Credit Management December 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
CM
DECEMBER 2022 £12.50
THE CICM MAGAZINE FOR CONSUMER AND
COMMERCIAL CREDIT PROFESSIONALS
INSIDE
2023 DESKTOP
CALENDAR
LAYER CAKE
Has the FCA added a
new layer of unnecessary
compliance?
The future of SME debt sale
will depend on building trust in
the system. Page 26
Sean Feast FCICM talks to
Pierre Haincourt MCICM on why
late is better than never. Page 30
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10
CALL OF DUTY
Jeanette Burgess
DECEMBER 2022
www.cicm.com
CONTENTS
18
CONFIDENCE TRICK
Jo Kettner
30
INTERVIEW – MIEUX VAUT
TARD QUE JAMAIS!
Sean Feast FCICM
26
SALE OR RETURN
Andrew Birkwood
8 – STORM CHASERS
The CICM and its members are well
placed to steer organisations through
the inevitable storm ahead.
14 – LAYER CAKE
Is the FCA’s new Consumer Duty adding
an unnecessary layer of compliance?
18 – CONFIDENCE TRICK
Confidence and knowledge are critical
to future success but are often in
short supply.
20 – ALLIED CAUSE
The Government’s anti-fraud efforts
could find a beneficial ally in the
insolvency profession.
24 – REQUEST ACCEPTED
How can Request to Pay create better
connections with customers.
36 – THE LAND THAT TIME
DIDN'T FORGET
Rich in resources, the Egyptian
economy is a gold-mine for exporters.
40 – IN SEARCH OF CHOICE
Freedom of choice in enforcement is
vital for court users in 2023 and beyond.
42 – DEAD FUNNY
Do you know your ‘bear market’ from
your ‘dead cat bounce’?
Publisher
Chartered Institute of Credit Management
1 Accent Park, Bakewell Road, Orton Southgate,
Peterborough PE2 6XS
Telephone: 01780 722900
Email: editorial@cicm.com
Website: www.cicm.com
CMM: www.creditmanagement.org.uk
CICM GOVERNANCE
President Stephen Baister FCICM / Chief Executive Sue Chapple FCICM
Executive Board: Chair Debbie Nolan FCICM(Grad) / Vice Chair Phil Rice FCICM / Treasurer Glen Bullivant FCICM
Larry Coltman FCICM / Neil Jinks FCICM / Allan Poole MCICM
Advisory Council: Caroline Asquith-Turnbull FCICM / Laurie Beagle FCICM / Glen Bullivant FCICM / Brendan Clarkson FCICM
Larry Coltman FCICM / Peter Gent FCICM(Grad) / Victoria Herd FCICM(Grad) / Andrew Hignett MCICM(Grad)
Dave Hindle FCICM / Laural Jefferies FCICM / Neil Jinks FCICM / Martin Kirby FCICM / Charles Mayhew FCICM / Hans Meijer
FCICM / Debbie Nolan FCICM(Grad) / Amanda Phelan MCICM(Grad) / Allan Poole MCICM / Phil Rice FCICM / Phil Roberts FCICM
Chris Sanders FCICM / Paula Swain FCICM / Mark Taylor MCICM / Atul Vadher FCICM(Grad)
View our digital version online at www.cicm.com. Log on to the Members’
area, and click on the tab labelled ‘Credit Management magazine’
Credit Management is distributed to the entire UK and international CICM
membership, as well as additional subscribers
Reproduction in whole or part is forbidden without specific permission. Opinions expressed in this magazine do
not, unless stated, reflect those of the Chartered Institute of Credit Management. The Editor reserves the right to
abbreviate letters if necessary. The Institute is registered as a charity. The mark ‘Credit Management’ is a registered
trade mark of the Chartered Institute of Credit Management.
Any articles published relating to English law will differ from laws in Scotland and Wales.
Managing Editor
Sean Feast FCICM
Deputy Editor
Iona Yadallee
Art Editor
Andrew Morris
Telephone: 01780 722910
Email: andrew.morris@cicm.com
Editorial Team
Joe Clarkson, Rob Howard, Roshika Perera,
Sam Wilson and Mona Yazdanparast
Advertising
Paul Heitzman
Telephone: 01727 739 196
Email: paul@centuryone.uk
Printers
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ISSN 0265-2099
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 3
EDITOR’S COLUMN
Two economists agree:
we’re in a pickle.
Sean Feast FCICM
Managing Editor
I
was in a CICM Think Tank recently,
minding my own business as I
usually do, desperate not to say
anything too stupid in a room full
of very brainy people, when I heard
something I’d never heard before:
two economists agreeing with one another.
The problem is, I wish I hadn’t, as then I may
have had something positive to cling to.
Mo Chaudhri, Chief Economist at
Experian and Markus Kuger, formerly of
Dun & Bradstreet and now a freelance
economist both agreed we’re in a bit of a
pickle. They didn’t quite use that word of
course. They are serious economists. But
what it all boiled down to is that we are up
the proverbial creek without a paddle, and
perhaps without even a boat.
Mo presented a series of charts and
graphs that spelled out the true extent
of the mess we are in, with interest rates
and inflation both on the rise, fixed rate
mortgages coming to an end, and a perfect
storm blowing a hurricane through our
collective finances. Interestingly, he says, it
will not be the young or the old who will be
affected the most, but rather the ‘squeezed
middle’. In simple terms, the young don’t
have the financial responsibility yet, the
old have probably paid off most of what
they owe, but the middle have had the good
times for so long that they’ve never had to
budget for things and haven’t yet developed
the right behaviours to see them through.
Mo is under no illusions that the country
is already in recession and has been for
some time. GDP, he believes, is a clumsy and
not especially accurate way of measuring
recession, and neither should we be
fooled by apparently low unemployment
figures that at another time might suggest
a country in fine fettle. It’s not. Inflation
is out of control, and the gloomy truth is
that we need a long recession to help get
inflation down.
Markus concurred. Every statistic Markus
pulled out from his economist’s bag was
as depressing as the next. Inflation was
going to go up, before it would come down,
because of the lag in the effect of monetary
policy. Payment performance gave a mixed
picture everywhere except in the UK and
Ireland, where things were decidedly
going to get worse, and in Atradius’ joyful
forecast of business failures, we could
expect an increase in insolvencies in 27
of the 30 principal countries monitored.
Inflation, he told us, may have been around
10 percent, but that was a consumer price
statistic. The product price inflation figure
was 47 percent, impacted by rising energy
costs and a shortage of raw materials.
So was there anything to cheer at all that I
can report? Markus did his best. The Suez is
no longer blocked, and the Federal Reserve
Global Supply Chain Index is apparently
showing signs of improvement. There are
fewer delays, and supply chain integrity is
being restored. Hallelujah for Suez, is all I
can say.
As we head into Christmas and the New
Year, I wanted to end with a message of
cheer and goodwill to all men. Or in my
newly DE&I-educated mind, to all people.
But let’s be honest: a tough few months
and a difficult year are only giving way
to more uncertainty, and tolerance and
understanding are commodities that
are going to be much in demand. As our
Chief Executive says in her Christmas
message, we’re stronger together. So chin
up, hard hats on, and for now enjoy the
Christmas festivities.
Tomorrow is most definitely another day.
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 4
CMNEWS
A round-up of news stories from the
world of consumer and commercial credit.
L
OWELL Group, one of
Europe’s leading credit
management services
providers, has completed
the acquisition of Hoist
Finance UK following
receipt of regulatory approval.
Hoist UK’s Salford office will
remain and will be positioned as a
recruitment hub for talent in the North
West. Approximately 180 individuals
currently in the Hoist business will
transition to Lowell.
The transaction includes the
operations of Hoist Finance UK and
its entire unsecured non-performing
loan portfolio, comprising of over two
million consumer accounts, which
had approximately £585m, 180-month
estimated remaining collections as at
Written by – Sean Feast FCICM
Lowell completes acquisition
of Hoist Finance UK
December 2021. The loan portfolio is
almost exclusively in the credit card
and personal loan sector.
John Pears, Lowell UK CEO, says the
acquisition is a big step in Lowell’s
targeted expansion: “This purchase will
position us as the UK’s largest credit
management service provider and not
only expands our customer base but
also aligns with our growth plans of
moving into financial services.
We’re taking on two million more
accounts, which will give us the
data and insight we need to further
strengthen our award-winning
customer interactions. We’re looking
forward to welcoming Hoist colleagues
into the Lowell family and growing
together as one business.”
Julian Winfield, CEO of Hoist
Finance UK, is excited to be hitting the
ground running: “Lowell’s approach
is industry-leading and the business
has played a major role in setting the
standard for others within the UK.
