Credit Management October 2022
THE CICM MAGAZINE FOR CONSUMER AND COMMERCIAL CREDIT PROFESSIONALS
THE CICM MAGAZINE FOR CONSUMER AND COMMERCIAL CREDIT PROFESSIONALS
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CREDIT MANAGEMENT<br />
CM<br />
OCTOBER <strong>2022</strong> £12.50<br />
THE CICM MAGAZINE FOR CONSUMER AND<br />
COMMERCIAL CREDIT PROFESSIONALS<br />
ELECTRIC<br />
DREAMS<br />
A chance to imagine<br />
a brave new world.<br />
How will the Cost-of-Living<br />
crisis impact fraud? Page 9<br />
What does the CICM Think Tank<br />
make of a world in crisis? Page 22
OCTOBER <strong>2022</strong><br />
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46<br />
INFLUENTIAL THINKING<br />
Simona Scarpaleggia<br />
42<br />
VIEW FROM THE SEAFRONT<br />
David Andrews<br />
CICM GOVERNANCE<br />
22<br />
THINK TANK<br />
Sean Feast FCICM<br />
President Stephen Baister FCICM / Chief Executive Sue Chapple FCICM<br />
Executive Board: Chair Debbie Nolan FCICM(Grad) / Vice Chair Phil Rice FCICM / Treasurer Glen Bullivant FCICM<br />
Larry Coltman FCICM / Neil Jinks FCICM / Allan Poole MCICM<br />
Advisory Council: Caroline Asquith-Turnbull FCICM / Laurie Beagle FCICM / Glen Bullivant FCICM /Brendan Clarkson FCICM<br />
Larry Coltman FCICM / Peter Gent FCICM(Grad) / Victoria Herd FCICM(Grad) / Andrew Hignett MCICM(Grad)<br />
Dave Hindle FCICM / Laural Jefferies FCICM / Neil Jinks FCICM / Martin Kirby FCICM / Charles Mayhew FCICM / Hans Meijer<br />
FCICM / Debbie Nolan FCICM(Grad) / Amanda Phelan MCICM(Grad) / Allan Poole MCICM / Phil Rice FCICM / Phil Roberts FCICM<br />
Chris Sanders FCICM / Paula Swain FCICM / Mark Taylor MCICM / Atul Vadher FCICM(Grad)<br />
View our digital version online at www.cicm.com. Log on to the Members’<br />
area, and click on the tab labelled ‘<strong>Credit</strong> <strong>Management</strong> magazine’<br />
<strong>Credit</strong> <strong>Management</strong> is distributed to the entire UK and international CICM<br />
membership, as well as additional subscribers<br />
Reproduction in whole or part is forbidden without specific permission. Opinions expressed in this magazine do<br />
not, unless stated, reflect those of the Chartered Institute of <strong>Credit</strong> <strong>Management</strong>. The Editor reserves the right to<br />
abbreviate letters if necessary. The Institute is registered as a charity. The mark ‘<strong>Credit</strong> <strong>Management</strong>’ is a registered<br />
trade mark of the Chartered Institute of <strong>Credit</strong> <strong>Management</strong>.<br />
Any articles published relating to English law will differ from laws in Scotland and Wales.<br />
10<br />
MONEY TALKS<br />
Sean Feast FCICM<br />
CONTENTS<br />
9 – MEANS TO DECEIVE<br />
How will the Cost-of-Living crisis impact<br />
fraud?<br />
10 – MONEY TALKS<br />
A Guide to the UK Government’s Funding<br />
of EV Charging and a chance to imagine a<br />
brave new world.<br />
16 – SILVER LINING<br />
Argentina derives its name from the Latin<br />
for Silver. But are there rich pickings for<br />
UK businesses?<br />
22 – THINK BIG<br />
What does the CICM Think Tank make of a<br />
world in crisis?<br />
34 – DEAL BREAKERS<br />
What do you need to know about the UK’s<br />
new National Security regime:<br />
42 – VIEW FROM THE SEAFRONT<br />
Is your house safe from Nuclear attack?<br />
46 – INFLUENTIAL THINKING<br />
Tackling unconscious bias by ‘un-biasing’<br />
processes.<br />
52 – THE TEACHER IN ALL OF US<br />
How one credit controller who decided<br />
against a teaching career, became a<br />
mentor to her credit team.<br />
Publisher<br />
Chartered Institute of <strong>Credit</strong> <strong>Management</strong><br />
1 Accent Park, Bakewell Road, Orton Southgate,<br />
Peterborough PE2 6XS<br />
Telephone: 01780 722900<br />
Email: editorial@cicm.com<br />
Website: www.cicm.com<br />
CMM: www.creditmanagement.org.uk<br />
Managing Editor<br />
Sean Feast FCICM<br />
Deputy Editor<br />
Iona Yadallee<br />
Art Editor<br />
Andrew Morris<br />
Telephone: 01780 722910<br />
Email: andrew.morris@cicm.com<br />
Editorial Team<br />
Imogen Hart, Rob Howard, Natalie Makin,<br />
Laura Rhodes, Sam Wilson and Mona Yazdanparast<br />
Advertising<br />
Paul Heitzman<br />
Telephone: 01727 739 196<br />
Email: paul@centuryone.uk<br />
Printers<br />
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<strong>2022</strong> subscriptions<br />
UK: £112 per annum<br />
International: £145 per annum<br />
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ISSN 0265-2099<br />
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Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 3
EDITOR’S COLUMN<br />
Sean Feast FCICM<br />
Managing Editor<br />
A Royal send off<br />
AS an Institute, justifiably<br />
proud of our Royal<br />
Charter, it is impossible to<br />
write a column this month<br />
without mentioning the<br />
death of Her Majesty the<br />
Queen. It is similarly impossible to do so<br />
in such a way that pays worthy tribute to<br />
such an exceptional person.<br />
All of us, I am sure, will have some fond<br />
memory of the Queen, either because we<br />
have been lucky enough to meet her or be in<br />
her orbit, albeit briefly, or simply because<br />
we are of a generation that remembers<br />
Jubilees and other celebrations, and the<br />
colourful notepads and pencils given to<br />
every schoolchild to commemorate each<br />
event.<br />
My earliest memory is of a rugby match<br />
played in the grounds of the Windsor<br />
estate almost 50 years ago when I was<br />
about seven. Minding my own business at<br />
the furthest end of the three-quarter line<br />
(I was a lightning fast winger and nothing<br />
ever got past me; at least in my dreams), I<br />
spied out of the corner of my eye a small<br />
lady on horseback, with a long beige<br />
coat and riding hat, with another rider<br />
alongside, and a Range Rover following<br />
discretely perhaps 25m behind. It was Her<br />
Majesty out for her daily ride, her love of<br />
horses widely known.<br />
Needless to say, I was looking completely<br />
the wrong way at the precise moment the<br />
ball finally drifted in my general direction<br />
(the centres were a selfish bunch), but<br />
after the initial shouting and protestations<br />
at my general incompetence (and a<br />
forward pass signalled by the ref, much to<br />
my amusement), the game seemed to stop<br />
as the other players looked to see where I<br />
was pointing. It’s a small and silly story in<br />
many ways, but in others it demonstrates<br />
the utter fascination and magnetism she<br />
held, and the impact on all of us young<br />
and old.<br />
Perhaps the monarchy is an anachronism,<br />
especially today. Perhaps it does need to<br />
change, and the former members of the<br />
‘imperial family’ are probably right to<br />
question its relevance in the modern era.<br />
But regardless of your views, even if you<br />
don’t respect the monarchy you can at least<br />
respect the person, and Her Majesty’s life<br />
was one of selfless and devoted service; the<br />
like of which we will never see again.<br />
CMNEWS<br />
A round-up of news stories from the<br />
world of consumer and commercial credit.<br />
Vulnerability Index shows consumers<br />
borrowing from necessity not choice<br />
HOUSEHOLDS are<br />
increasing their<br />
borrowing despite<br />
interest rate rises to<br />
meet the inflated cost of<br />
food and energy bills.<br />
Data from Lowell and the Urban<br />
Institute’s Financial Vulnerability<br />
Index (FVI) suggests that consumers<br />
are now borrowing out of necessity,<br />
rather than choice, and warns that<br />
with the energy price cap set to<br />
increase again in <strong>October</strong> and inflation<br />
predicted to hit 18.6 percent next<br />
year, households could be pushed to<br />
breaking point.<br />
John Pears, UK CEO at Lowell,<br />
says consumers need urgent help in<br />
reducing their costs: “The cost of living<br />
is increasing across the board and<br />
households are having to fork out more<br />
money to pay for essentials like food<br />
and bills. With the rising cost of living<br />
stretching budgets to their limit, people<br />
are turning to credit more and more.<br />
“For many now, a single income<br />
shock can be enough to push a<br />
household into problem debt. People<br />
need help, and the new government<br />
needs to take action to ensure<br />
households, especially the lowest<br />
incomes, get the support they need.<br />
With the recent changes to the price<br />
cap, bringing energy bills down has to<br />
be the priority. This needs to be at the<br />
PHILLIPS & Cohen Associates, a<br />
global leader in deceased account<br />
management and debt settlement<br />
servicing, has appointed Janneen<br />
Jackson to lead the latest of PCA’s<br />
technology launches, The Debt<br />
Settlement Registry (powered by<br />
SettleNOW).<br />
PCA’s proprietary platform, The<br />
Written by – Sean Feast FCICM<br />
top of the agenda.”<br />
Signe-Mary McKernan, Vice<br />
President at the Urban Institute,<br />
believes that while the share of adults<br />
claiming social benefits and using<br />
high-cost loans has declined, families<br />
are likely using credit to keep up with<br />
the increased cost of living: “Financial<br />
vulnerability is currently lower, but<br />
looking ahead, there are concerning<br />
signs that families in the UK may be<br />
balancing on the edge of a financial<br />
cliff,” she says.<br />
The new figures show that at 53<br />
percent, credit usage in Q2 <strong>2022</strong> was<br />
the highest it has been since the early<br />
months of the pandemic (Q1 2020).<br />
Consumer defaults are on the rise<br />
again, reversing the post-pandemic<br />
downward trend, and are up seven<br />
percent on the start of the Index.<br />
Payday lending continues to fall,<br />
suggesting that the doorstep lending<br />
industry is in a long-term decline as<br />
a result of regulatory interventions in<br />
the high-cost loans market. The share<br />
of adults with high-cost loans dropped<br />
from 14 percent (Q3 2021) to 11 percent<br />
(Q2 <strong>2022</strong>).<br />
The Financial Vulnerability Index<br />
uses proprietary Lowell data (from its<br />
9.5m Lowell UK customer accounts)<br />
and publicly available data to measure<br />
household financial vulnerability<br />
across the UK.<br />
PCA appoints new lead for<br />
Debt Settlement Registry roll out<br />
Debt Settlement Registry (DSR) is<br />
described as providing creditors and<br />
debt settlement agencies (DSA’s) with<br />
access to streamlined and strategic<br />
oversight of consistently growing<br />
debt settlement portfolios. Powered<br />
by SettleNOW, PCA’s settlement offer<br />
strategy engine, the DSR is currently<br />
integrated with 150+ DSA’s and top<br />
industry payment platforms. Using<br />
real-time business intelligence<br />
through Tableau, The DSR enhances<br />
and streamlines the end-to-end debt<br />
settlement process including offers,<br />
payments, and letters.<br />
Prior to joining PCA, Janneen served<br />
as VP of Operations and VP of Business<br />
Relationships at Americor.<br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 4 Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 5
NEWS ROUNDUP<br />
Law firm claims Bounce Back Loan<br />
fraud reveals ‘real inadequacies’ in<br />
Banking processes<br />
ONLY 15 percent of The Bounce Bank<br />
Loan Scheme (BBLS) fraud has<br />
been investigated by the National<br />
Investigation Service in the past<br />
two years, and ‘real inadequacies’ in<br />
Banking processes and controls have left the<br />
country with little chance of recovering lost<br />
money.<br />
The Bounce Bank Loan Scheme, common<br />
to other COVID related support schemes, was<br />
heavily targeted by fraudsters. It was argued<br />
by the previous Government that it was better<br />
to issue funds to businesses through the BBLS<br />
than to subject applicants to more stringent<br />
fraud checks.<br />
Data released by the Department of<br />
Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy has<br />
confirmed that The National Investigation<br />
Service has, in the two years since September<br />
2020, only opened investigations into £160m in<br />
BBLS fraud, whilst £1.1bn in BBLS is suspected<br />
to be fraudulent.<br />
Sam Tate, White Collar Crime Partner at RPC,<br />
the international law firm says that he expects<br />
this figure of £1.1bn in reported BBLS fraud to<br />
increase over time.<br />
Under BBLS £46.6bn was distributed to 1.6m<br />
recipients. While there is some variation across<br />
financial institutions as to the proportion of<br />
defaulted loans comprising suspected fraud,<br />
again, these figures are expected to rise as<br />
internal investigations continue.<br />
While lenders have reported preventing over<br />
£2.2bn of fraudulent applications, it remains<br />
unclear as to the total amount of fraudulent<br />
funds being successfully recovered.<br />
“What this shows is not only the huge<br />
ONS data shows parents twice as likely to have<br />
borrowed more and to be behind on bills<br />
THE Office for National Statistics<br />
(ONS) has published an article on<br />
parenting and spending that shows<br />
parents are bearing the brunt of the<br />
cost-of-living crisis.<br />
Sarah Coles, senior personal finance<br />
analyst, Hargreaves Lansdown, says<br />
that around two in five parents are<br />
spending less on groceries, and two<br />
thirds are cutting back on nonessentials:<br />
“Despite this, they’re twice<br />
as likely to have run up more debts to<br />
cover rising costs, and twice as likely<br />
amount of fraud perpetrated during lockdown<br />
but also real inadequacies in systems and<br />
controls at many banks, as previously<br />
identified in FCA enforcement activity,” Sam<br />
says.<br />
“Where the banks seem to have fallen down<br />
is in not adapting and implementing antimoney<br />
laundering and fraud checks quickly<br />
enough. Now we are left with a mess and there<br />
is little chance of recovering lost money.<br />
“Next time the Government needs to be<br />
quicker to use all of the resources, including<br />
those of the private sector to stop and pursue<br />
this fraud at the earliest point.”<br />
Sam claims that the more egregious<br />
and coordinated the fraud, the lesser<br />
likelihood of recovery, as many of the<br />
fraudsters reside abroad and are members<br />
of online criminal gangs: “To really tackle<br />
the industrial scale of fraud we now<br />
see, we need a coordinated approach,”<br />
he continues. “This must include<br />
authorities in financial centres such as<br />
Dubai around e-payments and the<br />
increasing the use of crypto to hide<br />
ownership.<br />
“It is also of deep concern that the<br />
replacement to Action Fraud, which<br />
the Government has deemed is not fit for<br />
purpose, is not being put in place until some<br />
point during 2024. As Rob Jones, the Director<br />
of the NECC (National Economic Crime<br />
Council) said recently in relation to fraud, the<br />
current response is ‘just not good enough.’ It<br />
remains to be seen if sufficient funding will be<br />
put in place to deal with fraud. If not, we will<br />
continue to see exponential growth.”<br />
to be behind on their energy bills,” she<br />
says.<br />
The HL Savings & Resilience<br />
Barometer, produced with Oxford<br />
Economics, found last month that<br />
when compared to non-parents at the<br />
same income level, parents are less<br />
resilient in almost every area. Those<br />
on average incomes are roughly half<br />
as likely to have enough cash left over<br />
at the end of the month (25 percent vs<br />
52 percent) or enough in savings (38<br />
percent v 71 percent).<br />
The Barometer also found that<br />
parents face an incredibly difficult<br />
12 months ahead. For the average<br />
earner, the proportion with enough in<br />
savings will plummet from 64 percent<br />
to 28 percent and those with enough<br />
cash left at the end of the month<br />
will drop from 25 percent to just one<br />
percent. For parents on the lowest<br />
incomes the position looks incredibly<br />
worrying, because none of them will<br />
have enough surplus cash, and just 13<br />
percent will have enough in savings.<br />
PERCENTAGE OF<br />
PAYMENTS TO BALANCE<br />
NEWS ROUNDUP<br />
CICM to Develop and Teach<br />
HCEOA Accreditations<br />
THE High Court Enforcement Officers<br />
Association (HCEOA) is making it<br />
easier for aspiring enforcement<br />
officers to learn on the job whilst<br />
receiving an Ofqual regulated<br />
qualification.<br />
As part of a new deal with the<br />
HCEOA, the CICM will assess and<br />
revamp the Level 4 diploma and<br />
all learning materials utilised, as<br />
well as creating a new certificate<br />
for the practical experience<br />
required to become a High<br />
Court Enforcement Officer.<br />
As part of the new<br />
programme, the HCEOA<br />
is seeking to attract a raft<br />
of new candidates, many<br />
of who, it is hoped, will<br />
be younger applicants<br />
looking to make the move<br />
to the industry or widen<br />
their existing skillsets. One<br />
sector the HCEOA is keen to<br />
penetrate is the existing pool<br />
of lawyers working within<br />
the credit industry and often<br />
working side-by-side with<br />
debt collection agencies and<br />
HCEO’s.<br />
Chris Badger, HCEOA board<br />
member and Chair of the<br />
HCEOA Education Committee,<br />
said: “Thanks to the<br />
partnership we can now<br />
ensure all our learners<br />
THIS is currently at an all-time high with<br />
over 40 percent of the balance being paid<br />
each month and has risen by 10 percent<br />
since just 2021, again because many<br />
consumers have more savings they<br />
can tap into. This percentage has been<br />
increasing steadily over the past few<br />
years but back when the financial crisis<br />
hit, around 25 percent of the balance was<br />
being paid each month.<br />
Over the next few months, it is<br />
expected that this percentage will drop,<br />
and this will affect average credit card<br />
balances. Will the practices necessary to<br />
manage persistent indebtedness cause<br />
a false impression if more customers are<br />
forced towards minimum payments and<br />
are therefore moved out of cards to other<br />
products, or migrate to using ‘Buy Now<br />
Pay Later’?<br />
are getting the best learning materials<br />
available as well as regulating the<br />
practical experience as part of their<br />
journey to becoming High Court<br />
Enforcement Officers.<br />
“In addition, we now have the<br />
opportunity to recruit new officers<br />
outside of our existing pool of talent,<br />
to encourage a new generation<br />
of HCEOs to join the profession<br />
and encourage others already<br />
working in credit to widen<br />
their skills.”<br />
As well as welcome<br />
new students, the CICM<br />
along with the HCEOA<br />
will migrate all existing<br />
students studying with<br />
the HCEOA onto the<br />
new programme once<br />
complete to ensure a smooth<br />
transition and no loss of time<br />
or opportunity.<br />
❝<br />
“Thanks to the partnership we can<br />
now ensure all our learners are<br />
getting the best learning materials<br />
available.’’<br />
❝<br />
AVERAGE SPEND<br />
BEFORE the financial crisis of 2008-2009,<br />
average spend had been rising with the<br />
same increasing trend seen before the<br />
pandemic hit. During 2008-2009 and in<br />
the first year of the pandemic, spend<br />
dropped with a higher decrease during<br />
the pandemic because of the lockdowns.<br />
Increased savings and the relaxation<br />
of restrictions resulted in a steep<br />
increase in spend between 2021-<strong>2022</strong><br />
but if we look back to 2009, this uptick<br />
in spend was also seen and continued<br />
up until 2012. At this point, regulations<br />
were being implemented giving the<br />
consumer more ‘rights’ and improved<br />
customer control. This impacted credit<br />
card limits as issuers were not allowed<br />
to automatically increase a customer’s<br />
credit limit but had to offer the increase,<br />
and greater emphasis was placed on<br />
whether the customer could afford this<br />
increase to their limit.<br />
> CICMQ<br />
NEWS<br />
Wesco Anixter’s<br />
successful assessment<br />
THE Wesco Anixter credit team<br />
met in person for the first time in<br />
two years for their annual credit<br />
meeting at their Sheffield offices in<br />
August. CICM Head of Accreditation,<br />
Karen Tuffs FCICM(Grad) joined Lisa<br />
Humphries MCICM, Regional <strong>Credit</strong><br />
Manager and the team to present<br />
Wesco Anixter’s third CICMQ reaccreditation<br />
having first securing<br />
the credit and collections industry’s<br />
flagship best practice award in 2014.<br />
Wesco Anixter’s successful<br />
assessment was completed in<br />
December 2021 against the backdrop<br />
of the pandemic and preparations<br />
for the Wesco Anixter merger,<br />
completed in June <strong>2022</strong>. Colleagues<br />
from Sheffield, Manchester,<br />
Bracknell and Dublin enjoyed an<br />
action packed three days, working<br />
on their credit roadmap, receiving<br />
their CICMQ award and finishing<br />
with Jules Eames, FCICM(Grad)<br />
PGCE, CICMs Resource and Content<br />
Manager, delivering the CICM's <strong>Credit</strong><br />
Bootcamp training. Lisa and the team<br />
are clearly busy working on honing<br />
their best practice skills even further<br />
to go for a prestigious fifth award.<br />
Huge congratulations to Wesco<br />
Anixter<br />
CICMQ award<br />
presentation<br />
CICM’s Head of Accreditation,<br />
Karen Tuffs FCICM(Grad) met the<br />
Edrington-Beam Suntory UK team<br />
in a unique location for their CICMQ<br />
award presentation...in a bar!<br />
Anne Marie Valentini MCICM,<br />
<strong>Credit</strong> Manager, Neville Ross,<br />
Supply Chain and Finance Director,<br />
Laura Dickson, Financial Accounts<br />
Manager and members of the<br />
Finance, Supply Chain and Marketing<br />
teams gathered in the UK’s premier<br />
supplier of whiskies in their office in<br />
central Glasgow.<br />
Edrington secured its first CICMQ<br />
accreditation in March 2021 following<br />
Anne Marie’s arrival in 2018 when<br />
she set her sights on developing the<br />
team’s best practice in all things<br />
credit. The celebration held in the<br />
on-site bar (coffee refreshment only,<br />
it was 11.00am!) gave the team the<br />
official acknowledgement of the<br />
success they worked hard to earn.<br />
Sincere congratulations to Anne<br />
Marie and the team.<br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 6 Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 7
RESEARCHERS at the Institute for<br />
Public Policy Research (IPPR) have<br />
reacted angrily to the Government’s<br />
emergency energy policy<br />
announcement and slammed the profits<br />
made by energy businesses as ‘morally<br />
indefensible’.<br />
Dr George Dibb, Head of the Centre<br />
for Economic Justice at IPPR, says that<br />
an expanded windfall tax is not only<br />
fair but essential to help pay for the<br />
new policy: “Freezing energy prices<br />
is necessary, but energy companies<br />
will still be making record profits and<br />
it is morally indefensible that these<br />
profits are underwritten by the state<br />
whilst households carry the burden and<br />
continue to struggle with high prices,”<br />
he says.<br />
“It is good to see the Prime Minister<br />
ditching the free-market rhetoric of<br />
the campaign and getting to grips<br />
with the scale of the emergency we<br />
face. Capping energy prices will keep<br />
inflation down and support household<br />
incomes, potentially holding off a<br />
damaging recession. But the PM must<br />
avoid combining it with costly and<br />
regressive tax cuts. This will waste<br />
the inflation-busting potential of price<br />
caps and will likely prompt the Bank of<br />
England to raise interest rates further<br />
still.”<br />
On the need to pivot to cheaper,<br />
cleaner and more secure energy sources<br />
Joshua Emden, IPPR senior research<br />
fellow, believes that reintroducing<br />
fracking and expanding oil and gas<br />
drilling is a waste of time and money<br />
and out of step with the public: “It will<br />
not only undermine our net-zero target,<br />
but there is much less economically<br />
viable gas than its proponents claim,” he<br />
says. “The so-called ‘treasure under our<br />
feet’ is actually fool’s gold.”<br />
“Freezing the price cap while cutting<br />
green levies is incredibly short-sighted<br />
and counterproductive. The kinds of<br />
NEWS SPECIAL<br />
IPPR claims scale of action<br />
on energy is laudable but<br />
‘morally indefensible’<br />
technologies these levies support like<br />
insulation for low-income housing and<br />
renewable generation are absolutely<br />
essential to cutting bills and getting the<br />
UK off gas. These technologies have<br />
never been the problem, they are the<br />
solution.”<br />
On the need for more targeted<br />
support for low-income families Rachel<br />
Statham, IPPR associate director for<br />
work and the welfare state, says there<br />
need to be more targeted support for<br />
low-income families: “Freezing the<br />
price cap at £2,500 will help scores<br />
of people across the country, but we<br />
must not forget that typical bills have<br />
already nearly doubled from <strong>October</strong><br />
last year, when they were set by the<br />
price cap at £1,277. Millions of people<br />
were struggling to pay their bills then<br />
and there are now many more for whom<br />
energy costs are simply unaffordable.<br />
“We urge the Government to deliver<br />
this support through the benefits<br />
system to ensure it is targeted, reliable,<br />
and sufficient to keep families afloat<br />
this winter.”<br />
Richard Lane, Director of External<br />
Affairs at StepChange Debt Charity<br />
agrees: “The relative relief that<br />
households will feel at the news that<br />
their immediate energy prices will be<br />
capped at current levels can’t mask<br />
the fact that many people are already<br />
struggling at current prices. For people<br />
managing debt, this will impact their<br />
ability to address their wider financial<br />
problems.<br />
“We urge the Government to ensure<br />
that for targeted households with the<br />
least financial resilience – at least those<br />
in receipt of means-tested benefits –<br />
there should be no future clawback<br />
of the support offered now. Benefits<br />
should also be uprated this Autumn to<br />
help address the wider cost of living<br />
pressures that are disproportionately<br />
affecting those on low incomes.”<br />
“The Chartered Institute of <strong>Credit</strong> <strong>Management</strong> is deeply<br />
saddened by the passing of her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.<br />
The thoughts of everyone at CICM are with all the Royal<br />
