last year. The study found that
almost a third (32 percent) of respondents
have considered leaving the UK to increase
their chances of success.
The research also shows that late
payments have risen in the past year.
Cashflow remains a critical issue, with the
average amount owed to SMEs at any one
time over the past 12 months now at £80,141
– an increase of nearly 25 percent from 2017.
The consequences of these late payments
include cashflow difficulties (31 percent),
delayed payments to suppliers (28 percent)
and reduced profit performance (22 percent).
Nearly two thirds of respondents (63 percent)
feel that there should be financial penalties
in place to tackle late payments and 62
percent believe there should be legislation in
place to mitigate the problem.
Other factors cited as impacting the
future financial success of SMEs include
recruitment of the right talent and resources
(35 percent), adoption of new technology (26
percent) and ability to deal with increased
regulation such as the GDPR (20 percent).
since the drop in October, with increased
industry confidence apparent for the year
ahead. Stocks of purchases increased and
contributed to growth in the sector. New
orders are up at the highest for ten months,
coming from domestic and international
markets.
Cost pressures have also eased, with
input costs falling to the lowest for two and
a half months. However, output costs are
up, reflecting price increases being passed
on to customers and poor exchange rates.
news.ihsmarkit.com
Operating in an uncertain business
environment has had a clear impact on
SME business plans, with 63 percent
of respondents saying they had a clear
business strategy in place, down from 70
percent in 2017.
“Given the changing political, regulatory
and economic landscape, it’s unsurprising
that small business confidence is down,” says
Tim Vine, Head of European Trade Credit
at Dun & Bradstreet. “Despite the range of
factors at play, positively, over half of the
businesses we spoke to were confident that
their business can achieve financial growth
over the next five years. The resilience of
SMEs will stand them in very good stead
through these changing and complex times.”
dnb.co.uk
See our Town and
Country feature on
page 18.
The Recognised Standard / www.cicm.com / January / February 2019 / PAGE 6