The way that we work aligns perfectly
to Lowell and this new partnership
couldn’t be a better fit for us.”
The acquisition is described as
continuing Lowell’s growth trajectory
as well as delivering targeted, strategic
expansion into the UK financial
services sector, specifically banking.
Lowell claims it will also benefit
from improved data insight from the
financial services market, materially
speeding up pricing and analysis
whilst reducing investment risk.
Cashflow becomes top priority for small
businesses as economic storm brews
With inflation hovering at a 40-year
high, managing day to day cashflow
has become the primary reason
for small business applications for
finance, according to iwoca’s latest SME
Expert Index.
The survey of brokers has revealed
that managing cashflow is the most
common loan purpose for over two in
five small businesses (42 percent) over
the last quarter, a 16 percentage point
increase from the same period last year.
This is the first time since Q2 2021 that
cashflow concerns have overtaken
ambitions to grow their business as the
primary reason to access finance.
iwoca’s Q3 2022 SME Expert Index
is based on insight from UK brokers
who collectively submitted over 3,000
applications for unsecured finance on
behalf of their SME clients over a fourweek
period in September.
One in five brokers (19 percent) say
it would take over 12 months for
the lending market to return to the
number of loan requests they received
pre-pandemic, a significant increase
since Q2 2022, when only seven percent
of brokers thought it would take over a
year for markets to bounce back.
As inflation pinches, small businesses
are being mindful of APR, which is
currently the leading deciding factor for
SME owners when choosing between
loan offers, according to a quarter of
brokers (24 percent). This is followed
by one in five (21 percent) who say the
approved amount of the loan is the most
impactful factor.
Colin Goldstein, Commercial Growth
Director of iwoca, says the challenging
economic environment has hit small
businesses everywhere: “They’re needing
to manage cashflow in the face of
rising business costs, as well as having
to consider the cost of borrowing,” he
explains. “Our priority is to continue to
support them over the coming months
by providing access to finance as soon as
they need it.”
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 5
NEWS ROUNDUP
Mass insolvency and
redundancy fears as
UK heads for recession
M
ORE than two
out of every
five (41 percent)
established small
and medium
businesses (those
with between 10 and 100 employees)
across the UK expect to shut their
doors permanently, be forced to
conduct mass redundancies or close
locations within the next 12 months.
And more than one in three (39
percent) fear their business will
be fatally or critically impacted by
any forthcoming recession, while
a similar number (43 percent) say
they will have to borrow money
just to keep their business afloat or
refinance existing debt (37 percent).
It paints a worrying picture for
British business as we look likely to
enter a recession, with this segment
of the economy accounting for
around 30 percent of UK jobs.
The data comes from a recent
survey by Allica Bank of 150
established small and medium
businesses in the UK across
multiple industries. It reveals, too,
that 83 percent of business owners
want to see their bank do more
to support them as costs of raw
materials, fuel, interest rates and
inflation continue to rise.
Conrad Ford, Chief Product Officer
at Allica Bank, agrees that banks
will play a critical role in keeping
business owners’ heads above the
water: “It’s clear that large numbers
of established small and medium
businesses are struggling to stay
afloat and in fact, many are going to
find themselves in further debt just
to keep the lights on.
“Banks must do more to help these
businesses – either with funding
or sharing expertise – because
Government help can only go so
far. As an industry, we support
businesses who, in turn, employ
millions of people already struggling
in a cost-of-living crisis. Our team
of relationship managers have been
working closely with our business
customers to provide information
and support, and we think that’s
going to become ever more
important in the coming months.”
Ania George, Operations Director
at Ashley Care, a Norfolk-based
operator of three care homes, told
Credit Management: “As employers
of 150 staff, we are very concerned
about the current market conditions
and the severe economic headwinds
of double figure inflation, significant
Millions of people in the UK admit
they never think about their credit
score, despite many saying they are
expecting to borrow more money from
their bank or lender in order to manage
the cost of living crisis.
New research commissioned by
CRIF – a provider of consumer and
business credit information – surveyed
thousands of people in countries
across the continent including France,
the Czech Republic, Italy, Germany,
Slovakia, and the UK.
The findings show nearly half
(46 percent) of UK consumers never
think about their credit score,
significantly higher than the European
Brits least likely in Europe to
think about their credit score
average (31 percent excluding the UK),
and the highest of all European
countries surveyed, including France
(35 percent), Germany (40 percent) and
Italy (27 percent).
This is despite the UK having
one of the highest household debt
levels in Europe, and one in five (19
percent) saying they expect to borrow
more from their lender in the next
12 months.
Understanding of how credit scores
are calculated is also poor. Less than
half (48 percent) of people in the UK
say they understand how their score is
calculated, and one in five (20 percent)
say that were their score to go down,
they wouldn’t know how to improve it.
This lack of engagement and
understanding is having a detrimental
effect. One in ten (10 percent)
consumers say they have been turned
down for borrowing since March 2020
(the start of the pandemic lockdowns
in the UK). Of this group: 64 percent
say they received no information from
their lender on how to improve their
situation; 50 percent say they had to
turn to more expensive forms of credit,
such as payday or short-term loans –
the highest in Europe; and 52 percent
say they were surprised to be turned
down as they believed they had a good
credit history.
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 6
NEWS ROUNDUP
❝
“It’s clear that large numbers of established small and medium businesses
are struggling to stay afloat and in fact, many are going to find themselves in
further debt just to keep the lights on.”
– Conrad Ford, Chief Product Officer at Allica Bank
increases in energy costs and the pressures
in recruitment.
“We have tried hard to find ways to minimise
the impact on our business, but the situation
is so challenging that these kinds of measures
alone may not be enough for many SMEs.
“We are very lucky to have always been
closely supported by our relationship manager
at Allica Bank, but I know this is not the case
for many other businesses. Banks will play a
critical role in helping SMEs to weather the
current storm and I believe there has never been
a more important time for banks to connect and
engage with their customers and offer support –
whether it’s through advice, additional lending,
extensions of maturity of obligations, easing
covenants, or any other facilities they may have
available to them.
“While the market is challenging, I believe that
by failing to help businesses, banks will lose the
opportunity to build a relationship and in turn
strengthen their portfolio in the future.”
The Government’s new energy freeze policy
will go some way to offering support for
businesses like Ashley Care, with over half
saying it will be critical to keeping their doors
open. Almost three quarters (73 percent) of
businesses surveyed, however, don’t believe
the support will last long enough, potentially
leading to more insolvencies.
The picture painted by the data is also
supported by Allica’s network of brokers. Chris
Field, Head of Care & Hospitality at Sirius
Property Finance said the number of business
owners applying for funding to help them
survive in the current climate, and to some
extent ‘futureproof’ their business, has more
than doubled.
“There has been a deluge of businesses
seeking funding to cover the increasing costs
of maintaining their businesses. This covers
everything from essential capital expenditure to
maintaining the business premises, to covering
wage bills and supporting interest payments for
financial commitments,” he says.
“We have seen an increase in enquiries
where applicants are looking to refinance their
business, and this is usually due to their current
facility approaching its renewal date (and the
new terms on offer being untenable). So they
are looking for us to run a process to identify
preferable terms, or they are looking to refinance
to release equity and reinvest in the business,
expand, or carry out improvement work. A good
example of this is in the hotel and hospitality
sector, where the quality of the asset can often
dictate KPIs, which ultimately impact revenue
and net cashflow.
“If we don't all sort this out, the Government’s
levelling up agenda and its attempts to bounce
back from the current crisis are at risk of
being just ‘soundbites’ rather than something
resembling reality! These businesses are vital
to local communities given the activity they
generate, who they serve and who they employ.”
Sara Costantini, CRIF’s Regional Director for the UK & Ireland,
says the increasing cost of living is putting huge strain on people’s
finances: “The fact that many more plan to turn to their banks for
financial support, coupled with rising interest rates, mean it’s vital
that people have a good grasp of their creditworthiness. However,
there is a severe lack of awareness and understanding among people
in the UK of their credit score, how it works and how to improve it.
During these challenging economic times, it’s critical that consumers
and businesses alike fully understand their creditworthiness.
“Financial providers need to work to engage and improve people’s
understanding, utilising innovations in open banking, and enabling
more accurate, lower-risk lending decisions that can help people
avoid turning to more costly forms of credit.”
❝
“During these challenging economic times, it’s
critical that consumers and businesses alike fully
understand their creditworthiness.” – Sara Costantini,
CRIF’s Regional Director for the UK & Ireland
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 7
FROM THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE
STORM CHASERS
The CICM and its members are well placed to steer
organisations through the inevitable storm ahead.