Family at this time.’’<br />
>NEWS<br />
IN BRIEF<br />
Sitting comfortably<br />
LOWELL Group has appointed Clodagh<br />
Gunnigle as Non-Executive Director<br />
(NED) to the company’s UK board.<br />
As part of her role at Lowell, Clodagh<br />
will become Chair of the UK Audit<br />
and Risk Committee. Until recently,<br />
Clodagh was Group Chief Risk Officer<br />
at Arrow Global PLC. Prior to her role at<br />
Arrow she spent 13 years at GE Capital<br />
International, including as Chief<br />
<strong>Credit</strong> Officer. Clodagh is also a NED<br />
at Alpha Bank London, a private bank<br />
specialising in real estate investment,<br />
deposits, and investments to high-networth<br />
clients.<br />
Acquis appointment<br />
ACQUIS has appointed Richard Briscoe<br />
as Director, Business Development and<br />
General Manager of the Netherlands<br />
office. Joining from Close Finance CI,<br />
where he held the role of Managing<br />
Director, he has almost 20 years of<br />
leadership experience. As well as<br />
General Manager responsibilities for<br />
the Netherlands business, Briscoe<br />
will have a sales focus in the Benelux<br />
and Nordic regions, and will report<br />
into Chief Commercial Officer, James<br />
Rudolf.<br />
FIS to provide payment<br />
automation to members<br />
AS part of a new partnership with the<br />
CICM, payment fintech FIS will enable<br />
members to access its new GETPAID<br />
Solution to integrate automation into<br />
their order-to-cash (O2C) cycle.<br />
FIS built the web-based system as<br />
a way to help credit teams improve<br />
efficiencies in their O2C cycles using<br />
AI technology, whilst providing new<br />
levels of reporting and data analysis<br />
with cross border functionality in over<br />
50 countries across the globe.<br />
For members, the new tool will<br />
integrate with existing systems within<br />
their business and function in any<br />
active market thanks to cloud-based<br />
technology.<br />
OPINION<br />
Means to Deceive<br />
How will the Cost-of-Living crisis impact fraud?<br />
I<br />
am sure that I am preaching<br />
to the converted here but the<br />
current cost-of-living crisis is not<br />
just a personal crisis, it is also<br />
having a major impact across all<br />
businesses. Hardly a day goes<br />
by without some form of strike hitting<br />
the press and in the absence of a cap on<br />
energy prices for businesses, many of us<br />
are in for a tough winter.<br />
With supply chain disruptions and<br />
volatile markets, it is understandable<br />
that fraud may not be on the top of our<br />
minds right now, but we really do need to<br />
be prepared. The Association of Certified<br />
Fraud Examiners (ACFE) have estimated<br />
that organisations lose five percent of<br />
their revenue to fraud each year and this<br />
is money you can’t afford to lose in the<br />
current economic climate.<br />
There is a perfect storm happening<br />
when taking into consideration the COVID<br />
pandemic, changes to working practices<br />
and patterns, and the heightened cyber<br />
security risks due to the war in Ukraine.<br />
Times of crisis translate directly into<br />
times of opportunity for the fraudster. We<br />
have seen this during the pandemic with<br />
substantial frauds targeting government<br />
business support schemes and with<br />
increased phishing attacks targeting both<br />
businesses and individuals.<br />
Those who work directly in fraud<br />
risk management will be familiar with<br />
the fraud triangle, where the three<br />
edges are motivation, opportunity, and<br />
rationalisation. Eliminate any of these<br />
factors and fraud can’t occur. Motivation<br />
and rationalisation are already enhanced;<br />
the combination of high interest rates<br />
and soaring energy prices means that<br />
committing fraud may become more<br />
tempting for some. I would say that<br />
opportunities are also increasing; the shift<br />
to working from home has opened new<br />
risks and from the criminal’s perspective,<br />
developments in technology are making it<br />
easier to conduct fraud.<br />
IN A TIME OF CRISIS<br />
I have always maintained that humans<br />
are the weakest link in the chain when it<br />
comes to managing fraud risk. When we<br />
are under pressure, either in our personal<br />
lives or within the work environment,<br />
we become more susceptible. A recent<br />
example is the case of Ramesh ‘Sunny’<br />
Balwani, a Silicon Valley executive who<br />
has been found guilty of deceiving<br />
investors.<br />
AUTHOR – Darren Hodder<br />
Over the last few years there has been<br />
a worrying trend for fraud via Authorised<br />
Push Payments. This is where the fraudster<br />
manages to persuade an individual to<br />
make a direct payment transfer from their<br />
bank account. It is often associated with<br />
impersonation of bank staff, romance<br />
scams and advance fee scams. Worryingly<br />
for businesses, there is an increasing<br />
trend for CEO impersonation. It can come<br />
via spoof emails, hijacked email accounts,<br />
but more recently via telephone calls<br />
making use of deepfake technologies.<br />
Anyone who has been watching the recent<br />
TV drama ‘The Capture’ will be familiar<br />
with an extreme version of this. Although<br />
it is a work of fiction and taken to an<br />
extreme, the tools and techniques are very<br />
real.<br />
❝<br />
According to Cifas,<br />
staff fraud is increasing<br />
and, more specifically,<br />
there is a rise in theft of<br />
IT equipment. This may<br />
be due to reduced controls<br />
to monitor staff who are<br />
working in a remote or<br />
hybrid environment. There<br />
have also been examples<br />
of staff exiting a business<br />
and not returning items<br />
provided to them.<br />
❝<br />
The latest annual fraud report from<br />
UK Finance makes for some pretty grim<br />
reading: authorised Push Payment fraud<br />
has now overtaken payment card fraud<br />
to become the biggest fraud type by<br />
financial loss and this is despite public<br />
awareness campaigns such as Take<br />
Five plus enhanced measures by the<br />
banks to validate the name of the payee<br />
(rather than accepting just a valid sort<br />
code and account number). Additionally,<br />
the CEO variation of the fraud is on the<br />
increase, and I expect this to continue.<br />
According to Abnormal Security, it<br />
would seem that criminals are not only<br />
impersonating CEOs but they are also<br />
impersonating vendors and suppliers.<br />
With so many types of deception and<br />
impersonation going on, it seems to<br />
me that we really must keep on top of<br />
education and awareness within our<br />
teams, especially those who have access to<br />
banking facilities and, of course, anyone<br />
within credit.<br />
INTERNAL FRAUD<br />
Staff fraud can happen at any time but<br />
there is a danger that we could see an<br />
increase as a direct result of the cost-ofliving<br />
crisis. Employees may become<br />
disgruntled or they may feel self-justified<br />
as the effects of inflation take their<br />
toll. According to Cifas, staff fraud is<br />
increasing and, more specifically, there is<br />
a rise in theft of IT equipment. This may<br />
be due to reduced controls to monitor<br />
staff who are working in a remote or<br />
hybrid environment. There have also<br />
been examples of staff exiting a business<br />
and not returning items provided to them.<br />
If your organisation supports remote<br />
and hybrid working and has not<br />
undertaken a fraud risk review in recent<br />
times, then now may be a good time to do<br />
so. Although remote and hybrid working<br />
brings many advantages, it can bring<br />
unexpected consequences, not only in<br />
terms of fraud risk but also data protection<br />
and security in general.<br />
COLLABORATION AND RESOURCES<br />
Whilst I have outlined many problems<br />
and challenges, there are some positive<br />
things happening within the counter<br />
fraud community. Within the Fraud<br />
Prevention Network, for example, we have<br />
a range of existing and new partners who<br />
can offer advice and specialist solutions<br />
and I am pleased that our forum has the<br />
full support and backing of the CICM.<br />
Through our quarterly meetings, our<br />
members share experiences and collaboratively<br />
we seek to work with specialists to<br />
help prevent fraud and raise awareness.<br />
The next meeting is scheduled for 17<br />
November. Forums International also<br />
publishes a regular Fraud Digest’ that<br />
highlights current trends, provides<br />
access to relevant reports, publications,<br />
and disseminates thought leadership<br />
blogs. Darren Hodder is Chair, Fraud<br />
Prevention Network at Forums<br />
International.<br />
darrenhodder@forumsinternational.co.uk<br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 8 Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 9
OPINION<br />
OPINION<br />
MONEY TALKS<br />
A Guide to the UK Government’s Funding of EV Charging<br />
and a chance to imagine a brave new world.<br />
AUTHOR – Sean Feast FCICM<br />
AUTHOR – Sean Feast FCICM<br />
❝<br />
“Those responsible for delivering charging infrastructure need to have<br />
quite a detailed level of knowledge simply to know the right people – and the<br />
right questions – to ask to arrive at the solution they need.”<br />
THE transition to zero emission vehicles (ZEVs)<br />
is in full swing and will ultimately support<br />
the UK in achieving its agreed climate change<br />
targets. The arguments are already well-rehearsed<br />
and the benefits clear. Not only will<br />
it help improve air quality in the country’s<br />
towns and cities, but it will also support economic growth.<br />
With the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans to<br />
cease by 2030, and with all new cars and vans being fully<br />
zero emission ‘at the tailpipe’ from 2035, the missing part<br />
of the jigsaw is the infrastructure that will support the<br />
‘revolution’ the Government hopes to bring about.<br />
In its spending review of 2020, The Johnson Government<br />
committed an additional £620 million to support the<br />
transition to EVs by way of targeted grants with a particular<br />
emphasis on local on-street residential chargepoints and<br />
targeted plug-in vehicle grants. It brings the total committed<br />
to vehicle grants and infrastructure to £2.5 billion.<br />
The challenge, it seems, is therefore not the money, nor<br />
the appetite among the country’s leaders to bring about<br />
significant change. The challenge rests more in those<br />
responsible for delivering that change, which aside from the<br />
private sector falls predominantly among local authorities.<br />
ROLE OF LOCAL AUTHORITIES<br />
The EV Infrastructure strategy is setting clear expectations<br />
for major stakeholders, making local authorities responsible<br />
for planning and implementation. It is local authorities who<br />
understand the transport needs of their local population<br />
and are therefore best placed to make the right decisions<br />
on what is needed and where for local people and local<br />
businesses.<br />
So what are the funding schemes available to those<br />
local authorities seeking to embrace the Government’s<br />
revolutionary mindset? How can they be accessed? And<br />
what are the qualifying criteria? In very simple terms, the<br />
available funding is broken down into four convenient<br />
schemes:<br />
• On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme<br />
• Workplace Charging Scheme<br />
• EV chargepoint grants for homes<br />
• Local EV Infrastructure Fund<br />
ON-STREET SCHEME<br />
Residents who have no access to private, off-street parking<br />
are immediately challenged in their adoption of a new<br />
Electric Vehicle. It is for this reason that the Government<br />
has created the On-Street Residential Chargepoint Scheme<br />
(ORCS), a scheme that provides funding towards the capital<br />
costs of installing public charging infrastructure for<br />
residents without private parking. Available to all UK local<br />
authorities it supports installations both on-street and in<br />
local authority-owned residential car parks. In the financial<br />
year <strong>2022</strong> to 2023, £20 million is being made available<br />
through ORCS.<br />
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continues on page 12 >
OPINION<br />
OPINION<br />
AUTHOR – Sean Feast FCICM<br />
AUTHOR – Sean Feast FCICM<br />
WORKPLACE SCHEME<br />
The Workplace Charging Scheme (WCS) is<br />
a voucher-based scheme open to all local<br />
authorities that provides support towards the<br />
upfront costs of the purchase and installation<br />
of EV chargepoints that are dedicated to staff<br />
or fleet use. The scheme provides up to £350 for<br />
each chargepoint socket installed at a site, with<br />
applicants being able to receive up to 40 grants.<br />
In <strong>2022</strong>, the WCS will be opened to small<br />
accommodation businesses and the charity<br />
sector. The Government hopes this will help to<br />
accelerate EV uptake in rural areas and support<br />
the UK tourist industry. Additional help will<br />
also be provided to small and medium-sized<br />
enterprises to fund their staff or fleet carparks.<br />
With WCS, up to £350 per chargepoint is being<br />
made available up to a maximum of 40 grants<br />
(i.e a maximum of £14,000). A new fund, worth<br />
up to £15,000 per site, will similarly be created to<br />
boost the help Government gives SMEs to install<br />
chargepoints for their staff and fleets.<br />
GRANTS FOR HOMES<br />
To accelerate the provision of chargepoints<br />
in flats and rental accommodation, the Government<br />
launched the Electric Vehicle Homecharge<br />
Scheme (EVHS) so that authorities<br />
that own social housing will be able to apply to<br />
the EV chargepoint grant for landlords. This will<br />
provide grants of up to £350 towards the cost of<br />
purchasing and installing a chargepoint, with<br />
up to 200 grants a year available for each local<br />
authority (i.e. a maximum of £70,000 per local<br />
authority).<br />
Additional support will be available later<br />
in <strong>2022</strong> for local authorities to help install EV<br />
chargepoints in residential apartment block<br />
parking spaces. The EV chargepoint grant for<br />
residential carparks will provide grants of up<br />
to £30,000 towards the cost of installing EV<br />
chargepoints in such properties.<br />
LOCAL EV INFRASTRUCTURE<br />
(LEVI) FUND<br />
Arguably the most important of all of the<br />
support available to local authorities is the £450<br />
million Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) Fund.<br />
The fund is designed to help local authorities<br />
leverage private sector investment into their<br />
local charging networks and create long-term,<br />
sustainable charging infrastructure solutions.<br />
While it is the most important, the fund is still<br />
largely experimental in nature, and subject to<br />
an initial £10 million pilot.<br />
To apply for the fund, the applicant must<br />
either be a local authority, or a partnership<br />
or consortium led by a local authority within<br />
England<br />
They must be planning an electric vehicle<br />
charging infrastructure project that supports<br />
the transition to EV use in a local area, with a<br />
particular focus on provision for those without<br />
off-street parking or will provide an improvement<br />
❝<br />
The work of<br />
electricity<br />
network<br />
operators to<br />
upgrade the<br />
electricity<br />
network along<br />
motorways and<br />
A-roads will be<br />
vital to the<br />
rollout of<br />
ultra-rapid<br />
chargepoints.<br />
❝<br />
in accessible EV charging provision that would<br />
not otherwise be met by current or planned<br />
EV chargepoint infrastructure. It must also<br />
demonstrate ‘innovation’ – which could be<br />
either ‘technical’ innovation or ‘commercial’<br />
innovation and smart thinking in how the<br />
project is delivered.<br />
Value for money<br />
Those applying must also be able to demonstrate<br />
how the project will be delivered successfully and<br />
the value for money the project offers, including<br />
how the project minimises taxpayer funding<br />
and maximises private sector investment.<br />
In terms of the technologies employed, the<br />
project must demonstrate a ‘fit for purpose’<br />
approach that includes: on-street slow and fast<br />
chargepoints; rapid chargepoints, if installed as<br />
part of a wider project that includes on-street<br />
slow and fast chargepoints; and solar canopies<br />
and battery storage. All new chargepoints must<br />
also have a minimum payment method (a nonproprietary<br />
and non-phone payment method,<br />
such as contactless) installed.<br />
Given the value of the pilot, it is expected that<br />
this will provide for anything up to eight new<br />
schemes to be trialled, with a particular focus on<br />
new Hubs to address the needs of those without<br />
off-street parking. Given the increasingly<br />
commercial nature of rapid charging,<br />
with an average of 100 new rapid chargers<br />
added to the UK network every month<br />
during 2021, it is not expected that rapidonly<br />
projects will be funded through the<br />
pilot.<br />
Eligible costs<br />
The LEVI funding does not simply include<br />
the purchase cost of the charging unit. It<br />
will also include wireless charging and<br />
other hardware costs associated with the<br />
installation, for example, gullies, solar<br />
canopies or battery storage. The fund<br />
will also cover the cost of associated electrical<br />
connection components including<br />
distribution network operator (DNO) connection<br />
costs, smart charging and vehicle<br />
to grid technology costs, alongside the<br />
cost of civil engineering works related to<br />
the installation. Labour costs would be included<br />
and, where applicable, the capital<br />
costs of a parking bay and traffic regulation<br />
orders (TROs) for example paint and<br />
signage<br />
Chargepoints and any associated<br />
infrastructure which is part of the project<br />
must be maintained for a minimum of<br />
seven years after installation.<br />
RAPID CHARGING FUND<br />
The £950 million Rapid Charging Fund<br />
is designed to ensure that there is an<br />
ultra rapid charging network along<br />
motorways and major A-roads ready to<br />
meet the long-term consumer demand<br />
for electric vehicle chargepoints ahead<br />
of need. It will be available to fund a<br />
portion of costs at strategic sites where<br />
upgrading connections to the electricity<br />
grid is prohibitively expensive and<br />
uncommercial.<br />
In the shorter term, Government is<br />
working with industry to ensure that<br />
every motorway service area in England<br />
has at least six ultra-rapid chargepoints<br />
by the end of 2023, including through the<br />
Green Recovery Scheme, which is providing<br />
network upgrades at over 50 service<br />
stations.<br />
The work of electricity network operators<br />
to upgrade the electricity network<br />
along motorways and A-roads will be<br />
vital to the rollout of ultra-rapid chargepoints.<br />
The Government is therefore encouraging<br />
local authorities to work positively<br />
and proactively with electricity<br />
network operators on all works related to<br />
this project.<br />
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AN INDUSTRY VIEW<br />
The drive towards an electric future has<br />
steadily accelerated from being the stuff<br />
of imagination to one of reality. Over<br />
the last decade, the funding landscape<br />
has gradually evolved from one that was<br />
principally focused on seed funding to<br />
inspire and encourage innovation, through<br />
to one that features a ‘standard’ model of<br />
grants and subsidies, and that will also<br />
support consultancies in delivering bestin-class<br />
products and services to local<br />
authorities and, ultimately, the general<br />
public.<br />
Put simply, EV infrastructure funding<br />
that once sought to promote disruption,<br />
is now shifting to one that supports a<br />
more mature and established sector. And<br />
generally speaking, there is sufficient<br />
funding available to help the UK achieve<br />
its net zero target by 2050.<br />
CONFRONTING THE<br />
CHALLENGES AHEAD<br />
That’s not to say that there aren’t challenges<br />
with the monies being made available<br />
currently, or how local authorities and<br />
other interested parties can ensure a fair<br />
slice of the pie in the future.<br />
The Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI)<br />
Fund, for example, which promises an<br />
eye-watering £450 million of investment<br />
in total is subject to a £10 million pilot<br />
with no absolute guarantee of success.<br />
One only has to think back to the issues<br />
presented by the original Charging<br />
Infrastructure Fund (CIF), and the<br />
challenges of funding being managed<br />
through public procurement, to see how<br />
a good idea in theory can be far from<br />
successful in practice.<br />
The premise of LEVI is specifically to<br />
help local authorities leverage private sector<br />
investment into their local charging<br />
networks and create long-term, sustainable<br />
charging infrastructure solutions.<br />
Some local authorities, however, are more<br />
experienced than others in knowing what<br />
‘good’ looks like, and it is important that<br />
those who are less experienced, but have<br />
an equal or even greater need, are somehow<br />
not left behind for want of professional<br />
advice and support.<br />
Anne Buckingham, Sales Director<br />
of SWARCO Smart Charging, says that<br />
funding should be distributed equally to<br />
give those with less experience or expertise<br />
the support they need to make the<br />
transition.” “It could be argued,” she says,<br />
“that those with less experience, or those<br />
representing less affluent communities,<br />
should receive a larger allocation of funds<br />
to ensure they can play their part in the<br />
Government’s wider ‘Levelling up’ agenda.<br />
continues on page 14 >
OPINION<br />
AUTHOR – Sean Feast FCICM<br />
“Similarly, it could be argued that future Government subsidies<br />
to private sector firms should not be universal. They should<br />
instead be allocated to projects that are not commercially viable<br />
through private investment alone, as these are typically in areas<br />
in desperate need of a charging infrastructure to support social<br />
mobility.”<br />
BRIDGING THE KNOWLEDGE GAP<br />
In all cases, Anne believes, upskilling is vital. She says that what<br />
is holding some local authorities back is not the lack of will, or<br />
even the lack of funding, but rather the understandable lack of<br />
knowledge and expertise. Not surprisingly, there are very few<br />
‘true’ experts out there, and this is a potential barrier to progress:<br />
“Those responsible for delivering charging infrastructure need<br />
to have quite a detailed level of knowledge simply to know the<br />
right people - and the right questions - to ask to arrive at the<br />
solution they need,” she adds.<br />
Some £50 million of the LEVI funding is being given over to<br />
‘resourcing’; the challenge for the industry will be to create some<br />
form of Foundation Course that gives specifiers the core skills<br />
they need to make informed decisions. Some are even suggesting<br />
that funding should be conditional on having completed such a<br />
course, since it demonstrates clear evidence of competence to<br />
be able to manage the future millions potentially coming their<br />
way.<br />
“While the Government is clearly on the right road, local<br />
authorities will need to act quickly if they want to take advantage<br />
of the Chancellor’s generosity,” Anne continues. “Funding is<br />
likely to be temporary, not permanent, and as with any maturing<br />
sector it will soon be expected to survive on its own, which is<br />
why attracting private sector investment is so important.”<br />
Understanding what is currently available, and how that feeds<br />
into future capex and a three-, five- or 10-year plan, is critical, as<br />
will be the need to understand the various commercial funding<br />
models being offered by private sector firms.<br />
“This may require a radical shift in mindset,” Anne adds.<br />
“Private sector investment often requires a length of contractual<br />
commitment that many in public procurement are not used to<br />
providing and will require them to move out of their comfort<br />
zone. Local authorities who have built strong relationships with<br />
their private sector colleagues will be the ones who reap the<br />
greatest rewards.”<br />
With the funding available, and private sector support, there<br />
is an opportunity to create real change. It is important, however,<br />
that the consumer is brought along on the journey, and comes<br />
willingly, because the positive benefits of being inconvenienced<br />
are clearly explained and articulated, and viable alternatives are<br />
available for them to make the switch.<br />
It is also about thinking differently and acting radically. Anne<br />
says that rather than simply replicating the petrol forecourt<br />
model, or being at the behest of the major fuel or energy<br />
providers, there is a real chance to deliver genuine societal<br />
benefit, to re-set as an industry, and create a fairer more<br />
equitable distribution of EV charging.<br />
“There is also the chance to create something that is not<br />
simply about installing chargepoints, but rather creating a<br />
new ecosystem to embrace all parts of the transport sector that<br />
improves air quality and ultimately supports improved health<br />
and wellbeing,” she concludes. It is perhaps a once in a lifetime<br />
opportunity.<br />
The author wishes to thank SWARCO Smart Charging for its<br />
assistance in putting this article together, and permission to<br />
quote from its new Guide. hellosmartcharging@swarco.com<br />
Fast<br />
Facts:<br />
The Government’s Office for Zero<br />
Emission Vehicles (OZEV) published<br />
figures in April <strong>2022</strong> to evidence its<br />
performance in supporting the roll-out<br />
of Electric Vehicle Charging at home, in<br />
the workplace, and on street.<br />
• Since September 2014, a total of 291,549 domestic<br />
charging devices have been installed under the<br />
various Government schemes, with a total grant<br />
value of £123.7 million.<br />
• In the last 12 months the number of EV Homecharge<br />
Scheme (EVHS) funded charging devices has<br />
increased by 121,001, corresponding to an additional<br />
£42.3 million in grant value.<br />
• In terms of workplace charging, since the scheme<br />
started in late 2016, a total of 9,710 vouchers have<br />
been redeemed, accounting for 26,424 sockets<br />
installed under the WCS grant. This equated<br />
to a total grant value of £10.5 million. In the<br />
