Credit Management issue April 2021

PAYMENT TRENDS
A Little Ray of Light?
The latest payment performance statistics
show some signs of improvement.
AUTHOR – Rob Howard
LAST month’s late payment statistics
painted an increasingly worrying
picture. The latest figures, however,
show some signs of improvement
across the board to lift, at least
temporarily, some of the doom and
gloom caused by the pandemic. The average Days
Beyond Terms (DBT) across regions and sectors
reduced by 2.8 and 2.7 days respectively.
SECTOR SPOTLIGHT
The sector standings provide some room for
optimism, with 16 of the 22 sectors managing to
reduce their payment terms.
The Business from Home and Agriculture,
Forestry and Fishing sectors are the biggest
movers, with reductions of 9.3 and 9.2 days
respectively. Elsewhere, the Construction (-8.1
days), Energy Supply (-6.5 days) and Mining
and Quarrying (-5.2 days) also made significant
improvements. A reduction of 3.2 days means
that the Public Administration sector just pips
Health & Social to top spot in the standings with
an overall DBT of 10.2 days.
Unsurprisingly, Hospitality continues to suffer
more than any other sector, a further increase of
7.6 days means its overall DBT is now a staggering
43.3 days. Hotel, restaurant and café owners to
name but a few are all desperately counting down
to the lifting of restrictions which will allow them
to open their doors once again.
From a regional perspective,
things also look a little brighter,
with 10 of the 11 regions moving
in the right direction and making
reductions to payment terms.
The only increase came from
Northern Ireland (+0.2 days),
albeit a very marginal one.
REGIONAL SPOTLIGHT
From a regional perspective, things also look a
little brighter, with 10 of the 11 regions moving
in the right direction and making reductions
to payment terms. The only increase came
from Northern Ireland (+0.2 days), albeit a very
marginal one.
East Anglia and East Midlands,
previously the two worst performing
regions, made the biggest
improvement, with a reduction
of 6.1 days and 5.3 days
respectively to payment
terms. A reduction of 4.9
days means that Yorkshire
and Humberside is now
the best performing region
with an overall DBT of 15.2 days.
By Rob Howard
Advancing the credit profession / www.cicm.com / April 2021 / PAGE 42