Sue Chapple FCICM
In much the same way as I find police
officers are getting younger, the years
also now seem to flash by in a moment.
One minute you’re just recovering from
an over-indulgence of Hogmanay and
knuckling down for the year ahead, and
the next you’re in full preparatory mode
for Christmas, wondering where the last
12 months have gone.
Certainly 2022 has gone in a heartbeat
and didn’t, as was predicted by some,
lead to an enormous tsunami of business
failures, neither did it see a massive
increase in defaults and delinquencies.
Consumer confidence – at least in the first
half of the year – remained pretty resilient,
and a feared halt in discretionary spend did
not materialise.
Unfortunately, I believe that 2022 may
be seen very much as the lull before the
storm, like an uneasy truce or the Phoney
War. The emperor is naked but not everyone
is prepared to admit it. Sadly, and if the
expert commentators and the views of
our own CICM Think Tank members are
to be believed, there are undoubtedly
difficulties ahead.
Squeezed middle
The c2.6 million mortgages that are due
to come off low fixed-rate deals towards
the middle of 2023 will definitely happen,
causing a nightmare for borrowers and
lenders alike. By the end of 2024, more
than five million households will be facing
higher mortgage payments compared to
Q3 2022. The withdrawal of Government
buffers moving towards a more meanstested
delivery, is very likely to happen.
And the so-called ‘squeezed middle’ will
become even more squeezed and will be
the group most affected as the recession
begins to bite.
Preparing for the inevitable downturn
is a must. Mohammed Chaudhri, Chief
Economist and Director of Market
Intelligence at Experian, told a CICM Think
Tank in November that in reality the UK is
already in recession, and the industries that
will be most impacted will be those related
to discretionary spend. There are further
tough times ahead for the hospitality sector
which has already had to come through
tough times, and some of the smaller
businesses across all sectors who perhaps
just about made it through by the skin of
their teeth and a Government hand-out
may find themselves facing a bridge too far.
For businesses, however, this is not the
time to start burying our heads in the sand.
This is when the key principles of bestpractice
credit and collections management
really come into their own. It’s when the
basics of ‘Know Your Customer’ (KYC) take
on even greater significance. It’s when
understanding not just your own suppliers,
but also the wider supply chain and your
customers’ customers becomes even more
important. It’s when invoicing accurately
and on time is essential, and your credit
teams are fully engaged as one of your
greatest sales enablers.
Training investment
It's also a time when an investment in
training and development is also critical.
Recruiting and retaining talent is an
ongoing challenge and presents both an
opportunity and a threat. Those who feel
that their careers are being nurtured and
developed are more likely to stay, and it
is that retained knowledge and expertise
that will become increasingly important
in helping firms navigate the choppy
waters ahead.
It goes without saying that your Chartered
Institute is here to support you as individuals,
and the organisations you represent, with a
range of training, services, and peer-led
expert advice. We don’t have a crystal ball,
and none of us can truly know what next
year will bring. But what we do know, is that
together we are stronger, and together we can
tackle whatever challenges the New Year has
in store.
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 8
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 9
CONSUMER CREDIT
CALL OF DUTY
What are the implications of the FCA’s new
‘Consumer Duty’ drive for the credit industry?
AUTHOR – Jeanette Burgess
TREATING customers fairly has
been the maxim of the financial
services for many years. With
the sector under permanent
supervision, it’s no wonder that
at the end of July (2022) the FCA
published PS22/9: A new Consumer Duty that
requires a higher standard of customer care.
On reading the document, many firms will
soon realise that they have significant and
urgent work to do to ensure compliance with
the new duty.
The new Consumer Duty is a package of
measures intended to improve the standard
of care firms offer to consumers. It comprises
a new consumer principle that provides
an overarching standard of conduct; a set
of cross-cutting rules which are intended
to clarify the FCA’s expectations; and four
outcomes relating to key elements of the firmconsumer
relationship.
The document is not a one-time obligation,
rather, the FCA expects the duty to be reflected
in firms’ strategies, governance, leadership,
and people policies. Senior managers will be
accountable for delivering the higher standards
and good customer outcomes required by the
new duty within their areas of responsibility.
Changes to individual conduct rules within the
senior managers and certification regime rules
in the FCA’s Code of Conduct sourcebook will be
made in time.
The consumer principle
Looking at the consumer principle, it will
become principle 12 in the FCA’s Principles for
Business Handbook and will replace existing
principles six (customers’ interests) and seven
(communications with clients) in this context and
will state that ‘a firm must act to deliver good
outcomes for retail customers.’
The consumer principle sets a higher
standard than existing principle six – which
requires firms to pay due regard to the interests
of its customers and treat them fairly; it directs
firms to play a greater and more positive role in
delivering good outcomes for consumers. The
FCA has confirmed that, as with any principle,
the consumer principle cannot be defined
exhaustively. Its meaning is, however, clarified
and amplified through the cross-cutting rules
and four outcomes and firms will need to take
responsibility for serving consumers’ interests
and delivering good outcomes.
The FCA has clarified that the consumer
principle will apply proportionately. Firms
will not be required to go beyond what is
❝
The duty will
come into force
via a two-phase
implementation
period beginning
on 31 July 2023 for
new and existing
products and
services that are
open to sale or
renewal, and on
31 July 2024 for
closed products and
services.
❝
reasonably expected given the nature of their
role, the product or service they offer and the
characteristics of the customer (in particular,
their financial capability). What can be
‘reasonably expected’ is an objective standard
and will be assessed on the facts. Neither
will firms be responsible for the activities or
actions of others within the distribution chain
(except in the case of specific regulatory or
contractual requirements). Consumers will
remain responsible for the decisions they
make, but firms must use more judgement
when considering the impact of their actions
on consumers.
Overall, the consumer principle places a new
emphasis on consumer outcomes and firms’
obligations to be proactive in delivering those
outcomes. Firms should not focus simply on
processes, but on the impact of their actions
on consumers. Delivering good outcomes goes
much further than simply paying ‘due regard’ to
customers’ interests. Whilst delivery of a ‘good
outcome’ does not have an established legal
meaning, relevant factors include whether the
firm communicates the support available to
customers; whether firms ensure that support
works effectively; operational resilience; dealing
with non-standard issues; and whether firms
consider and properly deal with customers with
protected characteristics and customers with
changing needs.
Although the FCA will dis-apply principles
six and seven, its handbook and non-handbook
material linked to them will continue to be
applicable to firms and business activities
outside the scope of the consumer duty and
should remain helpful to firms in considering
their obligations where the duty does apply.
Cross-cutting rules
The cross-cutting rules provide greater clarity
on the FCA’s expectations and aim to help firms
interpret the four required outcomes. The rules
require firms to do several things.
Firstly, they must act in good faith towards
retail consumers. The FCA has confirmed
that acting in good faith involves a standard
of conduct characterised by honesty, fair and
open dealing, and acting consistently with the
reasonable expectations of retail consumers.
Paragraphs 5.6 – 5.16 of the guidance contain
relatively detailed information and examples
which aim to further clarify the concept of good
faith for these purposes.
Next, they must avoid causing foreseeable
harm to consumers through action or inaction,
either in direct relationships with customers
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 10
CONSUMER CREDIT
AUTHOR – Jeanette Burgess
❝
The document is not a one-time obligation, rather, the FCA expects the duty to be reflected
in firms’ strategies, governance, leadership, and people policies. Senior managers will be
accountable for delivering the higher standards and good customer outcomes required by the
new duty within their areas of responsibility.
or as a result of their position in the
distribution chain.
What is foreseeable is dynamic: if
harm was not foreseeable at the outset
but later becomes foreseeable, firms
should take action to address it. Firms
therefore need to stay abreast of, and
respond to, new and emerging sources
of harm. Paragraphs 5.20 – 5.36 of the
guidance provide detailed information
and examples to explain concepts of
reasonableness and foreseeability, and
also include some important carve-outs
for firms. The guidance confirms that
a firm’s responsibility to avoid causing
reasonable harm can involve taking
proactive steps; not exploiting customers’
vulnerabilities, lack of understanding or
behavioural biases; and being clear and
fair when it comes to communications
with customers throughout the customer
journey and in relation to the description
of products and services.
Lastly, firms must enable customers
to pursue their financial objectives.
The actions a firm might need to take
to support customers in pursuing their
financial objectives will be determined by
the nature of the products or services and
what is within the firm’s control based on
its role and its knowledge of the customer.