last 12 months, 4,118 vouchers were redeemed,<br />
corresponding to the installation of 10,727 sockets.<br />
This had a grant value of £3.7 million.<br />
• As of 1 April <strong>2022</strong>, the On-street Residential<br />
Chargepoint Scheme (ORCS) has funded the<br />
installation of 2,641 public charging devices since<br />
the scheme was established in 2017. This represents<br />
£9.1 million of grant funding across 87 councils. An<br />
additional 603 on-street devices were recorded as<br />
installed in the previous three months.<br />
• Of the councils that have already completed<br />
installations, 27 have had further funding awarded<br />
to install a further 1,608 charging devices with<br />
a grant value of £4.6 million. A further 70 local<br />
authorities have also been awarded grant funding,<br />
providing 3,893 on-street public charging devices<br />
with their installations yet to be completed. This<br />
represents a grant value of £17.6 million.<br />
❝<br />
“Funding should be distributed equally to<br />
give those with less experience or expertise the<br />
support they need to make the transition.”<br />
Anne Buckingham, Sales Director<br />
of SWARCO Smart Charging –<br />
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MESSI and Maradona,<br />
gauchos, the tango,<br />
wine, steak, Patagonia,<br />
and Evita (Eva Perón).<br />
These are just some of<br />
the things that Argentina,<br />
the world’s eighth largest country, is<br />
known for.<br />
There is more, however. Historically<br />
speaking, Argentina witnessed three<br />
centuries of Spanish colonisation before<br />
the country declared independence in<br />
1816. Remarkably, its nationalists helped<br />
revolutionary movements elsewhere. As<br />
Britannica noted, ‘20th-century writer<br />
Jorge Luis Borges observed that, “South<br />
America’s independence was, to a great<br />
extent, an Argentine enterprise.”’<br />
More recently, ‘strong leaders’ such<br />
as Juan Perón (who served three terms<br />
in three decades) and the military<br />
dictatorships of the 1970s and the early<br />
1980s ran the country. But this all ended,<br />
and democracy was reinstated following<br />
Argentina losing a dispute over a set of<br />
islands in the South Atlantic.<br />
The net effect of its recent history, as<br />
summarised by HSBC in an international<br />
business guide on the country, is that ‘a<br />
century ago, Argentina was a prosperous<br />
global power, based on exports of beef and<br />
wheat. However, isolationism and military<br />
rule helped trigger recurring economic<br />
turmoil through most of the 20th century.<br />
This culminated in the major currency<br />
crisis of 2001, leading to international debt<br />
default, austerity, and political chaos.’<br />
A sign of this is the inflation rate that<br />
bubbled around the mid-teens between<br />
2007 and 2014 but which has now risen<br />
above 60 percent. Another sign is the<br />
country’s weakening currency. Divisions in<br />
the Government over economic policy saw<br />
an economy minister resign at the start<br />
of July; the replacement suggests that the<br />
Government may try to spend its way out of<br />
poverty. MoneyWeek reckons that inflation<br />
could hit 73 percent by the end of <strong>2022</strong>.<br />
THE COUNTRY<br />
Argentina, whose name is derived from the<br />
Latin word for silver, argentum, is a rich<br />
COUNTRY FOCUS<br />
Argentina derives its<br />
name from the Latin<br />
for Silver. But are there<br />
rich pickings for UK<br />
businesses?<br />
SILVER LINING<br />
AUTHOR – Adam Bernstein<br />
.Floralis Genérica is a sculpture made<br />
of steel and aluminum located in Plaza<br />
de las Naciones Unidas, Avenida Figueroa<br />
Alcorta, Buenos Aires, a gift to the city by the<br />
Argentine architect Eduardo Catalano.<br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 16<br />
source of minerals. However, Argentina's<br />
production of cattle and crops, for which<br />
it previously ranked among the richest<br />
countries in the world, has been more<br />
significant. The World Bank, in <strong>2022</strong>, stated<br />
that ‘with a GDP of approximately $490bn,<br />
Argentina is one of the largest economies<br />
in Latin America.’ A Deloitte document<br />
from May 2021 cites total exports in 2020 of<br />
$58.88bn and imports of $42.35bn.<br />
As noted earlier, Argentina is the world’s<br />
eighth largest country by landmass (the<br />
second largest in South America), with<br />
some 2.78m sq. km. It sits behind India<br />
with 3.28m sq. km. In comparison, the US<br />
has 9.32m sq. km, Russia some 17.09m sq.<br />
km, and the UK occupies a paltry 242,900<br />
sq. km.<br />
The nation sits at the bottom of South<br />
America on the Atlantic Ocean and is<br />
bounded by Chile to the west, Bolivia and<br />
Paraguay to the north, and Brazil along<br />
with Uruguay to the east. It’s long and<br />
stretches 2,360 miles from the subtropical<br />
north to the subantarctic south, and<br />
measuring 880 miles at its widest. As a<br />
result, Argentina’s geography and climate<br />
vary wildly. Countryreports.org detailed the<br />
variation with ‘humid lowlands of eastern<br />
Argentina, especially along the rivers of<br />
the Rio de la Plata system,’ ‘savannas and<br />
swamps’ in the north, and ‘humid pampa<br />
(plain) and rangeland…that become drier<br />
toward the west’. And there’s the Andes<br />
which include the heavily glaciated and<br />
ice-covered mountains of Patagonia.<br />
As for the people, Argentina is the<br />
world’s 30th most populous country with,<br />
according to preliminary <strong>2022</strong> census<br />
data, some 47.3m people. It’s a hair above<br />
Spain which sits in 31st position and nine<br />
places below the UK with around 67m. The<br />
population density of Argentina is low; the<br />
country is in 217th place with an average of<br />
16 people per sq. km. For reference, Hong<br />
Kong has 6,677 people per sq. km and the<br />
UK has 277 people per sq. km.<br />
Using 2010 data from Argentina’s INDEC<br />
census (new data is likely soon), nearly one<br />
third of the population lives in three cities<br />
– Buenos Aires (13.5m), Córdoba (1.4m)<br />
and Rosario (1.2m). More recent UN data<br />
(2018) estimates those numbers as being in 2021,<br />
15.25m, 1.58m and 1.55m, respectively.<br />
There are 21 other cities with between 162,048<br />
and 937,154 inhabitants and 99 towns with<br />
between 45,077 and 133,602 residents (2010 data).<br />
Overall, Argentina is highly urbanised with,<br />
according to the UN in 2018, 92 percent living<br />
in urban areas, albeit they’re spread around the<br />
country in pockets. Patagonia is particularly<br />
sparsely populated.<br />
Most – 97.2 percent - of the people are of<br />
European descent, according to the CIA World<br />
Factbook. Of the rest, 2.4 percent are Amerindian,<br />
and 0.4 percent are African. (2010 data). Study.<br />
com reckons that two-thirds of the population<br />
is of Italian descent – it also suggests that a<br />
million Argentines are of Asian descent. Of the<br />
languages spoken, Spanish is the official tongue,<br />
but there’s also Italian, English, German, French<br />
and indigenous languages. Argentina is clearly a<br />
melting pot of cultures.<br />
US Census Bureau International data estimates<br />
that in 2019 the country is demographically young<br />
since 87.8 percent of the population was aged 64<br />
or under. Statista quotes the World Bank when<br />
it said that in 2020 24.44 percent were under 14<br />
or under, 64.2 percent were 15 to 64, and 11.37<br />
percent were 65 or older.<br />
MAIN SECTORS OF INDUSTRY<br />
In business, Santander Trade Markets thinks that<br />
despite Argentina’s troubled recent economic<br />
history, the country still plays an important role<br />
within the global economy.<br />
Agriculture<br />
This sector is mainly based on livestock farming,<br />
cereals, citrus fruits, tobacco, tea, and grapes (for<br />
wine). Santander considers Argentina to be the<br />
world’s largest exporter of soy-derived products<br />
and the world’s third largest producer of such<br />
products. It adds that soy and sugar cane are<br />
cultivated for bio-fuel production and Argentina<br />
is the world’s largest exporter and sixth largest<br />
producer of biodiesel. World Bank data suggests<br />
that the agricultural sector represents 5.9 percent<br />
of the country’s GDP while only employing 0.06<br />
percent of the population.<br />
Areco Tradicíon states that the main regions<br />
for production are the provinces of Buenos Aires,<br />
Córdoba, Santa Fe, and La Pampa.<br />
Industry<br />
Data from the World Bank reckons that the industrial<br />
sector represented 23.3 percent of GDP<br />
in 2020 and employed 21.8 percent of the population<br />
in 2019. Given Argentina’s strength in food<br />
production, it’s logical to see why food processing<br />
and packaging – in particular meat packing,<br />
flour grinding and canning, and flour-milling –<br />
are such important drivers in the economy. But<br />
beyond this, there is capability in motor vehicles<br />
and parts, consumer durables, textiles, chemicals<br />
and petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, printing,<br />
metallurgy and steel, industrial and farm<br />
machinery, electronics, and home appliances.<br />
COUNTRY FOCUS<br />
AUTHOR – Adam Bernstein<br />
Buenos Aires is the capital and most<br />
populous city of Argentina. The city is<br />
located on the western shore of the estuary<br />
of the Río de la Plata, on the South American<br />
continent's southeastern coast.<br />
El Chalten, Santa Cruz, Argentina<br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 17<br />
Argentina<br />
continues on page 18 >
COUNTRY FOCUS<br />
COUNTRY FOCUS<br />
AUTHOR – Adam Bernstein AUTHOR – Adam Bernstein<br />
❝<br />
Argentina is a<br />
land of great<br />
opportunity, but<br />
the challenge<br />
seems to be<br />
related to<br />
navigating<br />
economic<br />
and political<br />
minefields and a<br />
persistently high<br />
inflation rate.<br />
❝<br />
Services<br />
Santander has noted that the service sector is<br />
the largest part of Argentina’s GDP - some 54.6<br />
percent, while it employs 78.1 percent of the<br />
workforce.<br />
Argentina specialises in high-tech services,<br />
software development, call centres, nuclear energy,<br />
and tourism. Telephony and computing<br />
are also developing dynamically, as well as tourism,<br />
which is becoming increasingly important.<br />
Tourism was battered during the pandemic and<br />
to encourage growth the Government fixed prices<br />
of goods and services associated with tourism<br />
in 2021. An agreement was made to keep this in<br />
place for <strong>2022</strong>.<br />
OPPORTUNITIES<br />
Agriculture<br />
Interactanalysis.com commented in 2020<br />
that there are 730 firms manufacturing farm<br />
machinery serving up to 80 percent of domestic<br />
demand. There are opportunities in AgTech<br />
and BioTech as the country needs to use more<br />
technology and make its production more<br />
traceable. The US Trade Department thinks<br />
there’s also a need for irrigation equipment as<br />
the Government wants to increase irrigated land<br />
by 28 percent.<br />
Energy<br />
Argentina is rich in energy resources and offers<br />
great potential. Santander states that it is the<br />
fourth largest natural gas producer in Latin<br />
America and has the world's third largest shale<br />
gas reserves and the fourth largest lithium<br />
reserves.<br />
In 2020, Argentina produced 480,000 barrels<br />
per day (bpd) of oil, of which 134,000 bpd were<br />
exported. The US Trade Department noted that<br />
‘the Vaca Muerta shale formation is located in<br />
the provinces of Neuquén, Mendoza, and Rio<br />
Negro, and only a fraction has been developed<br />
for oil and gas production.’ Production costs<br />
have fallen as a result of shale quality, labour<br />
negotiations, and tax incentives, but there is<br />
an ongoing need for small and medium-sized<br />
service companies with shale expertise to<br />
further improve efficiency and lower costs.<br />
The Government recently launched ‘Plan<br />
GasAr,’ a natural gas plan designed to increase<br />
local production and reduce gas imports.<br />
Currently, natural gas is close to 60 percent<br />
of Argentina’s main source of energy. Despite<br />
having one of the world’s largest shale gas<br />
deposits, Argentina still relies on liquified<br />
natural gas imports.<br />
On renewables, the Government’s aim is for<br />
20 percent of energy sources to be renewable by<br />
2025. In various rounds of bidding in RenovAr,<br />
the Government’s renewable energy plan, the<br />
Government awarded 244 projects, adding more<br />
than 6,300 MW of installed capacity.<br />
Construction<br />
The Government is investing to spur on growth.<br />
The US Trade Department detailed short-term<br />
The Perito Moreno Glacier (Spanish:<br />
Glaciar Perito Moreno) is a glacier located<br />
in Los Glaciares National Park in southwest<br />
Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. It is one of<br />
the most important tourist attractions in the<br />
Argentine Patagonia.<br />
investment plans worth US $310m involving a<br />
water treatment plant in Corrientes, Highway<br />
18 in Entre Rios, Route 40 in San Juan, and<br />
Provincial Route 8 in Buenos Aires. Then there’s<br />
the San Martin cargo line, which connects the<br />
Province of Mendoza and the Port of Rosario<br />
which, interestingly are being financed by the<br />
Chinese. Allied to this is the Paraná-Paraguay<br />
Waterway which links more than 80 Argentine<br />
ports on the Paraná and La Plata rivers,<br />
carrying more than 125 million tons of all<br />
types of cargo, 1.5 million containers, 750,000<br />
vehicles per year and cruise liners. Tenders for<br />
dredging, tolls, and signalling are (were) targets<br />
for exploitation.<br />
Information and<br />
Communications Technology<br />
The Government has detailed its priorities for<br />
2020-2023 in this area with Plan ConectAR.<br />
This includes improved 4G connectivity with<br />
an eye towards 5G deployment through better<br />
satellite and fibre optic coverage. The recent<br />
health (pandemic) crisis highlighted the need to<br />
strengthen the existing 4G network and expand<br />
it throughout the country. The spend here is to<br />
be $37.9bn.<br />
There are opportunities in network implementation,<br />
management and maintenance,<br />
legacy applications, wireless LANs, remote operation<br />
processing, back-up, critical mission<br />
services, disaster recovery systems, internet<br />
and network security systems, document digitalisation,<br />
digital asset management, storage,<br />
utility computing, and information systems for<br />
rural areas. Quite a mouthful, but The Govern-<br />
ment wants to modernise and put more in<br />
the cloud. Beyond this are opportunities<br />
in cybersecurity where, according to the<br />
US Trade Department, Argentinian companies<br />
spent $50m on this in 2020 – and<br />
some 70 percent expect to spend much<br />
more on this in the future.<br />
Medical technology<br />
Public spending in this area increased<br />
to respond to the pandemic and<br />
monies went to improve the hospital<br />
infrastructure. Much of the healthcare<br />
public expenditure in 2021 was focused<br />
on vaccines and antigen tests.<br />
Pandemic aside, the overall medical<br />
devices market decreased in 2020, by<br />
around – the US estimates – 30 to 60<br />
percent during 2020. That said, whatever<br />
is used is generally imported and much<br />
recently has come from either Asia or<br />
Europe.<br />
There is demand for e-health technologies<br />
and middle- to high-end technology<br />
products, such as electro-diagnostic<br />
equipment and other specialised medical<br />
equipment and devices. Problematically,<br />
purchases of large equipment with high<br />
prices are often postponed.<br />
The Government is concentrating on<br />
primary care, maternal care, and healthcare<br />
infrastructure under a national universal<br />
healthcare coverage plan that will<br />
provide healthcare coverage to 15m people<br />
who currently are cared for by public<br />
hospitals.<br />
Education<br />
Argentina has, since 1884, had a long<br />
history of providing tuition-free access<br />
to local schools and universities. The<br />
education system is composed of primary<br />
schools, secondary schools (lower and<br />
upper), and universities. Students can<br />
attend public institutions tuition-free or<br />
can attend (fee-paying) private schools.<br />
According to Statista, Argentina has by<br />
far the highest level of English proficiency<br />
in Latin America, but there are still<br />
opportunities for English programme<br />
providers, especially where finance, law,<br />
and accounting are involved.<br />
The US Trade Department considers<br />
exchange programmes and partnerships<br />
with higher education institutions in<br />
Argentina a common method for market<br />
entry. The teaching of Spanish and Latin<br />
American studies courses to students<br />
coming to study in Argentina is key, as is<br />
engineering, law, and business.<br />
With almost universal use of social<br />
media sites, parents and students<br />
find information on educational (and<br />
subsequent job) opportunities through<br />
advertisements on social media, email,<br />
and websites.<br />
TAX<br />
Corporate taxes<br />
Corporate taxes were reformed so that<br />
for fiscal years beginning on or after 1<br />
January 2021, tax is payable in several<br />
bands.<br />
Some 25 percent is payable on taxable<br />
income up to ARS 5m; 30 percent on the<br />
amount that exceeds ARS 5m up to ARS<br />
50m; and 35 percent on any amount<br />
above ARS 50m. At the time of writing,<br />
the rate was 157 Argentinian Pesos (ARS)<br />
to £1.<br />
Legal entities resident in Argentina<br />
are subject to tax on Argentine and foreign-source<br />
income. But resident legal<br />
entities are able to claim any similar taxes<br />
actually paid abroad on foreign-source income<br />
as a tax credit. The tax rate applies<br />
to net income determined on a worldwide<br />
basis.<br />
Personal taxes<br />
Residents and non-residents are<br />
taxed at progressive income tax<br />
rates ranging from five percent<br />
to 35 percent, with the lowest<br />
band applying to income up<br />
to ARS 64,532.54, and the highest<br />
band applying to income<br />
over ARS 1,032,522.30; however,<br />
special tax rates are applicable<br />
in case of gains<br />
derived from securities<br />
(including dividends), interest,<br />
and real property.<br />
VAT<br />
The VAT rate is 21 percent, although certain<br />
specific items are subject to a 10.5<br />
percent or 27 percent rate. Digital sales<br />
are now within the 21 percent rate. The reduced<br />
rate of 10.5 percent applies to certain<br />
transactions, such as house construction,<br />
interest and other costs on personal<br />
loans, sales and imports of living bovine<br />
animals, certain supplies of publicity and<br />
advertising, and short distance domestic<br />
passenger transportation.<br />
The increased rate of 27 percent applies<br />
to 'utilities’ such as telecommunications,<br />
household gas, running water, sewerage,<br />
and energy not rendered to dwellingpurposes<br />
real estate.<br />
Some transactions are exempt from VAT,<br />
such as sales of books, ordinary natural<br />
water, common bread, milk, medicine,<br />
postage stamps, education and hospital<br />
and medical care and related activities.<br />
SUMMARY<br />
Argentina is a land of great opportunity,<br />
but the challenge seems to be related<br />
to navigating economic and political<br />
minefields and a persistently high<br />
inflation rate. That said, business is<br />
business, there are ways around most<br />
problems.<br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 18 Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 19
MEET<br />
THE 2023<br />
AWARDS<br />
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Thursday 2 February,<br />
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KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED FOR<br />
THE SHORTLIST ANNOUNCEMENT<br />
ON THE 7 NOVEMBER<br />
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Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 20 <br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 21
THINK TANK<br />
THINK TANK<br />
THINK BIG<br />
What does the CICM Think Tank make<br />
of a world in crisis?<br />
AUTHOR – Sean Feast FCICM<br />
AUTHOR – Sean Feast FCICM<br />
WE are living in incredible<br />
times and trying to predict<br />
what happens next is<br />
nigh-on impossible. That<br />
was the overriding theme<br />
to emerge from the CICM<br />
Think Tank last month which met to discuss and<br />
debate the biggest issues impacting the credit<br />
industry.<br />
It seems incredible, for example, that within<br />
the first few months of the global pandemic,<br />
consumer collections agencies were reporting<br />
their highest collection rates ever as consumers<br />
sought to take advantage of the excess cash<br />
derived from working from home to pay off what<br />
they owed. Today, things look very different.<br />
The complexion of the current world crisis<br />
also feels very different than more recent<br />
troubles. In 2008/9, the issue was one of credit,<br />
or rather the lack of available credit; today feels<br />
more like the problems faced in the 1990s, and<br />
as such are issues that many have not come<br />
across before.<br />
The war in Ukraine shows no sign of ending<br />
any time soon; if anything, Putin looks to be<br />
digging in – literally and metaphorically – for<br />
the long term, and General Winter will allow<br />
him time to recover and regroup. The Chinese<br />
are agitating in Taiwan, making some form of<br />
military intervention seem inevitable.<br />
Closer to home, though directly related to<br />
worsening relations with Russia, the UK faces<br />
an energy crisis and rising energy bills that even<br />
with the current price cap are unaffordable to a<br />
significant tranche of the country. The cost-ofliving<br />
crisis, a long time coming, is now a reality,<br />
and things will certainly get worse before they<br />
get any better.<br />
While the mainstream media focus most<br />
of their attention, understandably, on credit<br />
issues affecting consumers, there is a great<br />
deal happening in the commercial sector that<br />
cannot be ignored. The hospitality sector is once<br />
more under pressure, and rising energy bills<br />
will have a crippling effect on manufacturing,<br />
with some already on the brink of closing their<br />
doors for good. At a time when we need to be<br />
investing more in research and development,<br />
and innovation, we’re being hampered by a fear<br />
of the unknown, where hanging on to your cash<br />
in the short term may seem a better option.<br />
GOOD OUT OF BAD<br />
That said, some businesses are seeking to make<br />
good out of a bad situation. Challenger brands<br />
are still being launched and gaining market<br />
❝<br />
As an Institute,<br />
we need to be<br />
clear on how<br />
we support<br />
our members<br />
for the long<br />
term. As credit<br />
professionals,<br />
we need to be<br />
thinking more<br />
about the tools<br />
we have to<br />
manage our<br />
way through the<br />
current crises.<br />
❝<br />
share. Some are challenging old operating<br />
models. There are signs, for example, of a<br />
transition from ‘off-shoring’ to ‘on-shoring’,<br />
where ‘local’ is good. Shortened supply chains<br />
leave firms less exposed to global events or<br />
captains of container ships who don’t know the<br />
width of their vessel.<br />
But there are worrying signs too. The mood<br />
music from Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise<br />
(HMRC) appears to be towards withdrawing the<br />
option of giving distressed businesses ‘Time to<br />
Pay’, and with HMRC’s privileged creditor status<br />
this can only be bad news for the rest of us who<br />
may be owed money. Whereas it was once said,<br />
❝<br />
<strong>Credit</strong> managers will need to be flexible in their policies,<br />
and in how they treat individual customers/suppliers. And<br />
they need to listen to what their own people are saying on<br />
the front line, to be curious, and in doing so be resilient to<br />
change.<br />
❝<br />
perhaps unfairly, that HMRC had moved<br />
from being a tax collector to a benefits<br />
agency, now it seems to be shifting back,<br />
and with a vengeance.<br />
The fact is that the Government is now<br />
the biggest creditor in the market and are<br />
competing for your pound. HMRC will<br />
become more active. <strong>Credit</strong> Insurers will<br />
most likely retreat. All of which is a major<br />
concern.<br />
The Financial Services sector believes it is<br />
the only entity that loans money. The truth<br />
is that the trade credit industry dwarfs it<br />
by comparison. Indeed, our industry could<br />
teach those in the FS community a great<br />
many things, especially about what to do<br />
when things start going wrong.<br />
So what do we need to see the new<br />
Government, and the new Prime Minister,<br />
doing? We need to see them change from<br />
making short-term decisions simply to<br />
avoid a negative headline to making bolder<br />
decisions that will bring longer-term gain.<br />
Whereas forbearance and empathy are<br />
essential tenets of life, telling businesses<br />
(and, by definition, their credit teams or<br />
appointed collections agencies) to stop<br />
chasing money that’s owed is not the<br />
answer. Neither is it the right answer to stop<br />
an already failed business from becoming<br />
insolvent, or an individual from declaring<br />
themselves bankrupt.<br />
As an Institute, we need to be clear on<br />
how we support our members for the long<br />
term. As credit professionals, we need to be<br />
thinking more about the tools we have to<br />
manage our way through the current crises.<br />
<strong>Credit</strong> managers need to work through<br />
how a global issue such as a shortage of<br />
computer chips may ultimately impact<br />
the products they make or the services<br />
they provide and manage the situation<br />
accordingly. How is the war in Ukraine<br />
impacting their business, if at all, and<br />
what if China’s sabre-rattling results in<br />
something more serious? <strong>Credit</strong> managers<br />
will need to be flexible in their policies,<br />
and in how they treat individual customers/<br />
suppliers. And they need to listen to what<br />
their own people are saying on the front<br />
line, to be curious, and in doing so be<br />
resilient to change.<br />
Members of the Think Tank will be<br />
discussing these and other major issues at<br />
future meetings to create actionable plans,<br />
