Credit Management March 2020

INTERVIEW
AUTHOR – Sean Feast FCICM
the UK, so if a business isn’t there, then
it suggests there is a problem. Conversely,
if your name does appear, then you do
exist. The challenge then is how can we
compare a limited company at Companies
House with other sources (such as HMRC
or VAT data) to verify the business (and
its accounts) are genuine, when internal
government sources tend to rely on
Corporation Tax number (rather than
Companies House registration number)
as the identity spine?”
All legitimate businesses with a
turnover above £85,000, Jo says, have a
VAT footprint. One would also expect
legitimate businesses to have a certain
number of employees based on the size
of their turnover and balance sheet.
Information on employee numbers
contained in monthly payroll reports,
coupled with VAT registration information
could start to address the criticism that
is often levelled at CRAs – that their
information is historical and out of date.
In a world where we are used to instantly
available information, it is surely time
that official data on businesses kept up
with the pace.
“It’s a complex jigsaw and there
will always be loopholes, but some
loopholes could easily be closed,” she
continues. “One of the major issues
with Companies House data is that it
is publicly available – so in theory the
very source of data that is being used
to verify company information is freely
available to anyone on the internet. One
of the ways we could prevent fraud is
by using non-published data sets as
well as published data. Corporation Tax,
for example, is not publicly available, but
if we could link a company’s Corporation
Tax number to the Companies House
registration number, then this would help
enormously, and we still need to engage
with government to make our case.”
GOVERNMENT RELUCTANCE
Part of the reluctance from government
and others to make more information
available is centred around control. Jo does
not pretend that Company Watch, and
indeed all CRAs, do not have a commercial
interest, but more accurate scores
ultimately support a more successful
economy: “The implications to the wider
economy are significant,” she says, “and
could have far-reaching consequences.
It will make the procurement of larger
scale infrastructure projects less risky
and more accurate and support the
supply chain in longer-term contracts by
enabling firms to make better-informed
business decisions.” Company Watch
is a business that does not rest on its
laurels. The latest innovation is never
far away. Most recently it has created the
ability not only to turn ‘flat’ Companies
House data into ‘searchable’ text, but also
enable credit managers to search those
documents for virtually any information
they need. They are also actively looking
at developing country risk scoring for
businesses operating outside of the UK
to give further context to the decisionmaking
process, and how Open Banking
will impact the B2B space.
As a Corporate Partner to the Chartered
Institute of Credit Management, Jo is a
keen supporter of the CICM, and
particularly the CICM Think Tank:
“There have been some fascinating
presentations,” she says, “and the Think
Tank is probably the CICM’s best kept
secret!” Away from Company Watch,
Jo is the current chairman of BIPA –
the Business Information Providers
Association – an association united in its
desire to make the quality of information
better. Outside of work, she loves
travelling (she has recently returned from
Zapallar in Chile) and is a busy mum to
two young children: “They say when your
children are young the days are long, but
the years go by quickly,” she laughs.
So, what advice might she offer them
in the future? Remembering her younger
self, she is not sure that she would have
taken kindly to wise words dispensed
from a 39-year-old woman. With that
in mind she demurs from giving any
serious advice and recalls a quote from
Dumbledore, one of the key characters
in the Harry Potter series: “Youth cannot
know how age thinks and feels. But old
men are guilty if they forget what it was
to be young.”
Advancing the credit profession / www.cicm.com / March 2020 / PAGE 19