Firms should take account of behavioural
biases and vulnerabilities and should
empower customers to make choices in
their own interests as per paragraphs 5.37
– 5.48 of the guidance.
Four outcomes
There are four outcomes that cover the key
elements of the firm-customer relationship.
The first is the products and services
outcome. The new consumer duty
requires all products and services to be fit
for purpose. That is, they must be designed
to meet the needs, characteristics, and
objectives of customers and targeted or
distributed accordingly.
Key questions which are likely to impact
a firm’s delivery of this outcome include
whether the firm has considered the
target market of its products and services
in sufficient granularity. Whether the
firm has satisfied itself that its products
and services meet the needs of consumers
in the target market and performed as
expected. How the firm has identified
if products or services could risk harm,
for example for vulnerable groups of
customers. Whether the firm is sharing all
necessary information with other firms
in the distribution chain and receiving
all necessary information itself. If the
firm is properly monitoring distribution
strategies. And if the firm is regularly
gathering, reviewing, or acting upon data
relating to this outcome.
Second is the price and value outcome.
This centres on consumers receiving fair
value. But value means more than just
price; it involves firms assessing products
and services “in the round” to ensure that
there is a reasonable relationship between
the price paid and the benefit a customer
receives. The FCA has confirmed that it
does not expect firms to quantify non-
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 11
continues on page 12 >
CONSUMER CREDIT
AUTHOR – Jeanette Burgess
monetary costs and benefits, but it does expect
firms to qualitatively consider these factors.
Chapters seven of the policy statement and
guidance together provide detailed information,
examples, and assistance for firms in relation to
assessing value, including suggestions as to the
types of data that firms can use to monitor their
performance against this outcome.
The third outcome is that relating to consumer
understanding. This requires that firms’
communications give customers the necessary
information to support and enable customers to
make informed decisions about financial products
and services. Information must be provided to
customers at the right time and in a way the
particular targeted customers can understand.
This outcome requires firms to communicate
information in a way which is clear, fair, and
not misleading. It goes further than existing
principle seven because it specifically requires
communications to be tailored considering
the characteristics of the customers intended
to receive the communication, including any
characteristics of vulnerability; the complexity of
products; the communication channel used; and
the role of the firm. It also requires firms, when
interacting directly with a customer on a one-toone
basis, and where appropriate, to ask if the
customer has understood and whether they have
any questions. This outcome also involves firms
demonstrating consumer understanding through
testing and ongoing review/improvement.
The fourth and last is the consumer support
outcome. This involves the design and delivery of
support to meet the needs of customers, including
those with characteristics of vulnerability;
ensures that customers can use their products as
reasonably anticipated; ensures that the customer
journey allows for the mitigation of risk of harm
and gives customers sufficient opportunity to
understand and assess their options; ensures
that customers do not face unreasonable barriers
(including unreasonable additional costs) during
the lifecycle of a product or service; and requires
firms to monitor the quality of the support
they are offering and to act promptly if/when
issues arise.
Scope and application
The new Consumer Duty will apply to regulated
firms’ activities in relation to products and
services sold to retail clients. Notably, regulated
firms in the e-money and payments sector are in
scope. In addition, firms which are involved in the
manufacture or supply of products and services to
retail clients are in scope, even if they do not have
a direct relationship with the end consumer.
The duty will not have retrospective effect.
It will apply, on a forward-looking basis, to new
and existing products and services, including
closed book products and services. In relation to
firms currently applying for authorisation or to
vary their permissions, the FCA has clarified the
need to demonstrate, from now on, the ability to
meet the requirements of the new Consumer Duty.
The Duty will come into force via a two-phase
implementation period beginning on 31 July 2023
for new and existing products and services that
are open to sale or renewal, and on 31 July 2024
for closed products and services.
Importantly, chapter 12 of the policy statement
sets out a roadmap of the FCA’s expectations
of firms during the implementation period. In
particular that by the end of October 2022, boards
and management bodies should have agreed their
implementation plans and be able to evidence
that they have scrutinised and challenged their
plans to make sure they are deliverable and robust
enough to meet the new, higher standards. Firms
should expect to share their implementation plans
and supporting board papers and minutes and to
be challenged on their contents.
Firms should aim to complete all necessary
reviews to meet the four-outcome rule, and to
share all necessary information with distributors,
by the end of April 2023.
They should also identify where changes need
to be made to existing products and services, and
implement remedies, by the end of July 2023.
Where firms identify serious issues causing
immediate consumer harm, they must be
prioritised. And where actions to comply with
the Consumer Duty can be taken more quickly
than the implementation deadlines, firms should
consider doing this.
Practical advice
Compliance with the new Consumer Duty will
involve urgent and significant action on the part
of all affected firms.
In the short term, firms should have undertaken
the necessary reviews to enable them to have
demonstrably agreed implementation for meeting
the new, higher standards. But over the coming
months, the reviewing and amending of all relevant
policies and procedures, as well as products,
services, contracts, and communications, will
be required.
Staff training will, of course, also be essential.
This should embody not only an explanation of
all legal, regulatory, and practical changes, but
also an emphasis on the cultural shift which
fundamentally underpins the new duty.
Firms must act swiftly, to set up project teams
tasked with benchmarking their compliance against
the new requirements and effecting a programme
of change to address the gaps identified in
accordance with the tight deadlines prescribed.
Summary
Change is coming and compliance is mandatory.
As with any new set of regulations, the sooner
management understands the new process and
seeks to effect change, the better the outcome.
Jeanette Burgess is a partner at Walker Morris.
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 12
CONSUMER CREDIT
AUTHOR – Jeanette Burgess
❝
The FCA has
clarified that
the consumer
principle will apply
proportionately.
Firms will not
be required to go
beyond what is
reasonably expected
given the nature
of their role, the
product or service
they offer and the
characteristics of
the customer
(in particular, their
financial capability).
❝
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 13
CONSUMER CREDIT
LAYER CAKE
Is the FCA’s new Consumer Duty adding
an unnecessary layer of compliance?
AUTHOR – Sean Feast FCICM
BEING politically rather
than evidentially driven,
the Consumer Duty was
always going to be difficult
to bring to life in a way
that found that crucial
point of balance between consumer and
firm – between necessary regulation and
social policy. Henry Aitchison, Head of
Policy at the Credit Services Association,
believes that on paper at least, the FCA
has achieved a skilful balance: “Whether
it is effective in practice, or suffers from
unintended consequences, remains to be
seen,” he says.
Every business is different, so how
the Consumer Duty influences those
businesses will vary considerably. For
some, it may mean relatively little change.
For others that change might be more
profound. “The challenge that all firms
will be facing is a need to get under the
hood to see what they are already doing,
how they are doing it, the information that
they have and the extent to which those
processes and practices line up with the
Consumer Duty as a whole and the four
outcomes in particular,” Henry continues.
“That is no small task and the timetable
for implementation is ‘challenging’ to put
it mildly.
“But before all that, the biggest challenge
is in trying to work out where your firm
fits in the FCA’s design. Many of the
concepts are straightforward if you are
designing a loan or credit card and then
distributing it. For sectors that don’t have
that ‘linear’ relationship to the transaction
or the consumer, the first challenge is in
working out precisely how the Consumer
Duty touches the business, and what
outcomes are relevant, and only then
starting to work through the expectations
that the Rules and Guidance set out.”
Depth and breadth
Kevin Blake, Lowell’s UK Chief Risk
Officer, believes it will take time for firms
to fully appreciate the depth and breadth
of the requirements of the new Consumer
Duty: “It is a noticeable step up from
current FCA regulations around ‘Treating
Customers Fairly’, and further emphasises
placing customers at the heart of firms’
businesses and their strategic goals,” he
says, “and I expect it will be used by the
regulator as a test for all activities and
processes we undertake.”
In Lowell’s opinion, the proposals are
wide ranging; expecting as they do that
firms will go above and beyond ‘TCF’.
The guidance gives firms sufficient
flexibility to be innovative which should
in turn support competitiveness in
the marketplace. Kevin doesn’t see the
new duty will require any fundamental
changes to the business: “It will be
incumbent upon us, however, as well as
other firms, to show good outcomes for
all customers not just the majority and
evidencing this through management
information will be key here.”
Like Henry, Kevin sees the deadline as
something of a challenge: “Due to the
substantial breadth of the Consumer
Duty, we expect to see some firms
potentially struggle to meet the July 2023
deadline for new and existing products
and whilst we have made good progress
based on recent comparisons, the extent
of the Duty means that the timetable will
continue to be challenging for all,” he
admits. “The need to evidence through
management information, documentation
and governance that the Duty has been
fully implemented will be critical.”