policy and further thought leadership.<br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 22<br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 23
On-Demand | Online | Face-to-Face<br />
CICM TRAINING<br />
Training courses that offer high-quality approaches<br />
to credit-related topics and practical skills<br />
METHODS OF DELIVERY<br />
CICM Training courses can be delivered through a variety of<br />
options, ensuring a range of opportunities for your teams to<br />
be trained on the most up-to-date methods in the industry.<br />
Now, more than ever, the <strong>Credit</strong> <strong>Management</strong> and Collections industry is<br />
seeing drastic changes and impacts that affect the day-to-day roles of <strong>Credit</strong><br />
and Collections teams.<br />
CICM On-Demand<br />
Training<br />
CICM Online<br />
Training<br />
CICM Face-to-Face<br />
Training<br />
CICM Training offers high-quality approaches to credit-related topics.<br />
Granting you the practical skills and necessary tools to use in your workplace<br />
and the ever-changing industry. A highly qualified trainer, with an array of<br />
credit management experience, will grant you the knowledge, improved<br />
results, and greater confidence you need for your teams to succeed in the<br />
<strong>Credit</strong> <strong>Management</strong> profession.<br />
On-Demand training can be viewed anytime, anywhere with our<br />
downloadable training videos.<br />
Online training will be for those who find it easy to learn from the space<br />
of their home or office.<br />
Face-to-face training It’s been a long time coming but now you can mingle<br />
and learn together in the same room as your colleagues and peers.<br />
Get trained with your<br />
professional body and the only<br />
Chartered organisation that delivers<br />
<strong>Credit</strong> <strong>Management</strong> training<br />
TRAINING COURSES<br />
CICM have a collection of training courses to meet the needs of your <strong>Credit</strong> and<br />
Collections’ teams. Take a look at the courses below and start training towards the<br />
CICM Professional Standard.<br />
Advanced Skills in Collections • Best Practice Approach to Collections<br />
Best Practice Skills to Assess <strong>Credit</strong> Risk • Collect that Cash • <strong>Credit</strong> Bootcamp Effective<br />
Communication in the <strong>Credit</strong> Role • Emergency Guide to <strong>Credit</strong><br />
Harness your leadership Style • Know Your Customer • Managing Insolvency<br />
Reflect and Develop • Set Targets that Work<br />
For more details, visit our website, scan the barcode<br />
or contact us at info@cicm.com<br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 24<br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 25
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T}| trrrrooooouuup unnnnnttttttteeeeeeeerrrrnnnnnaaaaaatttttttiiiiiiiooooonnnnnaaaaaallll eeeeeeeehhhhfff.<br />
Daaaaatttttttteeeeeeee ooooffff ttttttttheeeeeeee Peeeeeeeennnneeeeeeeettttttttrrrraaaaattttttttiiiiioooonnnn Teeeeeeeestttttttt<br />
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Heeeeaad oooff Prroooffeeeessssiiooonaal Seeeerr viiceeees<br />
Raazvaannn-Coosstinnn<br />
Ioonnnesscu<br />
Apprentice profile<br />
www.tcmgroup.com<br />
CHLOE McShane is a current Level 2 <strong>Credit</strong><br />
Control Apprentice and aims to complete<br />
the course as an Advanced Customer<br />
Advisor. She joined as part of the March<br />
<strong>2022</strong> cohort and is currently in the process<br />
of learning about all the different areas of<br />
the Income Department at United Utilities.<br />
“After completing college, I knew University wasn’t for<br />
me,” she says. “I worked in retail for over a year building<br />
my customer service skills. Eventually, I decided that<br />
it was time to start a career. I first found out about this<br />
opportunity through a friend who was already on the<br />
Level 2 CICM course. It was a great opportunity that I<br />
found intriguing, so I decided to give it a go.<br />
“Not only can I learn while working but I have the<br />
opportunity to take the qualification to Levels 3 and 5.”<br />
FIRST MODULE<br />
Chloe is currently studying her first module called<br />
Business Communications and Personal Skills: “I have<br />
found it interesting learning business skills in relation to<br />
credit management and collections,” she continues. “So far<br />
on my CICM journey I have learnt about communication<br />
channels, styles and forms. We have also investigated<br />
many theories and models regarding teamwork within<br />
the work place.”<br />
The young apprentice says there are plenty of training<br />
resources on the CICM Knowledge hub that she has found<br />
useful while learning: “I am now implementing some of<br />
the business skills I have learnt with CICM into my work<br />
at United Utilities,” she adds.<br />
“I have enjoyed communicating with customers and<br />
learning skills such as negotiation and proactive listening.<br />
I am enjoying learning the court processes and using the<br />
cash collection techniques I have been taught. It was only<br />
once I was an apprentice at Untied Utilities that I realised<br />
how big the opportunities here really are.”<br />
After learning about the career ladder and how previous<br />
apprentices are now some of our senior leaders and<br />
directors within the business, Chloe says she can’t wait to<br />
see where her career at United Utilities takes her.<br />
Latest in a new series<br />
of how CICM-led<br />
Apprenticeships are<br />
supporting professional<br />
development.<br />
Chloe McShane<br />
Level 2 <strong>Credit</strong> Control Apprentice<br />
“I have enjoyed communicating with<br />
customers and learning skills such as<br />
negotiation and proactive listening. I am<br />
enjoying learning the court processes and<br />
using the cash collection techniques I have<br />
been taught. It was only once I was an<br />
apprentice at Untied Utilities that I realised<br />
how big the opportunities here really are.”<br />
Probably thebest debt collection network worldwide<br />
“So far on my CICM journey I<br />
have learnt about communication<br />
channels, styles and forms. We have<br />
also investigated many theories and<br />
models regarding teamwork within<br />
the work place.”<br />
Apprenticeships in <strong>Credit</strong><br />
Control and Collections<br />
There are five apprenticeships for those working in the credit<br />
profession. At each Level of apprenticeship you will be able to<br />
gain professional CICM qualifications<br />
• <strong>Credit</strong> Controller/Collector<br />
• Advanced <strong>Credit</strong> Controller and Debt Collection Specialist<br />
Apprenticeship<br />
• Compliance/Risk Officer Apprenticeship<br />
• Senior Compliance/Risk Specialist Apprenticeship<br />
• Financial Services Degree Apprenticeship<br />
For more details on how CICM can help you start your<br />
apprenticeship journey, visit cicm.com/apprenticeships<br />
Razvan-Costin<br />
Ionescu<br />
Moneyknows no borders—neither do we<br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 26 Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 27<br />
Semnat digital de Razvan-<br />
Costin Ionescu<br />
Data: <strong>2022</strong>.08.08 18:47:58<br />
+03'00'
PAYMENT TRENDS<br />
Muddled Together<br />
The world of late payments remains topsy turvy.<br />
THE latest late payment data shows a<br />
mixed bag across UK regions and sectors,<br />
with some making steady progress and<br />
others going backwards. Meanwhile, over<br />
in Ireland, the assortment of significant<br />
reductions and huge increases to late<br />
payments continues. The average Days Beyond Terms<br />
(DBT) across regions and sectors in the UK decreased by<br />
0.4 and 0.2 days respectively. In Ireland, the figures rose<br />
by 7.2 and 2.5 days respectively. Average DBT across the<br />
four provinces of Ireland decreased by 8.1 days.<br />
SECTOR SPOTLIGHT<br />
In the UK, the sector figures can be cut in half, with<br />
11 increases and 11 decreases to late payments. Of<br />
those going backwards, the IT and Comms sector saw<br />
the biggest decline with an increase of 4.7 days, and<br />
an increase of 3.9 days means the Hospitality sector<br />
loses its spot at the top of the standings. Looking at<br />
the positives, Business from Home is now the best<br />
performing sector with an overall DBT of 7.3 days<br />
following a healthy reduction of 9.9 days. The Real<br />
Estate (-5.2 days), International Bodies (-5.0 days) and<br />
Business Admin & Support (-4.8 days) sectors also made<br />
useful cuts to late payments.<br />
In Ireland, only four sectors saw increases to late<br />
payments, but it’s the scale of these increases which<br />
is cause for concern. The Hospitality and Business<br />
Admin & Support sectors, both saw hefty hikes to<br />
DBT, increasing by 60.0 and 52.4 days respectively. At<br />
the other end of the scale, the Entertainment sector<br />
is on the up following a reduction of 19.9 days to its<br />
DBT. The Real Estate (-19.7 days), Wholesale and retail<br />
trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (-19.4<br />
days) and Manufacturing (-14.5 days) sectors also made<br />
important improvements.<br />
REGIONAL SPOTLIGHT<br />
Of the 11 UK regions, although six saw increases to<br />
late payments it’s fair to say the majority are minor.<br />
Northern Ireland saw the biggest jump, with a hike<br />
of 5.8 days taking its overall DBT to 24.1 days. Of the<br />
five regions making positive moves, London (-5.1 days),<br />
the North West (-4.0 days) and South West (-3.7 days)<br />
improved most.<br />
The regional data across Ireland remains a tale of<br />
extremes. On the plus side, a number of counties,<br />
notably Kildare (-55.1 days) and Dublin (-26.9 days),<br />
where DBT fell significantly. However, the majority<br />
of the increases to late payments are sizeable. In<br />
particular, Kilkenny (+75.0 days), Wicklow (+51.9 days)<br />
and Longford (+48.8 days) saw huge increases.<br />
Across the four provinces of Ireland, Leinster made<br />
the biggest improvement with a much-needed reduction<br />
of 37.5 days to late payments. A further reduction of 0.3<br />
days means Connacht is the best performing province<br />
with an overall DBT of 5.9 days. Ulster (+3.3 days) and<br />
Munster (+2.1) moved in the opposite direction.<br />
AUTHOR – Rob Howard<br />
Top Five Prompter Payers<br />
Region Aug 22 Change from July 22<br />
South West 10.2 -3.7<br />
Yorkshire and Humberside 11.2 1.8<br />
North West 12.9 -4<br />
South East 13.3 -1.9<br />
East Midlands 13.4 0.3<br />
Bottom Five Poorest Payers<br />
Region Aug 22 Change from July 22<br />
Northern Ireland 24.1 5.8<br />
Scotland 16 -5.1<br />
West Midlands 15.2 -2.4<br />
Wales 14.8 1.1<br />
East Anglia 14.6 2.4<br />
Top Five Prompter Payers<br />
Sector Aug 22 Change from July 22<br />
Business from Home 7.3 -9.9<br />
Entertainment 8.1 1.2<br />
Hospitality 10.4 3.9<br />
Education 11.1 -1<br />
International Bodies 12 -5<br />
Bottom Five Poorest Payers<br />
Sector Aug 22 Change from July 22<br />
Mining and Quarrying 22.6 2.7<br />
IT and Comms 21.2 4.7<br />
Energy Supply 19.6 2.1<br />
Public Administration 18.4 3.3<br />
Manufacturing 17.4 2.2<br />
NORTHERN<br />
IRELAND<br />
5.8 DBT<br />
SOUTH<br />
WEST<br />
-3.7 DBT<br />
STATISTICS<br />
Data supplied by the <strong>Credit</strong>safe Group<br />
WALES<br />
1.1 DBT<br />
SCOTLAND<br />
1.3 DBT<br />
NORTH<br />
WEST<br />
-4 DBT<br />
WEST<br />
MIDLANDS<br />
-2.4 DBT<br />
YORKSHIRE &<br />
HUMBERSIDE<br />
1.8 DBT<br />
EAST<br />
MIDLANDS<br />
0.3 DBT<br />
LONDON<br />
-5.1 DBT<br />
SOUTH<br />
EAST<br />
-1.9 DBT<br />
EAST<br />
ANGLIA<br />
2.4 DBT<br />
Getting worse<br />
IT and Comms 4.7<br />
Hospitality 3.9<br />
Other Service 3.6<br />
Public Administration 3.3<br />
Mining and Quarrying 2.7<br />
Water & Waste 2.5<br />
Health & Social 2.2<br />
Manufacturing 2.2<br />
Energy Supply 2.1<br />
Entertainment 1.2<br />
Transportation and Storage 0.8<br />
Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing 0.6<br />
Getting better<br />
Business from Home -9.9<br />
Real Estate -5.2<br />
International Bodies -5<br />
Business Admin & Support -4.8<br />
Financial and Insurance -3<br />
Professional and Scientific -2.1<br />
Dormant -1.4<br />
Construction -1<br />
Education -1<br />
Wholesale and retail trade -0.6<br />
Region<br />
Getting Better – Getting Worse<br />
-5.1<br />
-4<br />
-3.7<br />
-2.4<br />
-1.9<br />
5.8<br />
2.4<br />
1.8<br />
1.3<br />
1.1<br />
0.3<br />
London<br />
North West<br />
South West<br />
West Midlands<br />
South East<br />
Northern Ireland<br />
East Anglia<br />
Yorkshire and Humberside<br />
Scotland<br />
Wales<br />
East Midlands<br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 28<br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 29
PAYMENT TRENDS<br />
Switch to Direct Debit<br />
In Ireland, only four<br />
sectors saw increases to<br />
late payments, but it’s the<br />
scale of these increases<br />
which is cause for<br />
concern. The Hospitality<br />
and Business Admin &<br />
Support sectors, both saw<br />
hefty hikes to DBT.<br />
SLIGO<br />
-8 DBT<br />
LIMERICK<br />
0 DBT<br />
DONEGAL<br />
-12.9 DBT<br />
LONGFORD<br />
48.8 DBT KILKENNY<br />
75 DBT<br />
CARLOW<br />
0 DBT<br />
ULSTER<br />
5.8 DBT<br />
LOUTH<br />
31 DBT<br />
DUBLIN<br />
15.6 DBT<br />
WICKLOW<br />
51.9 DBT<br />
Why not spread<br />
KERRY<br />
-7.2 DBT<br />
Top Five Prompter Payers – Ireland<br />
Region Aug 22 Change from July 22<br />
Limerick 0 -3.7<br />
Sligo 0 -8<br />
Kerry 1.6 -7.2<br />
Donegal 3.6 -12.9<br />
Waterford 3.8 1.1<br />
Bottom Five Poorest Payers – Ireland<br />
Region Aug 22 Change from July 22<br />
Longford 120 48.8<br />
Wicklow 120 51.9<br />
Louth 99.3 31<br />
Kilkenny 90 75<br />
Carlow 46.4 0<br />
Top Five Prompter Payers – Ireland<br />
Sector Aug 22 Change from July 22<br />
Financial and Insurance 0 -2.9<br />
Health & Social 0 0<br />
International Bodies 0 0<br />
Entertainment 2.3 -19.9<br />
Real Estate 2.5 -19.7<br />
Bottom Five Poorest Payers – Ireland<br />
Sector Aug 22 Change from July 22<br />
Business Admin & Support 120 52.4<br />
Water & Waste 120 0<br />
Other Service 68.4 27.9<br />
Hospitality 62 60<br />
Construction 28.5 -8.5<br />
WATERFORD<br />
1.1 DBT<br />
Getting worse<br />
Hospitality +60,<br />
Business Admin & Support +52.4,<br />
Other Service +27.9<br />
IT and Comms +0.9<br />
Getting better<br />
Entertainment -19.9<br />
Real Estate -19.7<br />
Wholesale and retail trade -19.4<br />
Manufacturing -14.5<br />
Construction -8.5<br />
Financial and Insurance -2.9<br />
Professional and Scientific -2.6<br />
Public Administration -2.5<br />
Transportation and Storage -1.4<br />
the cost of your<br />
Serrala<br />
CP<br />
CICM Membership<br />
Manage your own cashflow<br />
Simply scan the code below using your phone,<br />
print and return to CICM, 1 Accent Park, Bakewell<br />
Road, Orton Southgate,Peterborough PE2 6XS<br />
and we will do the rest!<br />
Another reason to be a member<br />
Make the switch to Direct Debit<br />
For details contact: info@cicm.com<br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 30
WE’VE known for some time that China<br />
has sought to gain influence around the<br />
world through its Belt and Road initiative,<br />
which aims to develop an expanded and<br />
interdependent market for China.<br />
Nikkei Asia recently highlighted the<br />
latest of China’s developments - the Lekki<br />
Deep Sea Port in Nigeria, which has just<br />
seen a Chinese ship berth at it.<br />
Financed by the China Development<br />
Bank, Nigerian Ports Authority managing<br />
director, Mohammed Bello-Koko, has said<br />
that the port signifies Nigeria’s readiness<br />
to “take trade facilitation a notch higher”<br />
and play a part in the African Continental<br />
Free Trade Area. The publication says<br />
that there are two globally significant<br />
International Trade<br />
Monthly round-up of the latest stories<br />
in global trade by Andrea Kirkby.<br />
Nigeria as a destination<br />
GERMANY has a problem – a lack of<br />
local gas and oil. With threats of gas<br />
rationing following Russia’s invasion<br />
of Ukraine and now, levies of hundreds<br />
of euros per household to help energy<br />
companies cover the cost of replacing<br />
former Russian supplies, the country is<br />
having to rethink its energy policies.<br />
Half of its nuclear power-generation<br />
investments ready to take advantage of<br />
the port: Dangote Group’s petrochemical<br />
complex, an oil refinery with a capacity of<br />
650,000 barrels, and the $2.5bn Dangote<br />
fertiliser plant.<br />
But no matter who built or financed<br />
the terminal, it’s made Nigeria even more<br />
accessible to those wanting to export to it.<br />
And this is especially pertinent to British<br />
exporters since figures published at the<br />
start of August by the UK Government<br />
noted that the total trade in goods and<br />
services between the two countries stood<br />
at £4.4bn in the four quarters to the end<br />
of Q1 <strong>2022</strong>, an increase of 44 percent or<br />
£1.3bn from the four quarters to the end<br />
of Q1 2021.<br />
Germany, fracking, and opportunities<br />
capacity was closed almost<br />
immediately after the Fukushima<br />
disaster, yet the Greens want the<br />
remaining ones in operation to close<br />
too.<br />
Interestingly, The Economist has<br />
commented that Germany has plenty of<br />
natural gas reserves of its own, but that<br />
extraction collapsed because many are<br />
WATCH OUT IN ASIA<br />
A recent note on Atradius’ website<br />
stated that Asian businesses are<br />
struggling to offset losses from bad<br />
debt and that ‘chasing down unpaid<br />
B2B trade debt has become a major<br />
headache for Asian companies trading<br />
on domestic and export markets.’<br />
Atradius considers the problem more<br />
serious in long-term – more than 90<br />
days – unpaid B2B trade debt that is<br />
written off as uncollectable despite<br />
several attempts to receive payment.<br />
And this is a major concern for<br />
businesses in China, Hong Kong, India,<br />
Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam<br />
and the United Arab Emirates.<br />
Overall, Taiwan seemed to be in the<br />
worst position with a bad debt writeoffs<br />
figure now at eight percent of the<br />
total value of B2B invoices. Businesses<br />
in Hong Kong and Singapore were<br />
also seeing increased write-offs with<br />
an average 50 percent increase. Also<br />
suffering was Indonesia, with a reported<br />
40 percent increase in write-offs. And in<br />
Vietnam, liquidity is being dented both<br />
by write-offs at six percent of the total<br />
value of B2B invoices and unpaid B2B<br />
trade debt, which was affecting around<br />
half of the B2B trade value.<br />
Notably, the survey found that 20<br />
percent more companies than the<br />
previous year reported an increased<br />
willingness to extend credit to B2B<br />
customers. Atradius thinks this signals<br />
that current market conditions are very<br />
competitive and that businesses are<br />
struggling to get the additional sales<br />
revenue to make good the losses from<br />
write-offs.<br />
The comments were made after the<br />
<strong>2022</strong> edition of the Atradius Payment<br />
Practices Barometer Survey for Asia.<br />
worried about the impact of fracking.<br />
However, gas producers reckon that<br />
if allowed, they could double their<br />
output from fracking in as little as 18<br />
to 24 months. That could see Germany<br />
pumping gas well into the next century<br />
and trim imports by some $15bn a year.<br />
And that may open opportunities for<br />
those UK firms active in the area.<br />
A new Customs Declaration Service<br />
HMRC is warning that thousands of UK<br />
businesses risk ‘significant delays‘ in<br />
importing goods if they don’t move to the<br />
UK’s new streamlined customs system<br />
soon.<br />
More than 3,500 businesses have yet<br />
to transition to the Customs Declaration<br />
Service, and they will be in trouble when<br />
the old system – the Customs Handling<br />
Import and Export Freight (CHIEF) – is<br />
shut down at the beginning of <strong>October</strong>.<br />
HMRC has said that ‘it can take several<br />
weeks to be fully set up on the Customs<br />
Declaration Service, so those waiting<br />
to register risk being unable to import<br />
goods to the UK from 1 <strong>October</strong>.’<br />
To help all businesses and agents<br />
prepare for the new service, firms are<br />
being contacted by phone and email to<br />
inform them of the steps they need to<br />
take. Further information is available on<br />
GOV.UK, including a Customs Declaration<br />
NEW CREDIT RATING<br />
RULES IN INDIA<br />
REUTERS has highlighted what can<br />
happen to businesses when a central<br />
bank changes its methodologies. In<br />
this case, the Indian unit of credit<br />
rating agency, Moody's ICRA, recently<br />
commented that nearly 100 companies<br />
with debt totalling 350bn rupees<br />
(£3.6bn) could be downgraded after the<br />
Reserve Bank of India tightened rating<br />
methodologies. The companies likely<br />
to be affected are mainly in the power,<br />
healthcare, engineering, construction<br />
and roads sectors.<br />
Under the changes, rating agencies<br />
can only take into consideration an<br />
explicit guarantee by a third party for a<br />
company's debt. At the same time, other<br />
widely accepted forms of support, such<br />
as letters of support or pledged shares,<br />
will no longer be considered.<br />
As a result, ICRA thinks that Indian<br />
banks could have to set aside an<br />
additional 4bn rupees given the higher<br />
capital requirement for lower-rated<br />
companies – which may affect lending<br />
elsewhere. And, of course, when credit<br />
ratings drop, the potential for failure<br />
increases. Exercise caution.<br />
Service toolkit and checklists, which<br />
breaks down the steps traders need to<br />
take. Firms can also register or check<br />
that they have access to the Customs<br />
Declaration Service on GOV.UK and<br />
access live customer support services for<br />
additional help.<br />
It shouldn’t be forgotten that the<br />
change may affect exporters who rely on<br />
imports for raw materials.<br />
EU DELAYS RULES UNTIL NOVEMBER 2023<br />
TRAVELLERS to Europe, whether for leisure or business, need to be aware of the new<br />
European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS). Aimed at non-EU citizens<br />
from countries where a visa is not required to enter the EU, it’s rather like the US ESTA and<br />
grants permission to travel to and enter a Schengen zone EU member state.<br />
The ETIAS costs seven euros, lasts for two years and was meant to come into force in<br />
May 2023; it’s now been silently pushed back to November 2023.<br />
That said, a new and separate Entry/Exit System (EES) will, from May 2023, require all<br />
non-EU arrivals to have four fingerprints scanned and a photograph taken. This is designed<br />
to replace the stamp put into a passport. Some warn that EES is a relatively easy process at<br />
an airport but will be much harder and slower at seaports and the Eurotunnel – especially<br />
if there’s more than one person in a vehicle.<br />
So, if you’re travelling on business, make sure that you diarise the new ETIAS system<br />
from November 2023 and if you’re in a vehicle, allow extra time at the ports to cope with<br />
EES from next May.<br />
WELSH EXPORTS<br />
POST BREXIT<br />
ACCORDING to research from Make UK<br />
and business advisory firm BDO - Regional<br />
Manufacturing Outlook <strong>2022</strong> – which was<br />
cited by the likes of The Manufacturer and<br />
NationCymru, Welsh exports have become<br />
more dependent on the EU after Brexit.<br />
The research found that the EU’s share<br />
of Wales’ export market rose from 58<br />
percent to 60 percent, despite the opening<br />
up of export markets with the rest of the<br />
world being a stated objective of the Brexit<br />
project.<br />
Researchers suggested the nations<br />
and regions that voted for Brexit had<br />
actually increased their dependence<br />
on the EU for manufacturing exports,<br />
while the European market remained the<br />
overwhelming favoured destination for the<br />
sector.<br />
Make UK said the EU remains ‘by some<br />
distance’ the most important export<br />
destination for UK goods, and BDO said<br />
‘manufacturing businesses have done a<br />
good job in adapting to new post-Brexit<br />
rules for trading with the EU, but ongoing<br />
government support may well be required,<br />
particularly for firms at the smaller end of<br />
the spectrum.’<br />
DON’T RELY ON FACEBOOK<br />
AS mad as it sounds, a good number of<br />
businesses – especially SMEs – rely on<br />
Facebook to promote themselves. And<br />
they do this to the exclusion of other<br />
forms of media. The problem is that not<br />
everyone uses Facebook, so bypassing<br />
other media means businesses are<br />
missing out on countless pairs of eyes.<br />
This was thrown into sharp relief<br />
recently as Facebook’s parent company,<br />
Meta, announced its first quarterly<br />
decline in revenue. After jumping by 60<br />
percent between 2019 and 2021, sales<br />
fell by one percent year-on-year in the<br />
second quarter of <strong>2022</strong>; it resulted from a<br />
14 percent fall in advertising revenue and<br />
a drop in users by one percent.<br />
Some think that Meta’s drop is<br />
a function of market maturity. But<br />
whatever the reason, other media<br />
firms are doing well and MoneyWeek<br />
highlighted French advertising and PR<br />
firm Publicis as an example. It posted a<br />
21 percent year-on-year revenue increase<br />
for the second quarter, while another<br />
French advertising firm, JCDecaux,<br />
reported a 22 percent jump.<br />
In other words, and as Bloomberg<br />
reckons, ‘the hold of social media on<br />
advertisers is weakening.’ This may be<br />
the result of pressure on governments to<br />
reform social media while dealing with<br />
political bias and the ‘abuse’ of personal<br />
data. But it’s also a function of Apple<br />
making it harder for advertisers to<br />
trace what people do with their<br />
iPhones, and then there’s the rise of<br />
other platforms that are impinging on<br />
Facebook’s market.<br />
The point is this – don’t rely on just<br />
one media platform to promote your<br />
company and its goods and services.<br />
Doing so shuts out so many potential<br />
customers that may miss the message.<br />
CURRENCY UK<br />
EXCHANGE RATES VISIT CURRENCYUK.CO.UK<br />
OR CALL 020 7738 0777<br />
Currency UK is authorised and regulated<br />
by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).<br />
HIGH LOW TREND<br />
GBP/EUR 1.1881 1.3859 Down<br />
GBP/USD 1.1878 1.3627 Down<br />
GBP/CHF 1.14125 1.09585 Down<br />
GBP/AUD 1.72179 1.68716 Down<br />
GBP/CAD 1.53478 1.50403 Down<br />