Tight timescales
Debbie Nolan FCICM, Vice President
Collections UK of Arvato Financial
Services, sees less of an issue with the
timeframe: “I don’t think the timescale
for implementation is too tight,” she says.
“I think adding some urgency to it, just
emphasises the importance the FCA is
placing on this initiative and illustrates
their concerns that some areas of the
financial services industry just haven’t
got the earlier messages. For some of
those firms, there may be work to do, but
I think the debt collection sector is well
positioned and can help here.
“I think many firms in the third-party
and outsourced debt collection space that
have thoroughly embraced TCF and more,
may be wondering what it is they are not
already doing and how they are expected
to ‘up their game’ still further in light of
Consumer Duty, but I don’t believe that
means anyone in the Financial Services
sector can rest on their laurels or think
this doesn’t apply to them. “At Arvato,
we’ve taken the opportunity to look closely
at everything we do with a fresh pair of
eyes and redoubling our efforts to expose
any opportunity where a customer could
fall through a gap in our processes and
not receive the high standard of service
we’d expect to give them.
Minimal impact
John Ricketts FCICM, Managing Director
of Ardent Credit Services, also doesn’t
anticipate the new duty as requiring any
fundamental change: “As a regulated DCA
we are already operating a customer centric
model with TCF, Conduct Rules and
Vulnerability frameworks fully operational
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 14
CONSUMER CREDIT
❝
AUTHOR – Sean Feast FCICM
“In many respects, and notwithstanding the areas of ambiguity, our markets
are well placed already to apply the Consumer Duty”
– Henry Aitchison, Head of Policy at the Credit Services Association
believes its own approach achieves a better
outcome. Due diligence in the purchase
of portfolios will be largely unchanged,
but the Consumer Duty should in theory
make that slightly easier by requiring
vendors to provide adequate information
– an incremental improvement. Other
aspects will be entirely new, such as
not merely tracking whether a customer
was referred to debt advice but what
the outcome of that referral and that
advice was. How those affect markets or
competition are as yet unclear.”
and a solid Quality Assurance model, so
the practical impact on Ardent will be
minimal,” he explains.
“A number of policy items/governance
documents and objectives mapping tools
are being updated and enhanced together
with more detailed compliance checks
and records of specific ‘validations’
although as a DCA we don’t of course
actually offer any ‘retail’ goods or services.
Our main focus remains ‘clear and not
misleading communications and NOT
exploiting a lack of understanding’.
So how will the new duty affect the
marketplace? Will it increase competition?
Henry thinks it is still too early to tell:
“There will be an element of seeing what
the impact is in client sectors before
forming a view of how that might translate
into influencing debt purchase and
collection markets. In many respects, and
notwithstanding the areas of ambiguity,
our markets are well placed already to
apply the Consumer Duty,” he says.
“Some challenges can be expected to be
largely unchanged, such as different client
demands or managing the tension between
those and situations where the debt collector
Cost implications
Debbie Nolan thinks that one of the
impacts could be the additional cost: “I
don’t want to label this as just another
compliance exercise – it’s not just ‘TCF+’
or an enhanced set of ‘tick-boxes’ to
complete, this is all about how a firm’s
culture and values stack up and how
everyone in that firm believes in treating
customers and helping them deal with
their financial difficulties. But I think for
some firms that have work to do in this
area, there will be a cost to bear.
“One of the FCA’s key goals is to maintain
a competitive marketplace – if the cost of
achieving the standards expected by the
regulator are perceived to be too high,
some products may be withdrawn from
the market and that may not benefit the
consumer. In time, however this initiative
should improve competition as customers
will recognise those suppliers that provide
the very best service to consumers – I’m
sure the FCA is trying to generate a ‘race
to the top’ and that can’t be a bad thing for
the consumer.”
Kevin Blake agrees: “It will certainly
raise standards both in respect of the
way our clients expect us to operate and
in turn we shall enhance the diligence
processes associated with portfolio
purchases. By getting it right, this can
create a competitive advantage in the eyes
of our clients as well as ensuring financial
objectives of our customers are met and
thereby making credit work better for all.
“Anything which raises standards
in the sector does, by its very nature,
increase competition but like many
regulatory changes it is likely to come
at an incremental cost which could
cause challenges in some parts of
our marketplace.”
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 15
Serrala CP
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 52
Serrala CP
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 53
INSOLVENCY
CONFIDENCE TRICK
Confidence and knowledge are critical to future
success, but are often in short supply.
AUTHOR – Jo Kettner
credit
is the vital air of the
system. It has done
more, a thousand
“COMMERCIAL
times more, to enrich
nations, than all the
mines of the world”.
This quote, from US Senator Daniel
Webster in 1834 will, I’m sure, resonate
with most readers: the ability of
businesses to trade with each other on
payment terms which allow time for
value to be created in the economy is one
of the most important foundations for
economic growth.
However, there are certain conditions
that need to be met in order for businesses
to be able to deliver goods or services and
then wait for payment, or to establish a
production process which depends on
receiving reliable supplies. These are
confidence and knowledge: confidence in
the general economic situation, that there
are no unexpected shocks which might
impact the ability of a customer to pay or a
supplier to deliver what has been agreed;
and knowledge that robust, credible
information about the individual business
to which credit is being extended, or
trusted to deliver supplies, is available.
Lacking confidence
I think few people would disagree that
confidence is in short supply as we
approach the end of 2022. The outlook for
the UK economy is unremittingly grim:
self-inflicted wounds heaped on top of
an extraordinary period of global shocks
have led the Bank of England to announce
that it expects the UK to be in recession
for a prolonged period, with inflation
staying at around 10 percent well into the
middle of 2023.
The market reaction to the 23 September
Mini Budget showed what a sudden lack
of confidence can do on a macro scale.
While those dark days may be behind
us, the impact of the undermining of
confidence continues to be felt. We see in
the official statistics that business owners
have been deciding to close operations in
larger numbers than ever before (we are
on trend for insolvencies to be up 25%
compared to 2019, with director-initiated
CVLs accounting for 89 percent of all
company insolvencies between Q1 2021
and Q2 2022, a much higher level than
pre-Covid).
Even businesses which are financially
sound and well-run are (and should be)
starting to take a critical look at their
operations and operate through the prism
of active risk management and caution.
In a recent discussion with a group of
business leaders from SMEs within
a number of sectors, the unanimous
consensus was that taking on any new
borrowing to fund investment should be
put on hold, along with most discretionary
spend, and there should be a hyper focus
on cash – in particular converting workin-progress
and unbilled revenue.
Currency risk
Another key theme which impacts on
confidence in the age of global supply
chains is currency risk. After the Mini
Budget, the pound sunk to historic lows
against the dollar. That matters for the
whole economy, whether or not you
have direct exposure to currency risk.
In its November MPC report, the Bank
of England highlighted that the Brent
crude oil spot price was at $95 a barrel –
20 percent higher than at the start of the
year. They didn’t further explain that,
because of the FX impact that has led to
the price of oil in GBP terms rising from
£58 in January 2022 to £83 in November
2022 – an increase of some 43 percent.
Such price shocks are not confined to
oil – nearly all commodities have seen
similar price volatility and this, coupled
with a declining exchange rate has caused
huge increases in input prices across
the economy. It exposes pre-planned
investment to price risk and will cause
shudders among even the most bullish
believers in investing for growth.
So, if confidence is in short supply –
how about knowledge? This is the area
which, it seems to me, is most worthy of
our attention. There is very little that we
as individual businesses can do to change
the external forces which are causing such
a crisis of confidence. Yet we still need to
run our businesses, to make decisions and
try to leverage this power of commercial
credit which we all know is such a vital
component of emerging from recession.
However, as we all know, extending
credit to the wrong businesses can have
disastrous consequences. Knowledge in
this context is not an end in itself, rather, it
facilitates and supports decision-making.
It is multi-faceted – gained through the
accumulation of evidence, weighed
according to the reliability of the sources
and combined with experience to inform
a decision.
This is not the article to write in
detail about the various shortcomings
of Companies House, the main spine
of company information in the UK. I
echo much-respected anti-corruption
journalist Oliver Bullough’s words that
‘like any law enforcement or investigative
bodies, the people at Companies House
know what they’re up against and they’re
trying their best, but there just aren’t
enough of them’.
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 18
INSOLVENCY
AUTHOR – Jo Kettner
❝
So, if confidence is in short supply – how about knowledge? This is the
area which, it seems to me, is most worthy of our attention. There is
very little that we as individual businesses can do to change the external
forces which are causing such a crisis of confidence.