GBP/JPY 166.863 160.76 Up<br />
This data was taken on 21st September and refers to the<br />
month previous to/leading up to 21st September.<br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 32<br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 33
OPINION<br />
OPINION<br />
DEAL BREAKERS<br />
The UK’s new National Security regime:<br />
What do you need to know?<br />
THE UK’s new, and more<br />
extensive, national security<br />
regime entered into force<br />
on 4 January <strong>2022</strong> after<br />
the National Security and<br />
Investment Act 2021 received<br />
Royal Assent in April last year.<br />
The new regime is the culmination of a<br />
number of years of discussion of the UK’s<br />
approach to national security matters that<br />
included a white paper published in 2018; it<br />
reflects a global trend for more intervention<br />
in and scrutiny of national security issues.<br />
MORE INTERVENTIONS<br />
Fundamentally, the Act sets out a new,<br />
standalone regime that allows the UK<br />
Government to scrutinise – and potentially<br />
block – acquisitions and investments in<br />
sensitive sectors which could impact upon<br />
national security.<br />
The expectation is that the Government<br />
will be more likely to intervene in<br />
transactions under this new regime than<br />
was the case under the national security<br />
provisions of the Enterprise Act 2002.<br />
Concerns are greater under the new regime<br />
if a transaction involves the acquisition of<br />
an entity or asset in (or closely linked to) 17<br />
specified sectors of the economy. The new<br />
powers are deliberately flexible to address<br />
concerns in any sector and evolving national<br />
security risks (with national security not<br />
defined).<br />
The Act introduced a significant change<br />
in approach in terms of the requirement on<br />
companies to notify deals under mandatory<br />
elements of the new regime. These are<br />
very broad and are backed by the power to<br />
impose significant financial and criminal<br />
penalties for failure to comply.<br />
Now the regime is in force, the key issue<br />
for companies to consider is whether their<br />
transaction requires mandatory notification<br />
or alternatively a voluntary notification may<br />
be advisable, as well as ensuring that the<br />
regime is factored into deal timelines and<br />
documentation to manage the risks of delay<br />
or Government intervention.<br />
AUTHORS – Ian Giles and Mark Daniels<br />
REGIME COVERAGE<br />
The new regime falls into two parts -<br />
mandatory and voluntary.<br />
The mandatory regime requires qualifying<br />
transactions to be notified for approval<br />
before they take place. The voluntary regime<br />
allows parties to submit transactions for<br />
approval and also allows deals to be calledin<br />
retrospectively even if not voluntarily<br />
notified. Notifications are made to the<br />
new Investment Security Unit (ISU), within<br />
the Department for Business, Energy and<br />
Industrial Strategy (BEIS), which operates<br />
the regime on a day-to-basis. Under the Act,<br />
it is strictly the Secretary of State for BEIS<br />
who decides whether to call-in a transaction<br />
and the outcome of any review.<br />
MANDATORY NOTIFICATION<br />
The test for a mandatory notification<br />
comprises two parts – an acquisition of<br />
rights or interests amounting to a relevant<br />
trigger event regarding a target entity active<br />
in a qualifying sector.<br />
The 17 qualifying sectors and final<br />
definitions for these sectors are set out<br />
in a Statutory Instrument – the National<br />
Security and Investment Act 2021 (Notifiable<br />
Acquisition) (Specification of Qualifying<br />
Entities) Regulations 2021. As well as<br />
obvious sectors such as defence, energy and<br />
transport, there is a significant focus on<br />
technology and innovation such as advanced<br />
robotics and quantum technologies.<br />
The sector definitions are relatively<br />
detailed and technical and, recognising their<br />
complexity, BEIS has published guidance<br />
to help explain what the definitions are<br />
intended to capture and how to apply<br />
them. However, despite this guidance, the<br />
definitions are often not straightforward<br />
to apply. Organisations may also need to<br />
consider several of the sector definitions<br />
given a number are closely linked and take<br />
care that even if a target’s core activities are<br />
not within one of the 17 sectors it does not<br />
have other activities that are caught.<br />
The trigger events for mandatory<br />
notification are the acquisition of more<br />
than 25 percent, more than 50 percent, or 75<br />
percent or more of the voting rights or shares<br />
in a qualifying entity; or the acquisition of<br />
voting rights enabling or preventing the<br />
passage of any class of resolution governing<br />
the affairs of the qualifying entity.<br />
VOLUNTARY NOTIFICATION<br />
The trigger events described above also<br />
apply to target entities that are not active<br />
in a qualifying sector – however, in those<br />
cases the notification is voluntary rather<br />
than mandatory. In addition, whether or<br />
not the transaction involves a target entity<br />
in a qualifying sector, there are trigger<br />
events which apply under the voluntary<br />
regime (i.e. which do not require mandatory<br />
AUTHORS – Ian Giles and Mark Daniels<br />
notification). These are the acquisition of material influence<br />
over a qualifying entity’s policy; or the acquisition of a right<br />
or interest in, or in relation to, a qualifying asset providing<br />
the ability to use or control the asset (either entirely or to a<br />
greater extent).<br />
CONNECTION WITH THE UK<br />
To fall within the new regime the target entity or asset must<br />
be from, in, or have a sufficient connection with the UK. A<br />
qualifying entity must carry on activities in the UK or supply<br />
goods or services to people in the UK, and a qualifying asset<br />
must be used in connection with activities carried on in the<br />
UK or the supply of goods or services to people in the UK.<br />
BEIS has published specific guidance on when target<br />
entities and assets outside the UK are within the scope of the<br />
new regime, which indicates a relatively broad approach in<br />
this regard. For example, an overseas company producing<br />
goods for export to a UK company could be caught, as could<br />
machinery located overseas used to produce equipment that<br />
is used in the UK.<br />
Assessments will also be fact specific and may not be<br />
straightforward – the guidance explains that an overseas<br />
entity is likely to be a qualifying entity if its staff travel to the<br />
UK and undertake business activities similar to working in a<br />
regional office, but it is not likely to be one if those staff solely<br />
conduct market research or are part of a sales team seeking<br />
new clients.<br />
Another complexity is that, whereas a non-UK entity<br />
counts as a qualifying entity if it carries on activities in the<br />
UK or supplies goods or services to persons in the UK, for an<br />
acquisition of such an entity to require mandatory notification<br />
it must actually carry-on UK activities that fall within one<br />
of the 17 sensitive sectors. However, care is needed in this<br />
regard as some of the activities within the definitions for the<br />
17 sectors include supply of goods or services to UK persons.<br />
INTRA-GROUP TRANSACTIONS<br />
While the focus is clearly third-party acquisitions, intragroup<br />
reorganisations may also fall within the new regime,<br />
potentially even requiring mandatory notification. The<br />
published guidance provides the example of two parties<br />
that share the same ultimate owner but are run separately<br />
from each other. If one of these parties acquires part of the<br />
other, this would fall within the scope of the Act if the level of<br />
interest being acquired amounts to a trigger event.<br />
SCOPE<br />
One key take away is that this new regime is wider than that<br />
which applies to traditional M&A deals. The trigger events<br />
set out above could include minority investments, as well as<br />
intra-group transactions and (in the context of the voluntary<br />
regime) acquisitions of or transactions giving control over<br />
assets such as land or intellectual property.<br />
Under the Act, the Secretary of State must publish a<br />
statement explaining how the power to call-in transactions<br />
for a full national security assessment is expected to be<br />
used. This provides guidance on the sorts of issues that will<br />
be taken into account when considering whether to call a<br />
transaction in – and hence how parties might assess whether<br />
to make a voluntary notification, as well as whether a notified<br />
transaction (mandatory or voluntary) is likely to be cleared<br />
after an initial review or called-in for a full assessment.<br />
Qualifying acquisitions in any area of the economy could be<br />
reviewed, but a transaction is unlikely to be called-in unless<br />
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continues on page 36 >
OPINION<br />
the target entity or asset is in one of the 17 sensitive<br />
sectors or a sector closely linked to one of those<br />
sectors.<br />
There are three risk factors that are also relevant<br />
in particular in determining whether a transaction<br />
is likely to be called in.<br />
These are target risk – whether the target entity<br />
or asset is being used, or could be used, in a way<br />
that poses a risk to national security; acquirer<br />
risk – whether the acquirer has characteristics<br />
that suggest there is, or may be, a risk to national<br />
security from the acquirer having control of the<br />
target; and control risk – whether the amount of<br />
control that has been, or will be, acquired poses a<br />
risk to national security (a higher level of control<br />
may increase the level of national security risk).<br />
BEIS believes there will be around 1,000 to<br />
1,830 transactions notified each year with 70 to 95<br />
transactions called in for a full national security<br />
assessment. Others think those numbers will be<br />
exceeded.<br />
But whatever the exact number of national<br />
security reviews under the new regime, it is clear<br />
the number will be significantly higher than under<br />
the previous Enterprise Act regime. National<br />
security reviews under the Enterprise Act were<br />
relatively rare (fewer than 20 reviews since 2003),<br />
even despite a notable increase in such reviews<br />
after the Bill for the new regime was published in<br />
November 2020.<br />
WHEN THE REGIME TOOK EFFECT<br />
While the full regime came into force at the start<br />
of the year, the retrospective call-in power applies<br />
from the day after publication of the Bill. This<br />
means that trigger events that occurred during the<br />
period 12 November 2020 to 3 January <strong>2022</strong> can also<br />
see transactions called in for review.<br />
Parties to transactions where a trigger event<br />
occurred between those earlier dates had an<br />
incentive to make the ISU aware of their transaction<br />
before the Act came into force. Doing so limited<br />
any retrospective call-in to six months from 4<br />
January <strong>2022</strong> instead of up to five years from that<br />
date (although any call-in subject to the five-year<br />
deadline also needs to be within six months of<br />
when the Secretary of State became aware of the<br />
trigger event after the Act came into force).<br />
The mandatory notification requirements have<br />
applied from 4 January <strong>2022</strong> (including in relation<br />
to any deals that were signed previously but where<br />
a relevant trigger event takes place after the Act<br />
came into force). Accordingly, parties to any deals<br />
that might require mandatory notification need<br />
to factor the process into their deal planning, and<br />
likewise for transactions where parties decide to<br />
submit a voluntary notification.<br />
THE PROCESS<br />
The ISU deals with notifications. It will conduct<br />
an initial review within 30 working days of<br />
notification, after which the transaction will either<br />
be cleared or called-in for a full national security<br />
assessment. A full assessment will itself take up to<br />
30 working days, subject to an initial extension of<br />
45 working days, and further potential voluntary<br />
AUTHORS – Ian Giles and Mark Daniels<br />
❝<br />
The mandatory<br />
notification<br />
requirements<br />
have applied<br />
from 4 January<br />
<strong>2022</strong> (including<br />
in relation to<br />
any deals that<br />
were signed<br />
previously but<br />
where a relevant<br />
trigger event<br />
takes place after<br />
the Act came<br />
into force).<br />
❝<br />
extension if agreed with the parties. The clock can<br />
be stopped on the review during a full assessment<br />
if further information is required.<br />
For mandatory notifications, clearance must be<br />
received before the transaction takes place. Where<br />
a mandatory notification has not been made, the<br />
Secretary of State may call-in the deal at any future<br />
point, provided this is within six months of the<br />
Secretary of State becoming aware of the trigger<br />
event.<br />
For voluntary notifications, the parties have the<br />
option to notify, but the Secretary of State is able to<br />
call-in a deal for up to six months after they become<br />
aware of it, any time up to five years after the deal<br />
takes place. A transaction under the voluntary<br />
regime but not voluntarily notified will proceed<br />
straight to a full assessment if called-in for review.<br />
There are specific requirements for the content<br />
of mandatory and voluntary notifications, which<br />
are set out in the National Security and Investment<br />
Act 2021 (Prescribed Form and Content of Notices<br />
and Validation Applications) Regulations 2021.<br />
Additional requirements in terms of the procedure<br />
for submitting notifications and other documents<br />
to BEIS, including use of the NSI electronic portal,<br />
are in the National Security and Investment Act<br />
2021 (Procedure for Service) Regulations 2021.<br />
SANCTIONS FOR FAILING TO NOTIFY<br />
If a deal requiring mandatory notification is not<br />
approved the transaction will be legally void. In<br />
addition, there are civil and criminal penalties,<br />
including potential daily penalties for ongoing<br />
breaches. Completing a transaction that is subject<br />
to mandatory notification without approval will<br />
risk a penalty of up to five percent of group worldwide<br />
turnover or £10m (whichever is higher), and<br />
imprisonment for individuals for up to five years.<br />
Notably, the Secretary of State may retrospectively<br />
validate a transaction that failed to gain approval.<br />
The Secretary of State also has the power to<br />
impose remedies to address any national security<br />
concerns. These may include, for example,<br />
conditions restricting access to sensitive sites,<br />
access to confidential information and intellectual<br />
property transfers.<br />
IN SUMMARY<br />
Ultimately the Secretary of State has the power to<br />
block deals, or to require acquisitions that have<br />
taken place to be divested or unwound.<br />
However, the vast majority of transactions<br />
reviewed under the new regime are expected to<br />
be cleared without needing remedies. Despite<br />
this, the new regime is far-reaching with serious<br />
consequences for non-compliance and requires<br />
parties to transactions in a much wider range<br />
of situations to engage with a potential national<br />
security review than under the previous Enterprise<br />
Act regime.<br />
Ian Giles is a partner and head of Norton Rose<br />
Fulbright LLP’s antitrust and competition team in<br />
Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Mark Daniels is<br />
a senior knowledge lawyer at the firm.<br />
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next career move at www.portfoliocreditcontrol.com<br />
www.portfoliocreditcontrol.com<br />
recruitment@portfoliocreditcontrol.com<br />
Fill your vacancy or find your next career<br />
move at www.portfoliocreditcontrol.com<br />
WE NEED YOU!<br />
Contribute to our Portfolio <strong>Credit</strong> Control<br />
Salary Survey <strong>2022</strong>/23 today.<br />
Portfolio <strong>Credit</strong> Control specialise<br />
in solely recruiting for permanent,<br />
temporary & contract <strong>Credit</strong><br />
professionals at all levels of the market.<br />
Our expert market knowledge & industry<br />
experience is trusted by businesses<br />
across the UK for all their <strong>Credit</strong> Control<br />
hiring needs including <strong>Credit</strong> Managers,<br />
<strong>Credit</strong> Controllers, Sales Ledger &<br />
Accounts Receivable professionals;<br />
just to name a few…<br />
Contact us to hire the<br />
best <strong>Credit</strong> Control talent<br />
Rated as Excellent<br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 36<br />
portfolio-credit-control<br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 37
Introducing our<br />
CORPORATE PARTNERS<br />
For further information and to discuss the opportunities of entering into a<br />
Corporate Partnership with the CICM, please contact corporatepartners@cicm.com<br />
Each of our Corporate Partners is carefully selected for<br />
their commitment to the profession, best practice in the<br />
<strong>Credit</strong> Industry and the quality of services they provide.<br />
We are delighted to showcase them here.<br />
They're waiting to talk to you...<br />
VISMA | Onguard is a specialist in credit management<br />
software and market leader in innovative solutions for<br />
order-to-cash. Our integrated platform ensures an optimal<br />
connection of all processes in the order-to-cash<br />
chain. This enhanced visibility with the secure sharing<br />
of critical data ensures optimal connection between<br />
all processes in the order-to-cash chain, resulting<br />
in stronger, longer-lasting customer relationships<br />
through improved and personalised communication.<br />
The VISMA | Onguard platform is used for successful<br />
credit management in more than 70 countries.<br />
YayPay makes it easy for B2B finance teams to stay<br />
ahead of accounts receivable and get paid faster –<br />
from anywhere.<br />
Integrating with your ERP, CRM, and billing<br />
systems, YayPay presents your real-time data<br />
through cloud-based dashboards. Automation<br />
improves productivity by 3X and accelerates<br />
collections by up to 34 percent. Predictive analytics<br />
provide insight into payor behavior and an online<br />
portal enables customers to access their accounts<br />
and pay at any time.<br />
HighRadius provides a cloud-based Integrated<br />
Receivable Platform, powered by machine learning<br />
and AI. Our Technology empowers enterprise<br />
organisations to reduce cycle time in the order-tocash<br />
process and increase working capital availability<br />
by automating receivables and payments processes<br />
across credit, electronic billing and payment<br />
processing, cash application, deductions, and<br />
collections.<br />
Hays <strong>Credit</strong> <strong>Management</strong> is a national specialist<br />
division dedicated exclusively to the recruitment of<br />
credit management and receivables professionals,<br />
at all levels, in the public and private sectors. As<br />
the CICM’s only Premium Corporate Partner, we<br />
are best placed to help all clients’ and candidates’<br />
recruitment needs as well providing guidance on<br />
CV writing, career advice, salary bench-marking,<br />
marketing of vacancies, advertising and campaign<br />
led recruitment, competency-based interviewing,<br />
career and recruitment trends.<br />
Court Enforcement Services is the market<br />
leading and fastest growing High Court Enforcement<br />
company. Since forming in 2014, we have managed<br />
over 100,000 High Court Writs and recovered more<br />
than £187 million for our clients, all debt fairly<br />
collected. We help lawyers and creditors across all<br />
sectors to recover unpaid CCJ’s sooner rather than<br />
later. We achieve 39 percent early engagement<br />
resulting in market-leading recovery rates. Our<br />
multi-award-winning technology provides real-time<br />
reporting 24/7.<br />
Shoosmiths’ highly experienced team will work<br />
closely with credit teams to recover commercial<br />
debts as quickly and cost effectively as possible.<br />
We have an in depth knowledge of all areas of debt<br />
recovery, including:<br />
• Pre-litigation services to effect early recovery and<br />
keep costs down • Litigation service • Insolvency<br />
• Post-litigation services including enforcement<br />
As a client of Shoosmiths, you will find us quick to<br />
relate to your goals, and adept at advising you on the<br />
most effective way of achieving them.<br />
T: 020 3868 0947<br />
E: edan.milner@onguard.com<br />
W: www.onguard.com<br />
T: +44 (0)7465 423 538<br />
E: marketing@yaypay.com<br />
W: www.yaypay.com<br />
T: +44 (0) 203 997 9400<br />
E: infoemea@highradius.com<br />
W: www.highradius.com<br />
T: 07834 260029<br />
E: karen.young@hays.com<br />
W: www.hays.co.uk/creditcontrol<br />
T: +44 (0)1992 367 092<br />
E: a.whitehurst@courtenforcementservices.co.uk<br />
W: www.courtenforcementservices.co.uk<br />
T: 03700 86 3000<br />
E: paula.swain@shoosmiths.co.uk<br />
W: www.shoosmiths.co.uk<br />
Bottomline Technologies (NASDAQ: EPAY) helps<br />
businesses pay and get paid. Businesses and banks<br />
rely on Bottomline for domestic and international<br />
payments, effective cash management tools, automated<br />
workflows for payment processing and bill review<br />
and state of the art fraud detection, behavioural<br />
analytics and regulatory compliance. Every day, we<br />
help our customers by making complex business<br />
payments simple, secure and seamless.<br />
Our <strong>Credit</strong>or Services team can advise on the best<br />
way for you to protect your position when one of<br />
your debtors enters, or is approaching, insolvency<br />
proceedings. Our services include assisting with<br />
retention of title claims, providing representation at<br />
creditor meetings, forensic investigations, raising<br />
finance, financial restructuring and removing the<br />
administrative burden – this includes completing<br />
and lodging claim forms, monitoring dividend<br />
prospects and analysing all Insolvency Reports and<br />
correspondence.<br />
FIS GETPAID solution is a fully integrated, webbased<br />
order-to cash (O2C) solution that helps<br />
companies improve operational efficiencies, lower<br />
DSO, and increase cash flow. The solution suite<br />
includes strategic risk-based collections, artificial<br />
intelligence, process automation, credit risk<br />
management, deduction and dispute resolution and<br />
cash application. FIS is a global leader in financial<br />
services technology, providing software, services<br />
and outsourcing of the technology that empowers<br />
the financial world.<br />
Forums International has been running <strong>Credit</strong> and<br />
Industry Forums since 1991 covering a range of<br />
industry sectors and international trading. Attendance<br />
is for credit professionals of all levels. Our forums<br />
are not just meetings but communities which<br />
aim to prepare our members for the challenges<br />
ahead. Attending for the first time is free for you to<br />
gauge the benefits and meet the members and we<br />
only have pre-approved Partners, so you will never<br />
intentionally be sold to.<br />
Data Interconnect provides corporate <strong>Credit</strong> Control<br />
teams with Accounts Receivable software for bulk<br />
e-invoicing, collections, dispute management and<br />
invoice finance. The modular, cloud-based Corrivo<br />
platform can be configured for any business model.<br />
It integrates with all ERP systems and buyer AP<br />
platforms or tax regimes. Customers can self-serve<br />
on mobile friendly portals, however their invoices are<br />
delivered, and <strong>Credit</strong> Controllers can easily extract<br />
data for compliance, audit and reporting purposes.<br />
Serrala optimizes the Universe of Payments for<br />
organisations seeking efficient cash visibility<br />
and secure financial processes. As an SAP<br />
Partner, Serrala supports over 3,500 companies<br />
worldwide. With more than 30 years of experience<br />
and thousands of successful customer projects,<br />
including solutions for the entire order-to-cash<br />
process, Serrala provides credit managers and<br />
receivables professionals with the solutions they<br />
need to successfully protect their business against<br />
credit risk exposure and bad debt loss.<br />
T: 0870 081 8250<br />
E: emea-info@bottomline.com<br />
W: www.bottomline.com/uk<br />
T: +44 (0)2073 875 868 - London<br />
T: +44 (0)2920 495 444 - Cardiff<br />
W: menzies.co.uk/creditor-services<br />
T: +447730500085<br />
E: getinfo@fisglobal.com.<br />
W: www.fisglobal.com<br />
T: +44 (0)1246 555055<br />
E: info@forumsinternational.co.uk<br />
W: www.forumsinternational.co.uk<br />
T: +44 (0)1367 245777<br />
E: sales@datainterconnect.co.uk<br />
W: www.datainterconnect.com<br />
T: +44 118 207 0450<br />
E: contact@serrala.com<br />
W: www.serrala.com<br />
With 130+ years of experience, Graydon is a leading<br />
provider of business information, analytics, insights<br />
and solutions. Graydon helps its customers to make<br />
fast, accurate decisions, enabling them to minimise<br />
risk and identify fraud as well as optimise opportunities<br />
with their commercial relationships. Graydon<br />
uses 130+ international databases and the information<br />
of 90+ million companies. Graydon has offices in<br />
London, Cardiff, Amsterdam and Antwerp. Since 2016,<br />
Graydon has been part of Atradius, one of the world’s<br />
largest credit insurance companies.<br />
Tinubu Square is a trusted source of trade credit<br />
intelligence for credit insurers and for corporate<br />
customers. The company’s B2B <strong>Credit</strong> Risk<br />
Intelligence solutions include the Tinubu Risk<br />
<strong>Management</strong> Center, a cloud-based SaaS platform;<br />
the Tinubu <strong>Credit</strong> Intelligence service and the<br />
Tinubu Risk Analyst advisory service. Over 250<br />
companies rely on Tinubu Square to protect their<br />
greatest assets: customer receivables.<br />
Building on our mature and hugely successful<br />
product and world class support service, we are<br />
re-imagining our risk awareness module in 2019 to<br />
allow for hugely flexible automated worklists and<br />
advanced visibility of areas of risk. Alongside full<br />
integration with all credit scoring agencies (e.g.<br />
<strong>Credit</strong>safe), this makes Credica a single port-of-call<br />
for analysis and automation. Impressive results<br />
and ROI are inevitable for our customers that also<br />
have an active input into our product development<br />
and evolution.<br />
American Express® is a globally recognised<br />
provider of business payment solutions, providing<br />
flexible capabilities to help companies drive<br />
growth. These solutions support buyers and<br />
suppliers across the supply chain with working<br />
capital and cashflow.<br />
By creating an additional lever to help support<br />
supplier/client relationships American Express is<br />
proud to be an innovator in the business payments<br />
space.<br />
The Company Watch platform provides risk analysis<br />
and data modelling tools to organisations around<br />
the world that rely on our ability to accurately predict<br />
their exposure to financial risk. Our H-Score®<br />
predicted 92 percent of quoted company insolvencies<br />
and our TextScore® accuracy rate was 93<br />
percent. Our scores are trusted by credit professionals<br />
within banks, corporates, investment houses<br />
and public sector bodies because, unlike other credit<br />
reference agencies, we are transparent and flexible<br />
in our approach.<br />
Esker’s Accounts Receivable (AR) solution removes<br />
the all-too-common obstacles preventing today’s<br />
businesses from collecting receivables in a<br />
timely manner. From credit management to cash<br />
allocation, Esker automates each step of the orderto-cash<br />
cycle. Esker’s automated AR system helps<br />
companies modernise without replacing their<br />
core billing and collections processes. By simply<br />
automating what should be automated, customers<br />
get the post-sale experience they deserve and your<br />
team gets the tools they need.<br />
T: +44 (0)208 515 1400<br />
E: customerservices@graydon.co.uk<br />
W: www.graydon.co.uk<br />
T: +44 (0)207 469 2577 /<br />
E: uksales@tinubu.com<br />
W: www.tinubu.com.<br />
T: 01235 856400<br />
E: info@credica.co.uk<br />
W: www.credica.co.uk<br />
T: +44 (0)1273 696933<br />
W: www.americanexpress.com<br />
T: +44 (0)20 7043 3300<br />
E: info@companywatch.net<br />
W: www.companywatch.net<br />
T: +44 (0)1332 548176<br />
E: sam.townsend@esker.co.uk<br />
W: www.esker.co.uk<br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 38 Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 39
Introducing our<br />
CORPORATE PARTNERS<br />
Each of our Corporate Partners is carefully selected for their commitment<br />
to the profession, best practice in the <strong>Credit</strong> Industry and the quality of<br />
services they provide. We are delighted to showcase them here.<br />
Do you know someone who would benefit from CICM membership? Or have<br />
you considered applying to upgrade your membership? See our website<br />
www.cicm.com/membership-types for more details, or call us on 01780 722903<br />
Cora-Jade Gerrard<br />
Finley Cole<br />
Mara Helena Fernandes Caires<br />
Marcel Malanca<br />
Maria Taylor<br />
Sarah Jackson<br />
Sebastiano Flynn<br />
Bradley Ford<br />
Sarah Aird<br />
Lauren Paige Ford<br />
NEW AND UPGRADED MEMBERS<br />
Sarah Hall<br />
Jodie Jarvis<br />
Sean Harris<br />
Sheena Ferguson<br />
Kieran Gibson<br />
Valeska Sharkey<br />
Omar Hajat<br />
Harry Payne<br />
Sam Sharpe<br />
Massimiliano Cerolini<br />
STUDYING MEMBER<br />
Amy Occleshaw<br />
Kevin Sherwood<br />
Lee Taylor<br />
Dominic Grossett<br />
Jasmine Bailey<br />
Lee-Anne Phillips<br />
Ellie Coulson<br />
Mia Radford<br />
James Dewar<br />
Lindsay Williams<br />
Michael Myrie<br />
Jennifer Egan<br />
Mark Jamieson<br />
Laura Mather<br />
Vicki Hall<br />
Alina Jircovici<br />
Marius Craioveanu<br />
Louise Leacock<br />
Jack Easdon<br />
Chris Sanders Consulting – we are a different sort of<br />
consulting firm, made up of a network of independent<br />
experienced operational credit and collections<br />
management and invoicing professionals, with<br />
specialisms in cross industry best practice advisory,<br />
assessment, interim management, leadership,<br />
workshops and training to help your team and<br />
organisation reach their full potential in credit<br />
and collections management. We are proud to be<br />
Corporate Partners of the Chartered Institute of <strong>Credit</strong><br />
<strong>Management</strong>. For more information please contact<br />
enquiries@chrissandersconsulting.com<br />
T: +44(0)7747 761641<br />
E: enquiries@chrissandersconsulting.com<br />
W: www.chrissandersconsulting.com<br />
Key IVR provide a suite of products to assist companies<br />
across Europe with credit management. The<br />
service gives the end-user the means to make a<br />
payment when and how they choose. Key IVR also<br />
provides a state-of-the-art outbound platform<br />
delivering automated messages by voice and SMS.<br />
In a credit management environment, these services<br />
are used to cost-effectively contact debtors and<br />
connect them back into a contact centre or<br />
automated payment line.<br />
T: +44 (0) 1302 513 000<br />
E: sales@keyivr.com<br />
W: www.keyivr.com<br />
For further information<br />
and to discuss the<br />
opportunities of entering<br />
into a Corporate<br />
Partnership with the<br />
CICM, please contact:<br />
Sema Fongod<br />
Helen Stephanie Dixon<br />
Adam Smith<br />
Mehmood Khan<br />
AFFILIATE<br />
MCICM<br />
ASSOCIATE<br />
Congratulations to our current members who have upgraded their membership<br />
corporatepartners@cicm.com<br />
UPGRADED MEMBER<br />
Mandy Whelan-Brown ACICM<br />
The CICM Benevolent Fund is<br />
here to support members of<br />
the CICM in times of need.<br />
Some examples of how CICM have helped our members are:<br />
• Financed the purchase of a mobility scooter for a disabled member.<br />
• Helped finance the studies of the daughter of a member who<br />
became unexpectedly ill.<br />
• Financed the purchase of computer equipment to assist an<br />
unemployed member set up a business.<br />
• Contributed towards the purchase of an orthopaedic bed for one<br />
member whose condition was thereby greatly eased.<br />
• Helped with payment for a drug, not available on the NHS, for<br />
medical treatment of another member.<br />
If you or any dependants are in need or in distress, please apply today – we are here to<br />
help. (Your application will then be reviewed by the CICM Benevolent Fund committee and<br />
you will be advised of their decision as quickly as possible)<br />
AWARDING BODY<br />
Congratulations to the following, who successfully achieved Diplomas<br />
Level 3 Diploma in <strong>Credit</strong> <strong>Management</strong> (ACICM)<br />
Alison Tearall<br />
Saffron West<br />
Level 3 Diploma in <strong>Credit</strong> & Collections (ACICM)<br />
Victoria Akroyd<br />
Gillian Brades<br />
Neil Brown<br />
Beatrice Chauveau<br />
Daniel Coggin<br />
Caroline Cruickshank<br />
Callum Long<br />
Hannah Cox<br />
Renard Frederick<br />
Rebekah Glover<br />
Michelle Graham<br />
Philip Hodgson<br />
Crystal Cheung<br />
Rianna Ibbetson<br />
Caroline Jackson<br />
Alice Latham<br />
Lisa McQueen<br />
Robbie Menzies<br />
Level 5 Diploma in <strong>Credit</strong> & Collections <strong>Management</strong> MCICM (Grad)<br />
Kevin Pearce Laura Brown Eoghan Rodgers<br />
Dean Monks<br />
Jordan O'donovan<br />
Eniko Szabo<br />
Virginija Tesarcik<br />
Terri-Anne Walker<br />
Raise your credibility and<br />
boost your career prospects<br />
– Apply for your upgrade today<br />
Contact: info@cicm.com for more details<br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 40 Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 41
VIEW FROM THE SEA FRONT<br />
VIEW FROM THE SEA FRONT<br />
AUTHOR – David Andrews<br />
UP, UP<br />
AND AWAY<br />
Is your house safe<br />
from Nuclear attack?<br />
AUTHOR – David Andrews<br />
THAT’S the header which has<br />
just popped into my inbox.<br />
I get a lot of really weird<br />
emails, and I daresay you<br />
do too…but I was intrigued<br />
by this one. Looking around<br />
my mid 19th century cottage, solidly built<br />
but by Victorian builders who were chiefly<br />
focused on protecting its early occupants<br />
from driving rain and sub-zero temperatures<br />
(it gets pretty parky out here in the<br />
South Downs), I concluded that, no, my<br />
cottage is not ‘safe’ from nuclear attack.<br />
On closer inspection, it transpires that<br />
the email emanates from – go figure – a US<br />
insurance company.<br />
What!!! Surely this is a new low in the<br />
annals of turning a fast buck on a home<br />
insurance premium?<br />
You know what, bud, you think you’ve<br />
got your ass covered…but when those<br />
Ruskies start lobbing the nukes over, who<br />
do you think is going up in smoke first of<br />
all?<br />
That’s right, my friend, and there won’t<br />
be much left of you guys to clear up. So<br />
better safe than sorry, eh?<br />
Now of course, even this most perverse<br />
take on the hard sell defies any actual logic.<br />
But given that our American comrades<br />
across the ocean appear to have abandoned<br />
any semblance of logic either in the<br />
way they elect their politicians or conduct<br />
corporate business, why, I am wondering,<br />
does it niggle me so much.<br />
Possibly because, having recently<br />
moved house, I have been literally bombarded<br />
(not quite nuked) by insurers competing<br />
for my business.<br />
In a free-range economy such as ours<br />
that’s to be expected, but it seems that in<br />
the post-pandemic economic recovery period,<br />
levels of avarice and chasing down<br />
the last buck have imploded. Sales peeps<br />
have always been driven by targets, the<br />
promise of commission every time they<br />
nail a sale, sign up yet another punter into<br />
a lengthy contract which turns out to be as<br />
watertight as the pair of tennis trainers I<br />
have finally binned.<br />
But I think what is, if I drill down,<br />
really bothering me in today’s hard sell<br />
universe is the complete absence of any<br />
compassion.<br />
While insurance for our homes and our<br />
vehicles are a given, the endless exhortations<br />
to be covered for this, that and the<br />
other – nuclear war!! – is enervating at the<br />
least, infuriating at worse.<br />
At the end of April this year, UK adults<br />
owed £1,786bn to banks, credit card firms,<br />
mortgage lenders and other assorted debt<br />
providers.<br />
Including the mortgage (for those who<br />
are ‘lucky’ enough to have them – so many<br />
young adults in particular are being crippled<br />
by rapidly rising monthly rents), the<br />
typical adult in the UK owes just shy of<br />
£34,000. Far more for graduates struggling<br />
to repay their student loans.<br />
According to the Office for Budgetary<br />
Responsibility, household debt is set to<br />
climb dramatically this year and into<br />
2023. A perfect storm of historically high<br />
inflation, the ongoing crisis in Eastern Europe<br />
and a wage freeze for many workers<br />
means that hard working households are<br />
likely to face ever more drains on their<br />
limited resources.<br />
Without doubt these are nervous times<br />
for our finances. Not helped by an alarmist<br />
media constantly banging the drum regarding<br />
gas and electricity price rises. This<br />
Autumn is likely to see consumer payments<br />
for domestic power rise to around<br />
£3,500, if you believe the Daily Telegraph<br />
home news reporting team.<br />
I don’t. This is fake news. The<br />
Government has made it clear that consumer<br />
prices will be capped, so while the<br />
energy repayments will be uncomfortably<br />
high for many, the ruinous sums being<br />
banded about are a fiction, designed to terrify<br />
readers for reasons best known to the<br />
media bosses who thrive on this kind of<br />
misinformation.<br />
Mortgage repayments are also creeping<br />
up. We are nowhere near the scenario<br />
faced by so many homeowners, including<br />
myself, in the late 1980s, when the base<br />
rate rose to 15 percent. Thousands of<br />
property owners capitulated, with many<br />
pushing the keys back through the building<br />
society door.<br />
Now that really was a ruinous scenario.<br />
But I can’t see the rates spiralling to<br />
anything like that level, despite the current<br />
crisis. I can however envisage the<br />
base rate climbing to roughly half of that,<br />
but these rises will be staggered, as the<br />
Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee<br />
will not want to bankrupt the country.<br />
Speaking to a couple of local estate<br />
agents, the view from the front line is<br />
that property prices will start to go off<br />
the boil towards the end of <strong>2022</strong>; by the<br />
end of the third quarter of next year we<br />
could be witnessing a distinct cooling<br />
of home values. Good news for those<br />
struggling to get on the ladder, not so<br />
good if you’ve bought this year – which is<br />
now looking distinctly like the top of the<br />
market.<br />
As they say, what goes up must (eventually)<br />
come down. Maybe we should take<br />
a leaf out of our European neighbours’<br />
book. Our chums in France, for example,<br />
are giving a collective Gallic shrug, as most<br />
(around two thirds of the population) rent<br />
their homes.<br />
Pas de soucie, they say, no worries.<br />
It can be someone else’s problem. Over<br />
here however far too much of our collective<br />
wealth is tied up in property, despite<br />
it being quietly vulnerable. Longer term,<br />
say the experts, property will always come<br />
good.<br />
But the concern right now is that the<br />
once seemingly invincible property<br />
market is looking decidedly shaky…<br />
and the wider stock markets have been<br />
pounded since Russia went into Ukraine<br />
at the beginning of the year. Nowhere<br />
looks to be a particularly attractive home<br />
for our money.<br />
Wrap up well. It may be a long, harsh<br />
winter.<br />
David Andrews is a freelance journalist.<br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 42 Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 43
HIGH COURT ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS ASSOCIATION<br />
Supporting Court Users<br />
The importance of freedom of choice for court<br />
users and how you can help.<br />
CICM MEMBER<br />
EXCLUSIVE<br />
AUTHOR – Alan J. Smith<br />
WITH the cost-of-living<br />
increases, war in the<br />
Ukraine, Brexit, and the<br />
long-term effects of the<br />
pandemic, we can assume<br />
that more judgments<br />
will be sought as we head towards 2023<br />
as organisations take a proactive approach to<br />
managing debts in a time of financial uncertainty.<br />
Ultimately, this could mean further delays in<br />
the County Court system. A system which just<br />
five percent of court users think is effective.<br />
The significant backlog of cases already stuck<br />
in the County Courts, coupled with a potential<br />
increase in judgments, does not bode well for<br />
creditors who just want to recover the money<br />
that is owed to them to help cover their own<br />
costs.<br />
At present, any debt under £600 must be collected<br />
via the County Court Bailiff system. This<br />
means people and businesses in the UK don’t<br />
have a choice about how their judgments are<br />
enforced.<br />
While £600 may not sound like a lot of money,<br />
for a small business, or a creditor owed multiple<br />
smaller debts, this soon adds up and puts<br />
them and their business at risk of becoming the<br />
debtors of tomorrow.<br />
We’ve surveyed court users to find out what<br />
delays in the court system have meant to them<br />
and their organisations in the past. An overwhelming<br />
97 percent of court users expressed<br />
concern over the backlog of cases in the County<br />
Courts and 86 percent have experienced these<br />
delays first-hand.<br />
In fact, some respondents commented that<br />
they had stopped chasing debts under £600 altogether,<br />
with one stating: “Many solicitors feel<br />
that use of the courts is now something to be<br />
avoided at all costs.”<br />
This means that creditors would rather write<br />
off money they are owed than deal with the<br />
current court system. That can’t be right.<br />
Not only is this unfair on the creditor, but it<br />
also puts them under increased financial pressure,<br />
leading to sleepless nights, additional<br />
borrowing and, in some cases, administration.<br />
Another serious consequence is the reputational<br />
damage it causes them, along with the<br />
loss of earnings for solicitors and debt recovery<br />
services, which are losing clients due to lack of<br />
results when dealing with the County Courts.<br />
MORE CHOICE<br />
We believe what the system needs is a simple<br />
change to give court users another option.<br />
A quick and simple amendment to the High<br />
Court and County Court Jurisdiction Order<br />
1991 to allow High Court Enforcement Officers<br />
to enforce judgments below £600 in respect of<br />
unregulated judgments would solve a lot of<br />
these issues.<br />
Since publishing our ‘Supporting Court Users<br />
– the Right to Freedom of Choice’ report in<br />
2021, we have been engaging with Government<br />
about this important issue and discussing what<br />
a change in this legislation might look like.<br />
We’re proposing the fees that HCEOs charge<br />
for collecting debts under £600 should match<br />
the non-High Court fee scale for debts of the<br />
same amount – they would be 100 percent in<br />
line with the current system.<br />
Would this mean every creditor would then<br />
choose a High Court Enforcement Agent to recover<br />
their debts? Of course not. This won’t be<br />
the solution for everybody, or a quick fix for the<br />
court system.<br />
Instead, what I would expect to see is space<br />
for the County Courts, allowing County Court<br />
bailiffs to clear the backlog of cases and focus<br />
on those who choose them as their preferred<br />
enforcement option.<br />
YOU CAN HELP SUPPORT COURT USERS<br />
As part of this ongoing work, we’ve launched a<br />
follow up survey so that, as a profession, we can<br />
use the collective feedback and evidence provided<br />
by court users to continue to campaign<br />
for this change with the Ministry of Justice.<br />
Our survey will be live until 24 <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong>,<br />
and we would be grateful for feedback on your<br />
experiences and opinions.<br />
The High Court enforcement profession is<br />
ready, willing and able to support this change.<br />
It just needs Government action.<br />
Alan J. Smith FCICM is Chairman of the<br />
High Court Enforcement Officers Association<br />
(HCEOA).<br />
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Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 44 Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 45
ESG<br />
ESG<br />
Influential thinking<br />
Tackling unconscious bias by ‘un-biasing’ processes.<br />
SOME weeks ago, I was invited to take<br />
part in a panel debate. Having been<br />
very familiar with such events, I<br />
asked what the seating arrangements<br />
would be and was told there would<br />
be high stools. Being rather petite, I<br />
didn’t much like the idea of having to clamber<br />
up onto a high seat, with my legs dangling over<br />
the edge for all the world like a ventriloquist’s<br />
dummy – without the ventriloquist!<br />
A conversation to that end took place, and the<br />
organisers replaced the stools with comfortable<br />
armchairs, and everything went off smoothly.<br />
In this example, the decision to choose high<br />
stools was probably taken by an individual who<br />
unconsciously expected most of the panellists to<br />
be men, and therefore of a certain height. It is<br />
unlikely that they took into account that women<br />
are on average much shorter than men, or that<br />
a man or woman from Mexico or Vietnam is<br />
typically much shorter than someone from<br />
the US or Western Europe. I doubt they also<br />
considered what people wear, and that a high<br />
stool might not therefore be appropriate for a<br />
woman in a skirt. And I very much doubt they<br />
considered whether any of the panellists had<br />
mobility issues.<br />
The point of telling you this story is that<br />
it is an example of unconscious bias, and<br />
the influence unconscious bias has on<br />
our attitudes and behaviours, especially<br />
to other people. It can influence<br />
key decisions in the workplace<br />
and can contribute to<br />
inequality, especially in terms<br />
of recruitment, appraisals, or<br />
promotion.<br />
PILOT’S PROGRESS<br />
Unconscious bias is nothing new.<br />
Back in the 1940s in the UK, newly-built<br />
aircraft were ferried from<br />
the factories to their front-line<br />
squadrons by pilots of the Air<br />
Transport Auxiliary, many of<br />
whom were women. There is<br />
a famous story of one enormous<br />
four-engined aircraft<br />
landing at an airfield and<br />
a party of men gathering<br />
to greet the pilot. When<br />
a very petite young woman<br />
clambered out the<br />
back, the men remained<br />
standing, refusing to<br />
believe that she could<br />
have flown such a<br />
mighty aircraft, or indeed<br />
any aircraft for that<br />
AUTHOR – Simona Scarpaleggia<br />
matter. Only after some time, and when<br />
no-one else emerged, did they finally believe<br />
she must have been at the controls.<br />
In more recent times, a woman in the<br />
US recounts of her experience parking<br />
in a ‘Veterans and Military’ parking<br />
spot, getting out of her car, and a man<br />
confronting her and shouting: ‘That spot<br />
is for vets, ya know!’. ‘I know.’ She replied.<br />
‘It’s nice to be appreciated! Women have<br />
been serving for decades!’ Unconscious<br />
bias manifests itself in other ways that<br />
impact our daily lives. A study by two<br />
Dutch scientists at Maastricht University<br />
in 2015, for example, found that most<br />
offices set their thermostats based on the<br />
resting metabolic rate of a 40-year-old<br />
man. This is in accordance with standard<br />
indoor air conditioning guidelines which<br />
date back to the 1960s and which have<br />
never been updated. Because women<br />
tend to be smaller and have more body<br />
fat than men, however, they have slower<br />
metabolic rates. Which means the current<br />
air conditioning standards are too cold for<br />
most women.<br />
CATEGORIES OF BIAS<br />
To be clear, unconscious bias is not limited<br />
to gender. It also impacts ethnicity and<br />
other visible diversity characteristics such<br />
as height, body weight and even names. It<br />
is triggered by our brains unconsciously<br />
making quick judgments and assessments<br />
that are influenced by our background<br />
and personal experiences, as well as our<br />
concept of societal stereotypes.<br />
Typically, bias falls into one of four<br />
categories:<br />
AFFINITY BIAS<br />
This is a bias towards people we like and<br />
immediately identify with, and often<br />
manifests itself when recruiting and<br />
favouring a candidate that we see<br />
as the right ‘fit’ when actually we<br />
should value diversity and consider<br />
what the individual will<br />
bring to the team.<br />
CONFIRMATION BIAS<br />
Having perhaps decided to<br />
recruit an individual in our<br />
own image, we then seek to<br />
confirm we have made the<br />
right choice by looking<br />
for information that confirms<br />
our thinking and<br />
ignoring information<br />
that doesn’t quite fit<br />
the narrative we<br />
have formed. This<br />
can of course lead<br />
to challenges later<br />
AUTHOR – Simona Scarpaleggia<br />
down the line if we choose to overlook an<br />
issue that subsequently becomes a problem.<br />
THE HALO EFFECT<br />
The halo effect comes when our positive<br />
perception of an individual makes us<br />
see everything they do as being ‘great’<br />
and effectively giving them a ‘halo’. This<br />
again can be dangerous and mean that<br />
we ignore other aspects of their character<br />
or performance that can become an<br />
issue, or that we fail to pick up on formal<br />
appraisals.<br />
THE HORN EFFECT<br />
The horn effect is the direct opposite of<br />
the halo effect, and instead of only seeing<br />
the good in someone, we only see the bad,<br />
and focus on their negative traits.<br />
❝<br />
To address unconscious<br />
bias, it is essential to<br />
recognise and understand<br />
what biases you may have,<br />
because of your experience,<br />
your gender, your sexual<br />
orientation, and your own<br />
social background.<br />
❝<br />
ELIMINATING THE BIAS BY<br />
‘UN-BIASING’ THE PROCESSES<br />
So in management, how can you address<br />
the issue of unconscious bias, and help<br />
yourself to make the right decisions<br />
for your colleagues, your business and<br />
yourself?<br />
The key point is one of honesty and<br />
being honest with yourself, which is not<br />
always easy. We will all know of examples<br />
over the years where we may have had<br />
favourites or championed one individual<br />
over another. To address unconscious<br />
bias, it is essential to recognise and<br />
understand what biases you may have,<br />
because of your experience, your gender,<br />
your sexual orientation, and your own<br />
social background. Discussing the issue<br />
in an honest and open forum and raising<br />
the awareness of unconscious bias is the<br />
best way of starting to mitigate against it.<br />
This will certainly help from a personal<br />
point of view, but it won’t mean that bias<br />
will disappear. Indeed quite the opposite.<br />
Leaving the issue of bias to a myriad of<br />
individual considerations and preferences<br />
serves to fuel the subjectivity of decisionmaking,<br />
and in no way contributes to<br />
a structured process. The best way for<br />
this to be achieved, and create a more<br />
effective, sustainable solution, is to ‘unbias’<br />
the process.<br />
This means that when hiring, promoting,<br />
assigning projects, or organizing<br />
the seating at a conference, an organisation<br />
needs to have a proper process that<br />
is designed to be neutral, and takes into<br />
account how we all differ.<br />
Let me give you some examples:<br />
• Use gender neutral language for job<br />
advertisements and for other communication:<br />
by doing this, you will attract more<br />
candidates/encourage wider engagement.<br />
• Make application processes transparent.<br />
Remember that potential candidates also<br />
have their own bias and by having a clearer<br />
picture of the process they will realise they<br />
will not be excluded ‘by default’ – because<br />
of some aspect of diversity they embody –<br />
in the way that they thought.<br />
• Require a gender balanced shortlist of<br />
candidates for hiring and for promotion:<br />
this will help safeguard meritocracy and<br />
will secure equity.<br />
• Promote in groups: promoting in batches<br />
as opposed to announcing promotions<br />