I am sure that this magazine will devote
many column inches in the months ahead
examining the proposed Economic Crime
and Corporate Transparency Bill which
is currently making its way through
Parliament and sets out to close some
of the more shocking loopholes which
have allowed UK-registered entities to
feature in many of the high-profile money
laundering scandals of recent years.
Data unreliability
For our purposes I think it is worth
reiterating that, given the underlying
source data is either unverified
(Companies House, HMRC data) or
incomplete (bank data, payment data) –
and sometimes both (local government
data)! – any decisions taken using this data
have some element of risk associated with
them. I’m afraid there is no perfect source
of knowledge, no guaranteed model or
score that will enable you to go boldly
into the world of credit risk with certainty
that you won’t lose any money. But
there are tools and techniques that can
help you manage your risk and take
evidence-based decisions.
A few tips on how to boost your
knowledge:
1. Investigate alternative sources of
information – from our experience, our
clients tend to use more than one credit
reference agency (CRA) source of data. We
all have different models, and we source
and clean information in different ways
– so being able to see risk from multiple
perspectives helps you come to a more
informed conclusion about a business.
2. Talk to your customer – what is
happening in their business – how are they
managing risk, what is their institutional
attitude to the current economic climate
and measures to manage risk – how might
this impact your relationship?
3. Try to get Management Accounts – or
if you aren’t able to obtain these, use your
conversations to ask about the outlook for
order books, margins etc. Company Watch
users are able to create experiments to
plug these more up-to-date numbers into
our models to see the impact of current
financials on the underlying health of
the company.
4. Stress-test – if you aren’t able to glean
much information directly, it can be
helpful to think of the wider context
and analyse how a key customer might
be vulnerable: are they particularly
exposed to FX and commodity prices
without the ability to pass these costs
on (margin squeeze); do they have large
amounts of debt which is subject to the
company meeting certain conditions e.g.
a certain level of profitability – if this is
not achieved will they breach lending
covenants and cause the debt to be called
in? Is the company able to survive this kind
of shock? Is the company overly reliant on
one or two key customers or suppliers –
what happens if these relationships end
abruptly? We have built a Forecast View
for our clients which allows them to run
seven pre-set scenarios and then tweak
our assumptions to generate a view of a
company’s financial health in the context
of the current economic environment.
5. Focus – of course I realise that credit
managers tasked with managing a book
of hundreds or thousands of customers
can’t possibly go through each risk in
such detail, so that’s where my next
piece of advice comes in: you have to
spend some time segmenting your risks
into criticality. You may decide that
this is by absolute spend, by segments
that are particularly exposed to margin
squeeze and commodity price volatility,
by profitability or by looking at internal
data on changes in payment and ordering
patterns for example.
6. Ongoing monitoring – once you have
segmented your portfolio make sure you
set up monitoring alerts so you receive
notification if anything significant
changes – this could be Profit Warnings,
Court documents (e.g. unadvertised
winding up petitions, winding up petition
applications, CCJs etc), Director changes,
new secured debt etc. You will still need
to focus your time on the most critical
customers, but monitoring can give you
some vital early warning of potential
businesses in stress.
For the last piece of advice, I’d
make a final plea for cross-functional
collaboration. Talk to other colleagues
in your organisation who manage risk –
particularly in procurement functions
– share your knowledge about managing
financial risks with colleagues who may
be less familiar with thinking about
financial health and business failure.
There is no doubt that we are in
for rough waters ahead, but I expect
businesses whose teams are working
closely together, sharing expertise and
staying focused on the most critical risks
will find themselves best-placed to come
through the storm stronger and able to
capitalise on the opportunities which will
be there on the other side.
Jo Kettner is the outgoing CEO of Company
Watch and a member of the CICM Think Tank.
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 19
INSOLVENCY
ALLIED CAUSE
The Government’s anti-fraud efforts could find
a beneficial ally in the insolvency profession.
AUTHOR – Christina Fitzgerald
MORE than 60 percent of
UK businesses have been
affected by fraud over the
last two years, according
to the Office for National
Statistics, while instances of
this crime have risen by more than 40 percent in
the same period.
It’s clear this is a very serious issue, and
one which, despite the work of Government
departments and agencies and other public
sector bodies will likely require support from
the private sector.
The insolvency and restructuring profession
already extensively assists in combatting
economic crime, but we believe a number of
reforms would mean we could do even more to
help the fight against fraud.
The dissolution process
Reforming Companies House’s automatic
strike-off power is something we would like to
see become reality as we believe it would make
investigating insolvent company dissolution
more effective.
Enabling Companies House to place companies
that have failed to file accounts when
due automatically in a compulsory liquidation
procedure would mean investigations into
directors’ conduct could be carried out earlier,
as well as potentially facilitating the earlier
recovery of misappropriated company assets.
Of course, such a move would have resource
implications for the Official Receiver, but these
costs could be covered by making the directors
of the companies that have failed to file their
accounts personally liable for the cost of the
process. Further support could be provided by
the insolvency and restructuring profession – if
required by the Official Receiver.
Company ‘quarantining’
Quarantining companies that would have
been struck off the register for review by the
Insolvency Service, to assess whether or not
they were insolvent, is another option we would
like to see explored. Doing so would allow any
company that was found to be insolvent to then
be placed under the appropriate compulsory
liquidation procedure under the oversight of the
Government’s Official Receiver.
Companies House could increase the
penalties it levies on companies for filing
failures to pay for this, with the resultant funds
being used to cover the costs of the Insolvency
Service investigations into those quarantined
❝
We believe
extending the
definition of ‘de
facto director’ to
include ‘natural
person’ directors of
corporate directors
so they can be
held personally
liable when fraud
occurs would
be a significant
help in the fight
against fraud.
❝
companies. Taking an approach like this one
would help determine whether fraud has
occurred, and would mean it would be more
difficult for directors to either build up debts,
sell company assets, or simply take all the
cash out for themselves ahead of the company
being dissolved.
As mentioned above, if the Official Receiver
required further support with this work, it
could be provided by the insolvency and
restructuring profession.
The restoration process
Disqualifications do not provide much deterrent
for culpable directors – at least in our members’
experience. However, they tell us putting the
company through an insolvency process and
holding the directors to account for the assets
that have been misappropriated provides a
much stronger one.
But part of the challenge with this is the fact
the company has to be restored to the register
if it has been dissolved and automatically
struck-off, which requires an application to
court. The costs and time involved with this
can often deter creditors from pursuing it as a
procedure, which creates a significant barrier to
investigating directors’ conduct, so we believe
the restoration of a company should be an
administrative process.
This could be triggered by a company director
or creditor meeting agreed requirements such
as producing evidence of an unpaid debt or a
commitment to petition for the winding-up of
the restored company.
A change like this might not necessarily reduce
the overall cost of investigating a company, but
it would provide less of a deterrent to creditors
when it comes to deciding on whether or not to
restore one.
A new definition
We believe extending the definition of ‘de facto
director’ to include ‘natural person’ directors
of corporate directors so they can be held
personally liable when fraud occurs would be a
significant help in the fight against fraud.
Because of the way the law is written in the
UK, only one director on a company’s board
needs to be a real or ‘natural’ person. This means
‘corporate directors’ like other companies or
legal entities are permitted to take up the other
board positions if they so wish.
Extending the ‘de facto director’ definition to
include natural person directors of corporate
directors would mean they could be held
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 20
INSOLVENCY
AUTHOR – Christina Fitzgerald
❝
I would hope MPs – whether they are Committee Members or not
– will consider introducing some of the recommendations, so the UK
is better placed to tackle fraud, and minimise the number of people
suffering financially and emotionally as a result of that crime.
personally liable when fraud occurs – both
a potentially powerful deterrent and a
route for asset recovery, as well as closing a
legal loophole.
Stronger together
The Government itself has acknowledged
the importance of developing strong publicprivate
and private-private partnerships to
tackle fraud in its Economic Crime Plan
2019-22, and one area where we would
like to see more of this is around the
prosecution of directors who breach the
Insolvency Act and the Companies Act.
More director disqualifications and
prosecutions could take place if greater use
was made of the private sector’s expertise
and capacity to support the Government,
which would, we hope, prevent directors
from committing repeated frauds, improve
the deterrent for fraud, as well as reducing
Government costs.
An additional bonus would be that it
would enable an increased number of
large cases to be undertaken, as well as
allowing more of a focus on wider targets
and potentially increasing the recoveries
for victims.
And if the figures for legal proceedings
against directors who have breached
the two Acts I mentioned above were
made public, this would provide a means
of assessing the effectiveness of this
partnership – as well as a baseline for
reviewing and evolving this approach.
Worthy of consideration?
At the time of writing, the Government’s
Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency
Bill is going through its Committee
Stage in the House of Commons.
I would hope MPs – whether they are
Committee Members or not – will consider
introducing some of the recommendations
made above, so the UK is better placed to
tackle fraud, and minimise the number
of people suffering financially and
emotionally as a result of that crime,
whilst increasing the likelihood of clawing
back losses.
Christina Fitzgerald is President of R3, the
insolvency and restructuring trade body.
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 21
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 20
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 21
PAYMENTS
Request Accepted
How can Request to Pay create better
connections with customers.
AUTHOR – Tim Annis
WHICHEVER COVID impact
report you read, be it
from McKinsey, BDO or
a tech giant like Cisco,
it's widely accepted that
the pandemic accelerated
digital transformation across most industries
by several years, if not more. And within
finance, that's certainly been the case for
credit professionals where the opportunity for
transformation was ripe.
Customers are benefiting from this wave of
change with commendable adaptability. QR
codes, for example, have surged in use not
just replacing menus but also for ordering and
payment. Open Banking is also delivering a
way to let customers easily (and more cheaply!)
pay from their bank account. It’s being used by
businesses to improve risk decisioning or to
help customers reduce the chances of paying
the wrong person with confirmation of payee.
The pandemic has also highlighted the value
of good credit management, there were many
stories of credit managers suddenly at the top of
their CEO’s speed dial as the focus on cashflow
become intense. The incredible contribution
that the credit function makes to a business is
not without its challenges, getting a clear view
of the cash position of a business starts with
knowing your customers. The positive impact
credit brings to the customer relationship isn’t
recognised enough. There are a lot of solutions
out there to help in the credit space, however
there is one that I think you won’t be that so
aware of; Request to Pay.
What is Request to Pay (RtP)?
Request to Pay (RtP) is a new payment standard
that is getting attention in many countries
around the world from the UK to Europe, India
to Australia. There are a number of different
flavours but the common underlying principle
is secure, real-time, two-way communications
between two parties, ie a biller and a payer.
This presents a new way to connect with
customers and transform that experience.
Throwing it over the wall
Let’s put this into a real-life example. Take a
utility company. They will send their bills in
one of two ways: paper or PDF. Their customers
will pay in one of four ways; Direct Debit (most
consumers, not many businesses), by phoning
in or going to their website, going to their online
banking or perhaps they will use a cheque.
There are quite a few downsides for both sides.
Sending that bill out is like throwing it over a
❝
RtP is a secure
channel so there
is no ability for
fraudsters to
intercept the
“Request” and if
they could it doesn’t
hold any payment
information that
they can change.
That’s one fraud
vector removed.
❝
wall, you have no idea what happens to it, and
it takes effort to find out. When you do get paid
you will spend a chunk of time trying to work out
who has paid what and even a small percentage
of payments tends to take a disproportionate
amount of time. Then there is the growing risk
of fraud – your emailed bill is intercepted, the
bank details changed and your customer pays
them and not you, which is not a good outcome.
The traditional way is not great for the
customer either. Direct Debit means they
don’t get to pick the collection date, and likely
requires a call to their supplier to have it
changed. It also throws up issues if they don’t
have sufficient funds in their bank account.
The lower income segments of society often
can’t afford the rigidity of direct debit and suffer
from the poverty premium as a result. Manual
solutions on the other hand mean the customer
has to remember to do the task, while being
helpfully chased by their supplier, though they
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 24
PAYMENTS
AUTHOR – Tim Annis
❝
The pandemic has also highlighted the value of good credit management,
there were many stories of credit managers suddenly at the top of their CEO’s
speed dial as the focus on cashflow become intense.
RtP gives the customer control, flexibility
and simplicity around how they manage
their finances, which means billing and
payments becomes a positive part of the
customer experience. And who knows,
they might just talk about it too.
Top benefits for billers:
1. Real time insights allow you to see what
a customer is doing with your bill saving
time and the cost of chasing.
2. Straight through reconciliation of all
payments – which means faster cash
allocation, and effort better spent in
other areas.
3. A transformed customer experience –
create a closer connection with your
customer at the most frequent touch
point – billing and payment.
Top benefits for payers:
1. Control: no Direct Debits at awkward
times or bounced, the customer can
decide on the day that works for their
financial situation.
2. Flexibility: they can pay how they want,
when they want, on the go, or at their
desk, without fuss.
3. Simplicity: no phoning up suppliers or
remembering lots of different logins, they
can manage it all from a single place.
should of course “ignore this letter if you
have already paid”. Which you did….a
week ago…
Its a mess, and there is little to
no certainty for either side and no
real control.
Better connections
RtP changes all of this. Rather than
throwing your invoice over the wall you
can now send out a ‘Request’; a digital
invoice that can contain as much data as
needed, direct to your customer, to their
mobile/tablet/laptop. And you will know,
in real time, when they have received it,
opened it, paid it, part paid it, scheduled
it for a specific date, don’t want to pay or
have a question on it. I’ll say that again;
in ‘real time’, so you don’t need to send a
chaser, you have live insights on what is
happening with your invoice.
Payments made are linked to the
specific ‘Request’ that was sent, that
means reconciliation data for even
part payments allows straight through
allocation of all payments across all types.
RtP is a secure channel so there is no
ability for fraudsters to intercept the
“Request” and if they could, it doesn’t hold
any payment information that they can
change. That’s one fraud vector removed.
From a customer perspective they
now have the ability to see the exact bill
that they have received, who it’s from,
what it’s for; they can use the payment
method of their choice to make the
payment; they can pay it straight away,
part pay it if they need to, schedule it for
a date that suits their financial situation
(within contracted terms of course!), raise
a query or if they don’t recognise it, then
they could choose not to pay it. Ultimately,
These points are just the tip of the
iceberg of how RtP can help to create
better connections with customers. Good
customer experience means a happy
customer, and that makes them much
more likely to pay on time and to come
back. With the challenging economic
environment that we are all operating
in, a focus on the customer has to be
key and making billing and payment
an experience that the customer enjoys
makes sense. If it also helps your bottom
line, provides new value or revenue then
that’s the icing on the cake.
Check out Request to Pay and find out
how you can transform the billing and
payment experience for your teams, your
business and your customers and I’ll
be back in a future edition with some
real-life examples of RtP in action.
Tim Annis is Managing Director of Bluechain.
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 25
OPINION
SALE OR RETURN
The future of SME debt sale will depend
on building trust in the system.
AUTHOR – Andrew Birkwood
WHEN the debt sale market
really began in the late
1990s, it was almost wholly
dominated by a small
number of large buyers
acquiring reasonably large
consumer debt portfolios from the retail banks.
Within a decade, the industry had become
firmly established and active, with a number of
well-capitalised buyers competing for business
and a steady stream of creditors willing to sell
their consumer debt at some point in their
credit cycle.
The inexorable rise of debt sale was interrupted
by the credit crisis of 2008/2009. This led to a
market re-adjustment that brought about a
number of significant changes. While there
were fewer buyers, the pricing became more
sensible and sustainable. Regulation via the
Financial Conduct Authority increased and a
‘regulated’ market was created with more
established rules regarding what buyers could
do and how data could be used.
Today, as the market has grown and matured,
the market is now dominated by a handful
of dominant consumer debt buyers that have
significant data assets and have established
scale servicing platforms capable of managing
large volumes of multi-year transactions.
The growth of SME debt sale
But while consumer debt sale is now a firmly
established part of the credit landscape, the
market for SME debt sale has been relatively
silent. While some sales have materialised,
volumes have been limited. Where sales have
occurred, they have tended to be driven by
non-bank lenders. Primary movers include
revenue-based financing houses, asset-based
lending providers, credit card lenders, and
merchant cash advance companies. We’ve seen
the retail banks step into the market and do a
few transactions, but really testing the waters
as opposed to anything more material and
more scalable.
There are signs, however, that the market
is growing and that the size of transactions is
increasing. There is an apparent willingness on
the part of the non-bank lenders to either sell on
a forward flow basis (where they sell a volume of
debt each month), or on a more occasional spot
transaction basis which happens, perhaps, once
a year. In terms of the type of debt those SME
lenders are selling, it covers the whole credit
cycle from very early delinquency through to
aged write offs, and includes debt that is part of
a legal recovery process.
❝
Today, as the market
has grown and
matured, the market
is now dominated by
a handful of dominant
consumer debt buyers
that have significant
data assets and have
established scale
servicing platforms
capable of managing
large volumes of multiyear
transactions.