on a one-by-one basis will make the<br />
gender balance more visible. It will make<br />
leaders more aware of the decisions they<br />
are taking and increase trust among the<br />
employees.<br />
• Pay for performance, not for ‘face time’<br />
presence: the pandemic has shown the<br />
latter was heavily overestimated and<br />
performance can be measured more<br />
objectively through relevant quantitative<br />
KPIs and qualitative parameters, rather<br />
than simply being ‘seen’ to be working.<br />
• Show more diverse role models: it is a<br />
very powerful way to encourage everyone<br />
to lean in and to aspire to an interesting<br />
career in their organisation.<br />
The list could continue; there is so<br />
much that can be done that will help an<br />
organisation in creating a more equitable<br />
workplace and a more effective one<br />
too. Being alive to unconscious bias will<br />
open a new world of opportunity to you<br />
and your business. It is not simply about<br />
ensuring you lay out the right furniture<br />
the next time you’re hosting a conference<br />
or panel debate, but rather ensuring you<br />
enrich your organisation with a more<br />
diverse team, with all of the benefits that<br />
brings.<br />
Simona Scarpaleggia is a former Country<br />
CEO of IKEA and Board Director, EDGE<br />
Strategy.<br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 46<br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 47
CAREERS<br />
The Quiet Life<br />
Organisations shouldn't rely on people to constantly<br />
go 'above and beyond', and employees shouldn't<br />
compromise their careers through 'quiet quitting'.<br />
Are you New2<strong>Credit</strong>? Either through study, apprenticeship or a career change and<br />
looking for an opportunity to harness the power of networking to enhance your<br />
learning and development?<br />
THERE’S no doubt that the<br />
world of work has changed<br />
considerably over the<br />
past few years. Workplace<br />
culture has changed, what<br />
employees want has changed<br />
and the methods that employers are using<br />
to attract and retain staff in a competitive<br />
jobs market have also changed.<br />
After the initial shocks that came with<br />
the enforced adjustment to working in a<br />
pandemic, some of the changes to how<br />
and where we work have actually resulted<br />
in positive progress – for example in how<br />
major employers now think about flexible<br />
working, work life balance and employee<br />
wellbeing.<br />
But one new trend that has been talked<br />
about frequently over the past few months<br />
– is a practice that’s been labelled as ‘quiet<br />
quitting’. Originating from TikTok and<br />
quickly becoming a hot topic on social<br />
media, quiet quitting isn’t about walking<br />
out on your job without telling anyone,<br />
it’s about doing only what is in your job<br />
description, and no more.<br />
It was described in one news story as<br />
‘no more going the extra mile to impress<br />
your boss’ – and not working extra hours,<br />
replying to emails outside of work or<br />
taking on tasks that aren’t really part of<br />
your job.<br />
The people opting to take this approach<br />
seem to be doing so because they’ve grown<br />
tired of not getting the recognition or<br />
financial reward for putting in extra hours<br />
and see it as a way of protesting against<br />
the long-hours culture that still pervades<br />
in many sectors.<br />
Different generations may say long<br />
hours is all part of getting ahead, especially<br />
if you’re at the start of your career. But<br />
post-pandemic, it’s no surprise to hear<br />
these sentiments – in fact, we recently ran<br />
a poll on LinkedIn and nearly two-thirds<br />
(63 percent) of respondents said they had<br />
‘quietly quit’ before or they are doing it<br />
now in their job.<br />
We know from our own research<br />
that not only do staff value competitive<br />
salary packages and career advancement<br />
opportunities, but now actively avoid<br />
employers who don’t genuinely prioritise<br />
the work-life balance and mental health<br />
of their staff. The same goes for employers<br />
AUTHOR – Natascha Whitehead<br />
who don’t have a positive culture or lack a<br />
clearly defined purpose.<br />
What’s questionable is that a movement<br />
with the admirable goal of reducing<br />
burnout seems to be encouraging people<br />
to still show up for work in organisations<br />
they are clearly unhappy working for. The<br />
reasons people can feel dis-satisfied with<br />
their workplace can be wide-ranging:<br />
pay, benefits, hours, responsibility, career<br />
trajectory, training provision, lack of<br />
purpose, working environment, culture,<br />
failings in diversity and equality – it’s a<br />
long list.<br />
But if employees can’t resolve the issues<br />
that make them unhappy with their<br />
employer, our research shows that the vast<br />
majority of people simply choose to move<br />
on, particularly in competitive sectors<br />
such as finance.<br />
It’s crucial that employers take active<br />
responsibility in ensuring they retain staff<br />
by empowering their workforce, offering<br />
skills development, and investing in<br />
talent. And there’s more acceptance now<br />
that ‘work is not your life’ – which was the<br />
start point for the TikTokker who launched<br />
the ‘quiet quitting’ conversation.<br />
But I’m not sure that showing up for<br />
work but only being prepared to stay<br />
strictly within the boundaries of your job<br />
requirements is good for anyone.<br />
If you’re considering ‘quiet quitting’,<br />
first arrange a career discussion with<br />
your manager, explore your career<br />
opportunities within your employer and<br />
evaluate your personal aspirations, your<br />
professional development options and if<br />
the timeline to achieve them is realistic.<br />
If after this you still aren’t satisfied,<br />
speak to a recruitment specialist. There<br />
are plenty of opportunities out there<br />
within the credit management sphere –<br />
and our experts can help provide you with<br />
a career check in.<br />
Natascha Whitehead is Business<br />
Director & UK Channel Lead of Hays<br />
<strong>Credit</strong> <strong>Management</strong>.<br />
❝<br />
It’s crucial that<br />
employers take active<br />
responsibility in<br />
ensuring they retain<br />
staff by empowering<br />
their workforce, offering<br />
skills development, and<br />
investing in talent.<br />
❝<br />
Laurie Beagle FCICM<br />
Register your interest:<br />
new2credit<br />
@forumsinternational.co.uk<br />
Or Call:<br />
+44 (0) 1260 275716<br />
Register your interest:<br />
fpn@forumsinternational.co.uk<br />
Or Call:<br />
+44 (0) 1260 275716<br />
FRAUD<br />
CALL US: +44 (0) 1260 275716<br />
Our vision is to create a forum as a joint venture with partners where members can<br />
meet face to face or join virtually and learn from a wide range of subjects both during<br />
the meetings and through a dedicated members portal including:-<br />
Shared experiences (good and bad).<br />
Develop knowledge of systems and software.<br />
Improve team management skills including retention and tips for hiring.<br />
Learn about innovation and best practice.<br />
Communicate with <strong>Credit</strong> Professionals through forum attendance.<br />
Learn more about regulations, compliance and changes to the law.<br />
<strong>Credit</strong> Risk management.<br />
Develop relationships by networking with other credit professionals.<br />
The forum will host quarterly meetings but there will also be a community that<br />
supports them (a “goto” place) throughout the year. The forum would be free to join<br />
with funding obtained through a range of sponsors. Register your interest today -<br />
email new2credit@forumsinternational.co.uk<br />
Fraud Prevention Network<br />
Fraud is an issue that can impact any business and it is currently on the rise. As we<br />
work through highly turbulent times, criminals are taking advantage and are<br />
constantly evolving their techniques and methods.<br />
Supported by CICM, The Fraud Prevention Network is a cross-sector forum that<br />
meets quarterly. Our members share experiences and collaboratively we invite<br />
specialists to give advice & guidance to help prevent fraud and to help you raise<br />
awareness within your business.<br />
Membership benefits include:<br />
Quarterly Meetings<br />
Additional ad-hoc workshops & events<br />
Earn CICM CPD Points<br />
The Fraud Digest – providing the latest news, publications, & advice<br />
Access to a range of experts to provide guidance and support<br />
We encourage you to try out our forum and attend your first session for free. Our<br />
next meeting will take place on 17 November. Visit<br />
https://www.forumsinternational.co.uk/credit-forums/fpn/<br />
W W W.FORUMSINTERNATIONAL.CO.UK<br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 48 Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 49
LOOKING FOR<br />
YOUR NEXT<br />
CAREER MOVE?<br />
CREDIT RISK ANALYST<br />
Home-based with UK travel, market rate salary<br />
+ profit share bonus<br />
An excellent opportunity has arisen for an experienced credit<br />
risk analyst working with a leading independent group in the<br />
distribution sector. This group operates across the UK and Ireland,<br />
servicing upwards of 16,000 customers. This permanent post suits a<br />
highly motivated and credible expert with experience using a variety<br />
of commercial, analytical, financial, and environmental techniques<br />
to evaluate the risks associated with lending to consumers on an<br />
ongoing and new customer basis. This role has the gravitas to<br />
represent the organisation at board level. Ref: 4195667<br />
Contact Madeleine on 01902 771975<br />
or email madeleine.burrows@hays.com<br />
SENIOR BILLINGS AND COLLECTIONS<br />
Surrey, £30,000-£38,000<br />
A rare opportunity for a driven and ambitious candidate,<br />
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Ref: 4169888<br />
Contact Natascha on 07770 786433<br />
or email natascha.whitehead@hays.com<br />
SOLE ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE/<br />
CREDIT CONTROL<br />
St Albans, £35,000-£40,000<br />
Exclusive permanent, hybrid role – fantastic opportunity to<br />
join the management team of a dynamic, friendly and growing<br />
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have proven experience in a similar role, have excellent analytical<br />
skills and reporting experience. Ref: 4274034<br />
Contact Caroline on 01494 419740<br />
or email caroline.evans@hays.com<br />
SOLE CHARGE CREDIT CONTROLLER/<br />
ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE<br />
Acton, West London, £30,000-£35,000<br />
A varied role that will see you managing a ledger of approx.<br />
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cycle. You will work closely with regional teams to help maximise<br />
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business is minimised. Other duties will include monitoring credit<br />
limits, invoicing, cash posting, account reconciling and related<br />
reporting. This role will be suited to a skilled candidate who enjoys<br />
building relationships with their customers and taking ownership<br />
of the credit and accounts receivable process. Ref: 4271997<br />
Contact Mark on 07565 800574<br />
or email mark.ordona@hays.com<br />
BILLING SPECIALIST<br />
Beaconsfield, £27,000-£30,000<br />
An exclusive permanent and hybrid working opportunity to join<br />
the highly successful billing team in this established and growing<br />
business in the care sector. They are seeking an experienced<br />
accounts receivable/billing specialist to liaise effectively with<br />
their high-end residential care homes to ensure accurate and<br />
timely resident billing is maintained. The successful candidate<br />
will have proven experience in a similar role and will have great<br />
attention to detail and brilliant initiative. Ref: 4265697<br />
Contact Caroline on 01494 419740<br />
or email caroline.evans@hays.com<br />
CREDIT CONTROLLER – NETSUITE SPECIALIST<br />
Remote Based, £25,000-£31,000<br />
A well-established and rapidly growing IT and telecommunications<br />
group are currently seeking an experienced credit professional<br />
to join their team. This business has had significant investment<br />
over the past few years and are seeking a driven and progressive<br />
individual to work as part of their finance function. You will be<br />
responsible for managing the credit cycle for three of the group<br />
companies as well as supporting with a system integration project<br />
onto Oracle Netsuite. Experience of using this system is essential.<br />
Ref: 4238513<br />
Contact Will on 01603 760141<br />
or email william.plom@hays.com<br />
hays.co.uk/creditcontrol<br />
This is just a small selection of the many opportunities<br />
we have available for credit professionals. To find out<br />
more, visit our website or contact Natascha Whitehead,<br />
<strong>Credit</strong> <strong>Management</strong> UK Lead at Hays on 07770 786433.<br />
© Copyright Hays plc <strong>2022</strong>. The HAYS word, the H devices, HAYS WORKING Brave | FOR Curious YOUR | Resilient TOMORROW / www.cicm.com and Powering the world / <strong>October</strong> of work <strong>2022</strong> and / associated PAGE 50 logos and artwork are trademarks of Hays plc.<br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 51<br />
The H devices are original designs protected by registration in many countries. All rights are reserved. CM-1127837124
YOUNG MONEY<br />
YOUNG MONEY<br />
The teacher in all of us<br />
How one credit controller, who decided against a<br />
teaching career, became a mentor to her credit team.<br />
AUTHOR – Sam Wilson<br />
AUTHOR – Sam Wilson<br />
❝<br />
“After going back into<br />
credit, I realised I missed<br />
learning,” also, I always<br />
wanted to be the best credit<br />
control manager I could, so<br />
I started researching courses<br />
with the CICM and that’s how<br />
I began my journey on the<br />
apprenticeship scheme.”<br />
❝<br />
LOUISE Bent got her first<br />
job in credit control at<br />
the tender age of 19. She<br />
thought it would last a year<br />
or so and help support<br />
her young family after<br />
welcoming her first child. What she didn’t<br />
know, however, was that her first step in<br />
a credit career was just about to be taken.<br />
“It sounds silly, but I just needed a job.<br />
I saw the advert in the local paper and<br />
having just had a baby, I decided to apply.<br />
I had no idea what a credit controller was,<br />
nor did I know where the job was. In fact,<br />
I got the letter inviting me to interview<br />
at half nine on the day of the interview<br />
itself!”<br />
That interview, scheduled for just<br />
an hour after the post arrived, led to a<br />
second, and finally onto a full-time job<br />
Louise held for the next 10 years. It was,<br />
however, a far cry from her original plan<br />
of becoming a teacher, and, once her<br />
son went to school and the nursery fees<br />
stopped, Louise committed to a part-time<br />
English Literature and Education Studies<br />
degree in the evening.<br />
“Even though I was working, I was still<br />
keen to train as a teacher,” she says. “My<br />
degree took six years thanks to it being<br />
part-time with evening classes. I worked<br />
whilst going to college one day a week.<br />
But, after completing my degree I wasn’t<br />
sure I wanted to do it anymore. Plus, I<br />
couldn’t really afford to do the PGCE at<br />
the end.”<br />
After graduating, Louise decided to use<br />
her degree to get a place in a graduate<br />
scheme, and in her words, it didn’t really<br />
matter in what field.<br />
“Even though I didn’t want to teach,<br />
I’d spent all this money on a degree, so<br />
I thought I’d find a job that required a<br />
degree to put it to use. So, I became an<br />
area manager for a local supermarket.<br />
The problem was, by the time I hit my 30s<br />
everyone was considerably younger than<br />
me. So, after six months I realised this<br />
wasn’t what I wanted to do.”<br />
CREDIT CALLING<br />
Louise realised credit was her calling<br />
and decided to return to the industry.<br />
And as she confesses, she didn’t leave the<br />
industry because she didn’t like it, but<br />
more because she had come to the end of<br />
her time at the company.<br />
After a six-month break, Louise found<br />
a new role in credit as a team leader<br />
thanks to both her credit experience<br />
and her experience as a manager at the<br />
supermarket. But after a few months,<br />
Louise realised she was missing that<br />
‘extra-curricular’ element of her life.<br />
“I missed learning,” she continues.<br />
“Also, I always wanted to be the best credit<br />
control manager I could, so I started<br />
researching courses with the CICM and<br />
that’s how I began my journey on the<br />
apprenticeship scheme.”<br />
After being recruited and starting a new<br />
job as a credit manager with the proviso<br />
that she continued her apprenticeship,<br />
Louise began to realise learning on the<br />
job was the best way for her to develop<br />
her skills.<br />
“As I started to learn, I was able to really<br />
understand why we did certain things<br />
within our business. I could see the<br />
process, understand the purpose, and see<br />
why particular teams did different things,<br />
and I could also take my learning back<br />
to the team and help them develop also.<br />
That for me was a really important part of<br />
being a manager.”<br />
While Louise knew she didn’t want<br />
to be a teacher in the traditional sense,<br />
that didn’t mean she wasn’t keen to<br />
share knowledge: “I realised what I liked<br />
about ‘teaching’ was sharing and helping<br />
people,” she continues. “And thanks to<br />
what I’ve learnt, I realised that I could<br />
pass that knowledge on to my team in the<br />
same way a teacher does.<br />
“There are people in my team doing the<br />
course and I’ve been able to help them<br />
with modules they’ve been struggling<br />
with. It’s satisfying watching your team<br />
use the skills you’ve taught them to<br />
progress in their career.”<br />
BENEFITS OF APPRENTICESHIPS<br />
Louise credits her apprenticeship with<br />
being able to get the career she’s always<br />
wanted, but also with how she approached<br />
people when recruiting within her own<br />
team.<br />
“Apprenticeships are often seen as a<br />
way for young people to get into a field<br />
and that sounds like it might come with<br />
judgement, but everyone was really<br />
supportive. It was really reassuring to<br />
❝<br />
“Be yourself and do what’s<br />
right for you. I had my first child<br />
young and there are always<br />
connotations around that, so I felt<br />
like I had something to prove. But<br />
now, doing something I love means<br />
so much more.”<br />
❝<br />
have my company and family and friends on<br />
board championing my learning. It gives you the<br />
confidence you need.<br />
“It has also given me a new perspective on my<br />
team. I did all this learning and working whilst<br />
supporting a young child, and it still surprises<br />
me. So, when people look for a job with us or<br />
my team look at internal roles and they don’t<br />
necessarily have all the qualifications for, we<br />
can now encourage them to learn on the job to<br />
achieve they’re goals, because I’ve been there.”<br />
Throughout her learning, Louise says that it<br />
was the first module, <strong>Credit</strong> <strong>Management</strong>, that<br />
she enjoyed the most.<br />
“When you’ve been in a job for 19 years you sort<br />
of have your ways of doing things and you just get<br />
on with it whilst picking up little ways of doing<br />
things here and there. But learning the right way<br />
to do things is eye-opening. You learn new tips<br />
and tricks as well as the reasonings behind your<br />
actions. I now find it much easier to explain to my<br />
team and new starters why we do things and the<br />
consequences of not doing things.”<br />
So, in truth, Louise did become a teacher,<br />
maybe not an English teacher as she initially<br />
imagined, but in a field she fell in love with and<br />
continues to develop her understanding of to this<br />
day.<br />
And what advice would she give to others<br />
looking to enter the credit industry?<br />
“Be yourself and do what’s right for you. I<br />
had my first child young and there are always<br />
connotations around that, so I felt like I had<br />
something to prove. But now, doing something I<br />
love means so much more.”<br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 52 Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 53
EDUCATION & MARKETING<br />
HR MATTERS<br />
Booking your<br />
exams has never<br />
been easier<br />
Bang to Rights<br />
The challenge of auto enrolment and an<br />
undisclosed bankruptcy discovered on Google.<br />
UNDER the Pensions Act<br />
2008, employers with at<br />
least one person working<br />
for them must automatically<br />
enrol any eligible<br />
jobholders into an<br />
automatic enrolment pension scheme,<br />
unless they are already an active member<br />
of a qualifying scheme with that employer;<br />
and enrol any non-eligible jobholders<br />
who give the employer an opt-in notice<br />
into an automatic enrolment scheme, unless<br />
they are already an active member of<br />
a qualifying scheme with that employer.<br />
In the case of Celebrity Global<br />
Holdings (CGH) Ltd Pension Scheme,<br />
Mrs S made a complaint against the<br />
company. Her employment commenced<br />
on 21 November 2018. In early 2019, she<br />
expressed concerns regarding the general<br />
operations of the company, one of which<br />
AUTHOR – Gareth Edwards<br />
was the need to set up a workplace<br />
pension. S did not get very far with<br />
her concerns, and when no workplace<br />
pension had been established by early<br />
May 2019, she decided to opt out of any<br />
new scheme and have the contributions<br />
paid via a direct debit mandate to her own<br />
pension plan held elsewhere. The CGH<br />
made no payments and in November 2019,<br />
S wrote to her employer saying that she<br />
considered the breaches as constructive<br />
dismissal and her employment was<br />
to be treated as terminated. S brought<br />
a claim in the Employment Tribunal<br />
(ET) and a complaint with the Pensions<br />
Ombudsman.<br />
There was a disagreement between<br />
the parties about which version of the<br />
employment contract was binding.<br />
S' preferred version provided for<br />
contributions by the employer of 10<br />
percent of her salary. The Ombudsman<br />
found that the version which stated CGH<br />
would comply with its duties under Part<br />
1 of the Pensions Act 2008 applied. There<br />
was no evidence that CGH had agreed to<br />
contributions of 10 percent.<br />
The Ombudsman upheld the complaint<br />
that CGH must pay into the qualifying<br />
scheme of S’ choice. Whilst she was not<br />
entitled to the high-level contributions<br />
she sought, CGH was directed to pay<br />
outstanding contributions at the lower<br />
rate of two percent for the period from<br />
December 2018 to March 2019 and at<br />
three percent from April to <strong>October</strong> 2019.<br />
The decision is a useful reminder of the<br />
importance of complying with pensions<br />
auto-enrolment obligations. It also<br />
demonstrates the importance of ensuring<br />
terms and conditions of employment are<br />
signed by all.<br />
Head over to our new exam pages<br />
for all the information you need to prepare,<br />
book and take your CICM exams<br />
www.cicm.com/exams/<br />
Brave Brave | Curious | | Resilient | / www.cicm.com / / <strong>October</strong> / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE / PAGE 55 54<br />
Financial consultant fairly dismissed<br />
IN Mr K Pubbi versus Your-Move.co.uk, a<br />
financial consultant was fairly dismissed for<br />
failing to disclose his bankruptcy, despite the<br />
absence of any express contractual provision or<br />
policy requiring him to do so.<br />
An estate agency employed Mr K Pubbi<br />
between May 2015 and July 2018. The company<br />
also arranges mortgages and offers various<br />
insurance products. In early 2018, Mr K Pubbi<br />
was signed off sick and was made bankrupt<br />
shortly after this. He did not inform the<br />
company which discovered the bankruptcy via<br />
a Google search.<br />
The company initially thought Mr K Pubbi was<br />
required by the Financial Conduct Authority to<br />
disclose his bankruptcy. This was not technically<br />
the case and was later clarified. Nevertheless, the<br />
company carried out a disciplinary investigation<br />
in relation to Mr K Pubbi's failure to disclose his<br />
bankruptcy and invited him to a disciplinary<br />
hearing. The company accepted that it did not<br />
have a written fitness or proprietary policy at<br />
the time but concluded that he was no longer<br />
considered a 'fit and proper person'.<br />
On 16 July 2018, Mr K Pubbi was summarily<br />
dismissed for gross conduct. He brought claims<br />
for unfair dismissal and discrimination. The<br />
ET dismissed his claims and found that the<br />
dismissal was procedurally and substantively<br />
fair.<br />
❝<br />
The company was<br />
reasonably entitled<br />
to conclude Mr K<br />
Pubbi should have<br />
known he would be<br />
expected to disclose<br />
his bankruptcy, given<br />
his professional<br />
experience.<br />
❝<br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 55<br />
Mr K Pubbi appealed to the Employment<br />
Appeals Tribunal (EAT), which concluded that<br />
the ET had properly found the principal reason<br />
for dismissal was the deliberate non-disclosure<br />
of the bankruptcy. The company was reasonably<br />
entitled to conclude Mr K Pubbi should have<br />
known he would be expected to disclose his<br />
bankruptcy, given his professional experience.<br />
Mr K Pubbi also indicated he had intended to<br />
disclose the bankruptcy, which showed some<br />
recognition of the expectation to disclose it. Mr<br />
K Pubbi had previous experience working in the<br />
financial sector and had been informed that he<br />
would be subject to financial monitoring at the<br />
outset of his employment with the company.<br />
The EAT found that the ET had properly<br />
considered the issue of procedural fairness and<br />
had found that Mr K Pubbi was fairly dismissed.<br />
The EAT can only interfere where there is an<br />
error in law and the EAT found that the ET did<br />
not err; it therefore dismissed the appeal.<br />
Employers should ensure that staff codes of<br />
conduct and disciplinary rules properly reflect<br />
any sector-specific requirements that might<br />
apply. Also, staff contracts should be reviewed<br />
to check that bankruptcy is expressly listed as a<br />
ground for summary dismissal.<br />
Gareth Edwards is a partner in the employment<br />
team at VWV.
Cr£ditWho?<br />
CICM Directory of Services<br />
FOR ADVERTISING INFORMATION OPTIONS<br />
AND PRICING CONTACT<br />
paul@centuryone.uk 01727 739 196<br />
COLLECTIONS<br />
COLLECTIONS LEGAL<br />
CREDIT DATA AND ANALYTICS<br />
CREDIT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE<br />
CREDIT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE<br />
ENFORCEMENT<br />
Controlaccount Plc<br />
Address: Compass House, Waterside, Hanbury Road,<br />
Bromsgrove, Worcestershire B60 4FD<br />
T: 01527 386 610<br />
E: sales@controlaccount.com<br />
W: www.controlaccount.com<br />
Controlaccount plc has been providing efficient, effective and<br />
ethical pre-legal debt recovery for over forty years. We help our<br />
clients to improve internal processes and increase cashflow,<br />
whilst protecting customer relationships and established<br />
reputations. We have long-standing partnerships with leading,<br />
global brand names, SMEs and not for profits. We recover<br />
over 30,000 overdue invoices each month, domestically and<br />
internationally, on a no collect, no fee arrangement. Other<br />
services include credit control and dunning services, international<br />
and domestic trace and legal recoveries. All our clients have<br />
full transparency on any accounts placed with us through our<br />
market leading cloud-based management portal, ClientWeb.<br />
BlaserMills Law<br />
High Wycombe | Amersham | Marlow | Silverstone<br />
Rickmansworth | London<br />
Jackie Ray : 07802 332104 | 01494 478660<br />
jar@blasermills.co.uk<br />
Nina Toor : 01494 478661 nit@blasermills.co.uk<br />
Edward Bible : 07766 013352 ceb@blasermills.co.uk<br />
www.blasermills.co.uk<br />
Commercial Recoveries & Insolvency<br />
Blaser Mills Law’s commercial recoveries team is internationally<br />
recognised, regularly advising large corporations, multinationals<br />
and SMEs on pre-legal collections, debt recovery, commercial<br />
litigation, dispute resolution and insolvency. Our legal services<br />
are both cost-effective and highly efficient; Our lawyers are also<br />
CICM qualified and ranked in the industry leading law firm rankings<br />
publications, Legal 500 and Chambers UK.<br />
CoCredo<br />
Missenden Abbey, Great Missenden, Bucks, HP16 0BD<br />
T: 01494 790600<br />
E: customerservice@cocredo.com<br />
W: www.cocredo.co.uk<br />
Celebrating its 20th year in business, CoCredo has extensive<br />
experience in providing online company credit reports and<br />
related business information within the UK and overseas. In 2014<br />
and 2019 we were honoured to be awarded <strong>Credit</strong> Information<br />
Provider of the Year at the British <strong>Credit</strong> Awards and have been<br />
finalists every other year. Our company data is continually updated<br />
throughout the day and ensures customers have the most current<br />
information available. We aggregate data from a range of leading<br />
providers across over 235 territories and offer a range of services<br />
including the industry first Dual Report, Monitoring, XML Integration<br />
and DNA Portfolio <strong>Management</strong>.<br />
We pride ourselves in offering award-winning customer service and<br />
support to protect your business.<br />
HighRadius<br />
T: +44 (0) 203 997 9400<br />
E: infoemea@highradius.com<br />
W: www.highradius.com<br />
HighRadius provides a cloud-based Integrated Receivable<br />
Platform, powered by machine learning and AI. Our Technology<br />
empowers enterprise organisations to reduce cycle time in the<br />
order-to-cash process and increase working capital availability by<br />
automating receivables and payments processes across credit,<br />
electronic billing and payment processing, cash application,<br />
deductions, and collections.<br />
Tinubu Square UK<br />
Holland House, 4 Bury Street,<br />
London EC3A 5AW<br />
T: +44 (0)207 469 2577 /<br />
E: uksales@tinubu.com<br />
W: www.tinubu.com<br />
ESKER<br />
Sam Townsend Head of Marketing<br />
Northern Europe Esker Ltd.<br />
T: +44 (0)1332 548176 M: +44 (0)791 2772 302<br />
W: www.esker.co.uk LinkedIn: Esker – Northern Europe<br />
Twitter: @EskerNEurope blog.esker.co.uk<br />
Esker’s Accounts Receivable (AR) solution removes the all-toocommon<br />
obstacles preventing today’s businesses from collecting<br />
receivables in a timely manner. From credit management to cash<br />
allocation, Esker automates each step of the order-to-cash cycle.<br />
Esker’s automated AR system helps companies modernise<br />
without replacing their core billing and collections processes. By<br />
simply automating what should be automated, customers get the<br />
post-sale experience they deserve and your team gets the tools<br />
they need.<br />
High Court Enforcement Group Limited<br />
Client Services, Helix, 1st Floor<br />
Edmund Street, Liverpool<br />
L3 9NY<br />
T: 08450 999 666<br />
E: clientservices@hcegroup.co.uk<br />
W: hcegroup.co.uk<br />
Putting creditors first<br />
We are the largest independent High Court enforcement company,<br />
with more authorised officers than anyone else. We are privately<br />
owned, which allows us to manage our business in a way that<br />
puts our clients first. Clients trust us to deliver and service is<br />
paramount. We cover all aspects of enforcement – writs of control,<br />
possessions, process serving and landlord issues – and are<br />
committed to meeting and exceeding clients’ expectations.<br />
FINANCIAL PR<br />
Global <strong>Credit</strong> Recoveries<br />
GCR 20-22 Wenlock Road,<br />
London N1 7GU<br />
Charles Mayhew FCICM or Joshua Mayhew ACICM<br />
T: +44 (0) 203 368 8630<br />
E: INFO@GLOBALCREDITRECOVERIES.COM<br />
W: WWW.GLOBALCREDITRECOVERIES.COM<br />
Shortlisted as DCA of the Year, by the CICM, for the British <strong>Credit</strong><br />
Awards, Global <strong>Credit</strong> Recoveries Ltd are specialists in Arbitration<br />
and Debt Collection globally.<br />
We specialise in the UK, Europe, The Middle East and the U.S.A,<br />
working as an extension of many CICM members companies for<br />
over 28 years.<br />
Speak with us today in our London or Dubai offices, to see how<br />
we can assist you.<br />
We have the ability, and network, to have someone visiting your<br />
debtors offices, throughout EMEA, within 72 hours.<br />
Recovering funds globally, on a No-Recovery, No-Fee basis.<br />
Guildways<br />
T: +44 3333 409000<br />
E: info@guildways.com<br />
W: www.guildways.com<br />
Guildways is a UK & International debt collection specialist with over<br />
25 years experience. Guildways prides itself on operating to the<br />
highest ethical standards and professional service levels. We are<br />
experienced in collecting B2B and B2C debts. Our service includes:<br />
• A complete No collection, No Fee commission based service<br />
• 10% plus VAT commission for UK debts<br />
• Commission from 22% plus VAT for International debts<br />
• 24/7 online access to your cases through our CaseManager portal<br />
• Direct online account-to-account payments, to speed up<br />
collections and minimise costs<br />
If you are unable to locate your customer, we also offer a no trace, no<br />
fee, trace and collect service.<br />
For more information, visit: www.guildways.com<br />
Cr£ditWho?<br />
CICM Directory of Services<br />
Lovetts Solicitors<br />
Lovetts, Bramley House, The Guildway,<br />
Old Portsmouth Road,<br />
Guildford, Surrey, GU3 1LR<br />
T: 01483 347001<br />
E: info@lovetts.co.uk<br />
W: www.lovetts.co.uk<br />
With more than 25yrs experience in UK & international business<br />
debt collection and recovery, Lovetts Solicitors collects £40m+<br />
every year on behalf of our clients. Services include:<br />
• Letters Before Action (LBA) from £1.50 + VAT (successful in 86%<br />
of cases)<br />
• Advice and dispute resolution<br />
• Legal proceedings and enforcement<br />
• 24/7 access to your cases via our in-house software solution,<br />
CaseManager<br />
Don’t just take our word for it, here’s some recent customer<br />
feedback: “All our service expectations have been exceeded.<br />
The online system is particularly useful and extremely easy to<br />
use. Lovetts has a recognisable brand that generates successful<br />
results.”<br />
CONSULTANCY<br />
Chris Sanders Consulting<br />
T: +44(0)7747 761641<br />
E: enquiries@chrissandersconsulting.com<br />
W: www.chrissandersconsulting.com<br />
Chris Sanders Consulting – we are a different sort of consulting<br />
firm, made up of a network of independent experienced<br />
operational credit & collections management and invoicing<br />
professionals, with specialisms in cross industry best practice<br />
advisory, assessment, interim management, leadership,<br />
workshops and training to help your team and organisation<br />
reach their full potential in credit and collections management.<br />
We are proud to be Corporate Partners of the Chartered Institute<br />
of <strong>Credit</strong> <strong>Management</strong>. For more information please contact:<br />
enquiries@chrissandersconsulting.com<br />
Company Watch<br />
Centurion House, 37 Jewry Street,<br />
LONDON. EC3N 2ER<br />
T: +44 (0)20 7043 3300<br />
E: info@companywatch.net<br />
W: www.companywatch.net<br />
Organisations around the world rely on Company Watch’s<br />
industry-leading financial analytics to drive their credit risk<br />
processes. Our financial risk modelling and ability to map medium<br />
to long-term risk as well as short-term credit risk set us apart<br />
from other credit reference agencies.<br />
Quality and rigour run through everything we do, from our unique<br />
method of assessing corporate financial health via our H-Score®,<br />
to developing analytics on our customers’ in-house data.<br />
With the H-Score® predicting almost 90 percent of corporate<br />
insolvencies in advance, it is the risk management tool of choice,<br />
providing actionable intelligence in an uncertain world.<br />
identeco – Business Support Toolkit<br />
Compass House, Waterside, Hanbury Road, Bromsgrove,<br />
Worcestershire B60 4FD<br />
Telephone: 01527 386 607<br />
Email: info@identeco.co.uk<br />
Web: www.identeco.co.uk<br />
identeco Business Support Toolkit provides company details<br />
and financial reporting for over 4m UK companies and<br />
business. Subscribers can view company financial health and<br />
payment behaviour, credit ratings, shareholder and director<br />
structures, detrimental data. In addition, subscribers can also<br />
download unlimited B2B marketing and acquisition reports.<br />
Annual subscription is only £79.95. Other services available<br />
to subscribers include AML and KYC reports, pre-litigation<br />
screening, trace services and data appending, as well as many<br />
others.<br />
Founded in 2000, Tinubu Square is a software vendor, enabler<br />
of the <strong>Credit</strong> Insurance, Surety and Trade Finance digital<br />
transformation.<br />
Tinubu Square enables organizations across the world to<br />
significantly reduce their exposure to risk and their financial,<br />
operational and technical costs with best-in-class technology<br />
solutions and services. Tinubu Square provides SaaS solutions<br />
and services to different businesses including credit insurers,<br />
receivables financing organizations and multinational corporations.<br />
Tinubu Square has built an ecosystem of customers in over 20<br />
countries worldwide and has a global presence with offices in<br />
Paris, London, New York, Montreal and Singapore.<br />
Credica Ltd<br />
Building 168, Maxell Avenue, Harwell Oxford, Oxon. OX11 0QT<br />
T: 01235 856400E: info@credica.co.uk W: www.credica.co.uk<br />
Our highly configurable and extremely cost effective Collections<br />
and Query <strong>Management</strong> System has been designed with 3 goals<br />
in mind:<br />
•To improve your cashflow • To reduce your cost to collect<br />
• To provide meaningful analysis of your business<br />
Evolving over 15 years and driven by the input of 1000s of<br />
<strong>Credit</strong> Professionals across the UK and Europe, our system is<br />
successfully providing significant and measurable benefits for our<br />
diverse portfolio of clients.<br />
We would love to hear from you if you feel you would benefit from<br />
our ‘no nonsense’ and human approach to computer software.<br />
Data Interconnect Ltd<br />
45-50 Shrivenham Hundred Business Park,<br />
Majors Road, Watchfield. Swindon, SN6 8TZ<br />
T: +44 (0)1367 245777<br />
E: sales@datainterconnect.co.uk<br />
W: www.datainterconnect.com<br />
We are dedicated to helping finance teams take the cost,<br />
complexity and compliance issues out of Accounts Receivable<br />
processes. Corrivo is our reliable, easy-to-use SaaS platform<br />
for the continuous improvement of AR metrics and KPIs in a<br />
user-friendly interface. <strong>Credit</strong> Controllers can manage more<br />
accounts with better results and customers can self-serve on<br />
mobile-responsive portals where they can query, pay, download<br />
and view invoices and related documentation e.g. Proofs of<br />
Delivery Corrivo is the only AR platform with integrated invoice<br />
finance options for both buyer and supplier that flexes credit<br />
terms without degrading DSO. Call for a demo.<br />
Cr£ditWho?<br />
CICM Directory of Services<br />
SERRALA<br />
Serrala UK Ltd, 125 Wharfdale Road<br />
Winnersh Triangle, Wokingham<br />
Berkshire RG41 5RB<br />
E: r.hammons@serrala.com W: www.serrala.com<br />
T +44 118 207 0450 M +44 7788 564722<br />
Serrala optimizes the Universe of Payments for organisations<br />
seeking efficient cash visibility and secure financial processes.<br />
As an SAP Partner, Serrala supports over 3,500 companies<br />
worldwide. With more than 30 years of experience and<br />
thousands of successful customer projects, including solutions<br />
for the entire order-to-cash process, Serrala provides credit<br />
managers and receivables professionals with the solutions they<br />
need to successfully protect their business against credit risk<br />
exposure and bad debt loss.<br />
VISMA | ONGUARD<br />
T: 020 3966 8324<br />
E: edan.milner@onguard.com<br />
W: www.onguard.com<br />
VISMA | Onguard is a specialist in credit management software<br />
and market leader in innovative solutions for order-to-cash. Our<br />
integrated platform ensures an optimal connection of all processes<br />
in the order-to-cash chain. This enhanced visibility with the secure<br />
sharing of critical data ensures optimal connection between all<br />
processes in the order-to-cash chain, resulting in stronger, longerlasting<br />
customer relationships through improved and personalised<br />
communication. The VISMA | Onguard platform is used for<br />
successful credit management in more than 70 countries.<br />
ENFORCEMENT<br />
Court Enforcement Services<br />
Adele Whitehurst – Client Relationship Manager<br />
M: +44 (0)7525 119 711 T: +44 (0)1992 367 092<br />
E : a.whitehurst@courtenforcementservices.co.uk<br />
W: www.courtenforcementservices.co.uk<br />
Court Enforcement Services is the market leading and fastest<br />
growing High Court Enforcement company. Since forming in 2014,<br />
we have managed over 100,000 High Court Writs and recovered<br />
more than £187 million for our clients, all debt fairly collected. We<br />
help lawyers and creditors across all sectors to recover unpaid<br />
CCJ’s sooner rather than later. We achieve 39% early engagement<br />
resulting in market-leading recovery rates. Our multi-awardwinning<br />
technology provides real-time reporting 24/7. We work in<br />
close partnership to expertly resolve matters with a fast, fair and<br />
personable approach. We work hard to achieve the best results<br />
and protect your reputation.<br />
Gravity Global<br />
Floor 6/7, Gravity Global, 69 Wilson St, London, EC2A 2BB<br />
T: +44(0)207 330 8888. E: sfeast@gravityglobal.com<br />
W: www.gravityglobal.com<br />
Gravity is an award winning full service PR and advertising<br />
business that is regularly benchmarked as being one of the<br />
best in its field. It has a particular expertise in the credit sector,<br />
building long-term relationships with some of the industry’s bestknown<br />
brands working on often challenging briefs. As the partner<br />
agency for the <strong>Credit</strong> Services Association (CSA) for the past 22<br />
years, and the Chartered Institute of <strong>Credit</strong> <strong>Management</strong> since<br />
2006, it understands the key issues affecting the credit industry<br />
and what works and what doesn’t in supporting its clients in the<br />
media and beyond.<br />
FORUMS<br />
FORUMS INTERNATIONAL<br />
T: +44 (0)1246 555055<br />
E: info@forumsinternational.co.uk<br />
W: www.forumsinternational.co.uk<br />
Forums International Ltd have been running <strong>Credit</strong> and Industry<br />
Forums since 1991. We cover a range of industry sectors and<br />
International trading, attendance is for <strong>Credit</strong> Professionals of all<br />
levels. Our forums are not just meetings but communities which<br />
aim to prepare our members for the challenges ahead. Attending<br />
for the first time is free for you to gauge the benefits and meet the<br />
members and we only have pre-approved Partners, so you will<br />
never intentionally be sold to.<br />
FOR<br />
ADVERTISING<br />
INFORMATION<br />
OPTIONS AND<br />
PRICING CONTACT<br />
paul@centuryone.uk<br />
01727 739 196<br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 56<br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 57
Cr£ditWho?<br />
CICM Directory of Services<br />
FOR ADVERTISING INFORMATION<br />
OPTIONS AND PRICING CONTACT<br />
paul@centuryone.uk 01727 739 196<br />
INSOLVENCY<br />
PAYMENT SOLUTIONS<br />
RECRUITMENT<br />
Menzies<br />
T: +44 (0)2073 875 868 - London<br />
T: +44 (0)2920 495 444 - Cardiff<br />
W: menzies.co.uk/creditor-services<br />
Our <strong>Credit</strong>or Services team can advise on the best way for you<br />
to protect your position when one of your debtors enters, or<br />
is approaching, insolvency proceedings. Our services include<br />
assisting with retention of title claims, providing representation<br />
at creditor meetings, forensic investigations, raising finance,<br />
financial restructuring and removing the administrative burden<br />
– this includes completing and lodging claim forms, monitoring<br />
dividend prospects and analysing all Insolvency Reports and<br />
correspondence.<br />
For more information on how the Menzies <strong>Credit</strong>or Services<br />
team can assist, please contact Bethan Evans, Licensed<br />
Insolvency Practitioner, at bevans@menzies.co.uk or call<br />
+44 (0)2920 447 512.<br />
LEGAL<br />
Shoosmiths<br />
Email: paula.swain@shoosmiths.co.uk<br />
Tel: 03700 86 3000 W: www.shoosmiths.co.uk<br />
Shoosmiths’ highly experienced team will work closely with credit<br />
teams to recover commercial debts as quickly and cost effectively<br />
as possible. We have an in depth knowledge of all areas of debt<br />
recovery, including:<br />
•Pre-litigation services to effect early recovery and keep costs<br />
down<br />
•Litigation service<br />
•Post-litigation services including enforcement<br />
•Insolvency<br />
As a client of Shoosmiths, you will find us quick to relate to your<br />
goals, and adept at advising you on the most effective way of<br />
achieving them.<br />
Bottomline Technologies<br />
115 Chatham Street, Reading<br />
Berks RG1 7JX | UK<br />
T: 0870 081 8250 E: emea-info@bottomline.com<br />
W: www.bottomline.com/uk<br />
Bottomline Technologies (NASDAQ: EPAY) helps businesses<br />
pay and get paid. Businesses and banks rely on Bottomline for<br />
domestic and international payments, effective cash management<br />
tools, automated workflows for payment processing and bill<br />
review and state of the art fraud detection, behavioural analytics<br />
and regulatory compliance. Businesses around the world depend<br />
on Bottomline solutions to help them pay and get paid, including<br />
some of the world’s largest systemic banks, private and publicly<br />
traded companies and Insurers. Every day, we help our customers<br />
by making complex business payments simple, secure and<br />
seamless.<br />
Key IVR<br />
T: +44 (0) 1302 513 000 E: sales@keyivr.com<br />
W: www.keyivr.com<br />
Key IVR are proud to have joined the Chartered Institute of<br />
<strong>Credit</strong> <strong>Management</strong>’s Corporate partnership scheme. The<br />
CICM is a recognised and trusted professional entity within<br />
credit management and a perfect partner for Key IVR. We are<br />
delighted to be providing our services to the CICM to assist with<br />
their membership collection activities. Key IVR provides a suite<br />
of products to assist companies across the globe with credit<br />
management. Our service is based around giving the end-user<br />
the means to make a payment when and how they choose. Using<br />
automated collection methods, such as a secure telephone<br />
payment line (IVR), web and SMS allows companies to free up<br />
valuable staff time away from typical debt collection.<br />
Hays <strong>Credit</strong> <strong>Management</strong><br />
107 Cheapside, London, EC2V 6DN<br />
T: 07834 260029<br />
E: karen.young@hays.com<br />
W: www.hays.co.uk/creditcontrol<br />
Hays <strong>Credit</strong> <strong>Management</strong> is working in partnership with the CICM<br />
and specialise in placing experts into credit control jobs and<br />
credit management jobs. Hays understands the demands of this<br />
challenging environment and the skills required to thrive within<br />
it. Whatever your needs, we have temporary, permanent and<br />
contract based opportunities to find your ideal role. Our candidate<br />
registration process is unrivalled, including face-to-face screening<br />
interviews and a credit control skills test developed exclusively for<br />
Hays by the CICM. We offer CICM members a priority service and<br />
can provide advice across a wide spectrum of job search and<br />
recruitment issues.<br />
PORTFOLIO<br />
CREDIT CONTROL<br />
Portfolio <strong>Credit</strong> Control<br />
1 Finsbury Square, London. EC2A 1AE<br />
T: 0207 650 3199<br />
E: recruitment@portfoliocreditcontrol.com<br />
W: www.portfoliocreditcontrol.com<br />
Portfolio <strong>Credit</strong> Control, a 5* Trustpilot rated agency, solely<br />
specialises in the recruitment of Permanent, Temporary & Contract<br />
<strong>Credit</strong> Control, Accounts Receivable and Collections staff<br />
including remote workers. Part of The Portfolio Group, an awardwinning<br />
Recruiter, we speak to <strong>Credit</strong> Controllers every day and<br />
understand their skills meaning we are perfectly placed to provide<br />
your business with talented <strong>Credit</strong> Control professionals. Offering<br />
a highly tailored approach to recruitment, we use a hybrid of faceto-face<br />
and remote briefings, interviews and feedback options.<br />
We provide both candidates & clients with a commitment to deliver<br />
that will exceed your expectations every single time.<br />
View our digital version online at www.cicm.com<br />
Log on to the Members’ area, and click on the tab labelled<br />
‘<strong>Credit</strong> <strong>Management</strong> magazine’<br />
YayPay by Quadient<br />
T: + 44 (0) 7465 423 538<br />
E: r.harash@quadient.com<br />
W: www.yaypay.com<br />
PAYMENT SOLUTIONS<br />
American Express<br />
76 Buckingham Palace Road,<br />
London. SW1W 9TQ<br />
T: +44 (0)1273 696933<br />
W: www.americanexpress.com<br />
American Express is working in partnership with the CICM and is a<br />
globally recognised provider of payment solutions to businesses.<br />
Specialising in providing flexible collection capabilities to drive a<br />
number of company objectives including:<br />
• Accelerate cashflow • Improved DSO • Reduce risk<br />
• Offer extended terms to customers<br />
• Provide an additional line of bank independent credit to drive<br />
growth • Create competitive advantage with your customers<br />
As experts in the field of payments and with a global reach,<br />
American Express is working with credit managers to drive growth<br />
within businesses of all sectors. By creating an additional lever<br />
to help support supplier/client relationships American Express is<br />
proud to be an innovator in the business payments space.<br />
Cr£ditWho?<br />
CICM Directory of Services<br />
YayPay by Quadient makes it easy for B2B finance teams to stay<br />
ahead of accounts receivable and get paid faster – from anywhere.<br />
Integrating with your existing ERP, CRM, accounting and billing<br />
systems, YayPay organizes and presents real-time data through<br />
meaningful, cloud-based dashboards. These increase visibility<br />
across your AR portfolio and provide your team with a single<br />
source of truth, so they can access the information they need to<br />
work productively, no matter where they are based.<br />
Automated capabilities improve team efficiency by 3X and<br />
accelerate the collections process by making communications<br />
customizable and consistent. This enables you to collect cash<br />
up to 34 percent faster and removes the need to add additional<br />
resources as your business grows.<br />
Predictive analytics provide insight into future payer behavior to<br />
improve cash flow management and a secure, online payment<br />
portal enables customers to access their accounts and pay at any<br />
time, from anywhere.<br />
FIS GETPAID<br />
25 Canada Square<br />
London, GB E14 5LQ<br />
T: +447730500085<br />
E: getinfo@fisglobal.com.<br />
W: www.fisglobal.com<br />
The award-winning FIS GETPAID solution is a fully integrated,<br />
web-based order-to cash (O2C) solution that helps companies<br />
improve operational efficiencies, lower DSO, and increase cash<br />
flow. GETPAID provides process automation, artificial intelligence,<br />
and workflow across the O2C cycle, with detailed analysis and<br />
reporting for accurate cash forecasting. FIS is a global leader in<br />
financial services technology that empowers the financial world.<br />
For more information visit https://www.fisglobal.com/en/cashflowand-capital/credit-and-collections<br />
or email getinfo@fisglobal.com.<br />
FOR ADVERTISING<br />
INFORMATION<br />
OPTIONS AND<br />
PRICING CONTACT<br />
paul@centuryone.uk 01727 739 196<br />
Just another great reason to be a member<br />
<strong>Credit</strong> <strong>Management</strong> is distributed to the entire UK and international<br />
CICM membership, as well as additional subscribers<br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient<br />
www.cicm.com | +44 (0)1780 722900 | editorial@cicm.com<br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 58<br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 59
The software platform to automate and<br />
optimise your order-to-cash process<br />
Connect your organisation with your customers.<br />
Manage risks and decrease DSO by 20%.<br />
Connecting data. Connecting you.<br />
www.vismaonguard.com<br />
+44 (0) 20 396 683 24<br />
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / <strong>October</strong> <strong>2022</strong> / PAGE 60