❝
The reason why SME debt sale hasn’t really
followed the consumer debt sale lifecycle,
or even sat within the consumer debt sale
industry model that we’ve seen, comes down to
a number of likely factors. Firstly, the key driver
for the consumer debt sale model was the retail
banking industry. And where the retail banks
established the market, other consumer credit
institutions – the credit card companies, car
finance companies etc – soon followed. In the
commercial debt sale market, however, we have
not seen the same appetite expressed by the
retail banks.
There are several reasons for this. For
one, there’s much less homogeneity in the
commercial debt world. The debt management
processes tend to be more bespoke. There’s
also much lower volume than for consumer
debt. This presents a challenge to the typical
consumer debt model. And then when you add
the fact that credit data is different, regulation
is different, and the recovery processes are
all different to the consumer debt world, and
materially so, it means that the typical consumer
debt buyer cannot simply switch their model
towards the SME industry to play in that sector.
Choosing a buyer
Notwithstanding the challenges of entering
the commercial debt buying sector, a handful
of notable players are now established, and
portfolios are being acquired. A key question for
the seller is how do they go about selecting their
buying partner?
Generally, a buyer will have to complete
various due diligence questionnaires, provide
policies and procedures, and demonstrate the
track record they have in terms of managing
an SME debt portfolio. They will also need to
evidence that their processes and procedures
are attuned to the SME environment, which, as
I’ve previously mentioned, is not at all standard
and differs quite significantly to the consumer
debt world.
In terms of the transaction lifecycle, the
gestation period for a transaction can be quite
varied depending on the kinds of data and the
type of portfolio that’s being sold. We’ve worked
on some transactions that have been multiyear
from start to finish. Much of that has to
do with the fact that sellers don’t yet have the
confidence to embark on a collaborative debt
sale strategy and need to build that confidence
in the process, and sometimes that takes some
time. Data has become a critical part of building
that trust, working with creditors to ensure
we have the right data that helps us to better
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 26
OPINION
AUTHOR – Andrew Birkwood
❝
Even small shifts in contract terms could derail the current
business model and put stress on meeting the interest payments
on the SME lending they have.
understand the historic performance of the
assets we are buying in order to support a
sensible price.
The contractual element of the debt sale
process can also be quite time consuming,
though not in itself a barrier to progress.
When a routine has become established,
there is no reason why a transaction cannot
occur within a couple of months from NDA
through to completion.
Future prospects
In recent months I’ve spoken to a handful of
our business lending clients, mostly in the
non-bank sector, to gauge their impression
of the future environment and how they’re
viewing lending in the current economic
position we find ourselves in.
An interesting message, which probably
isn’t surprising, is that it’s a very benign
environment from a lending standpoint.
And we would echo that from a debt buying
perspective. We’re not seeing significant
increases in failed payment plans or a
slowdown of settlements. It’s the same on
the lending side of things. They’re not, as
yet, seeing significant defaults coming
through to their business.
What they are seeing, however, is
depleted cash reserves in the customers
(business and personal) balance sheets.
Cash reserves are still probably, within the
SMEs, above pre-pandemic levels, but they
are certainly on the way down and being
reduced month on month, which is clearly
a risk factor that’s being considered.
The key measure, being looked at by a
number of the lenders, unsurprisingly, is
the confidence ratings and the confidence
indices. It won’t surprise anybody reading
this article to learn that the SME confidence
levels are plummeting. And as we go from
quarter to quarter this year, they have
started to noticeably fall off a cliff.
Some lenders have reported that they
have been tightening their lending criteria
and have reinforced their scorecards, and
thus they are tightening their belts and not
expecting to lend as much in the next six- to
12-months. Interestingly, other lenders see
this as an opportunity. There are a few nonbank
lenders that have recently secured
financing and see this as an opportunity
to grow their books and are seeing the
next 12 months as a time that they can
double (or even more than double) their
current lending.
Part of that might be that they expect
retail banks to step away and tighten up
their own credit score cards, which will
create something of a void in the more
prime SME type customers who may find
themselves not being backed by the retail
banks, allowing the non-bank players to
potentially move into their space.
Mixed messages
Lenders are seeing greater bias towards
higher balances over the last year, and this
is something we’ve seen in the debt sale
side as well in terms of the purchases we’ve
been making – namely that balances are
starting to creep up. Partly that’s to do with
– as the merchant cash advance companies
report – the post-COVID environment,
where nobody uses cash anymore and
everybody pays with their card, and partly,
it’s to do with inflation. So, it’s very much
a mixed message from the non-bank
lender community.
What is less mixed and more constant is
the message that lenders are taking more
time to communicate with and understand
their customer base, to proactively determine
their financial health, and their outlook
on future trading. This can include
regular catch ups with the customer
base, or a greater use
of Open Banking information
to provide early warnings of
customer distress. Again, at
present, the situation appears
somewhat benign,
but that situation can easily
and rapidly change. Even
small shifts in contract
terms could derail the current
business model and
put stress on meeting the
interest payments on the
SME lending they have.
Adapted from a
presentation given
by Andrew Birkwood
at a webinar in
October 2022 hosted
by Vistra.com.
Andrew Birkwood is
Founder and CEO
of Azzurro Associates
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 27
THE BIG CASH SQUEEZE
WILL FORTUNE FAVOUR THE BOLD?
creditorservices@menzies.co.uk
menzies.co.uk/creditor-services
With a new political landscape, rising inflation, a cost-of-living crisis
and increasing pressure from HMRC for payments, many businesses
are preparing for a big cash squeeze in 2023. This could push
demand for credit management services to a new high, so how will
the industry fare and could fortune favour the bold?
At a recent roundtable event in
Cardiff, chaired by the Chartered
Institute of Credit Management
(CICM) and hosted by accountancy
firm, Menzies LLP, experts from
across the industry discussed the
challenges and opportunities that lie
ahead for businesses.
During times of economic hardship,
credit managers have a particularly
challenging, frontline role to play in
helping businesses to protect cash
flow, while mitigating financial risks.
However, a strong focus on cash
management and credit control
can also generate opportunities
to increase revenues and boost
profitability.
CHALLENGES LIE AHEAD, NOT
LEAST SKILLS SHORTAGES
Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has
warned that the UK is facing a
‘profound economic crisis’ and while
this isn’t a surprise, many businesses
feel ill-prepared. The fall-out from
Brexit remains a major issue for
many industries, particularly those
trading in Europe, driving up costs
and administration and leaving a
legacy of staff shortages that is
impacting productivity. High takeup
of Government-backed loans
during the COVID-19 pandemic,
has left many businesses struggling
to meet their repayments with
reduced revenues and depleted
cash reserves, all at a time of record
inflation and a war in Ukraine,
which is driving up energy costs to
exorbitant levels that are simply not
sustainable for some businesses.
According to delegates at the
roundtable, the biggest and most
immediate challenge that businesses
are facing is the staffing crisis.
Sue Chapple, chief executive of
the CICM, commented:
Members are reporting significant
staff shortages right across
industry sectors. In particular,
businesses note a lack of
graduates and skilled young
people – some of whom are
choosing to delay the start of
their careers. In sectors such as
construction, food manufacturing
and hospitality, reduced access
to non-UK workers is a major
problem.
While sharing examples of best
practice, Nicola Johnson, head of
credit and cash processing at PHS,
explained that credit management
professionals need to invest more
time encouraging workers to develop
their skills and progress their careers.
She said: “We have six workers
about to start CICM qualifications
at the moment, supported by the
business, and we hope that this will
encourage them to stay and further
their careers.” Other firms reported
that more apprenticeships are being
taken on to grow the skills base.
For recruiters serving the industry,
the lack of candidates for jobs in
areas such as credit assurance and
risk data analysis is inflating wage
expectations, which makes it even
more challenging for businesses
to recruit the people they need.
Jason Pallister, managing director
at DCS Credit Management &
Recruitment, said: “Some businesses
are being priced out of the market
by larger companies that are able
to offer more attractive reward and
remuneration packages. Things are
getting increasingly competitive and
unrealistic wage expectations are a
growing problem.”
Referring to staff shortages in other
sectors, Craig Evans, head of new
business sales at credit ratings
provider, Company Watch, added:
“Staff shortages are so serious in
some industries that businesses
are unable to trade and some are
choosing to wind up now, rather than
wait for the situation to get worse.
This is a growing area of credit risk
that our customers are seeking
information about – particularly
regarding the number of winding up
petition applications.”
While there is no silver bullet to the
staffing crisis, employers are aware
that they need to remain flexible and
understand what workers want. Hans
Meijer, EICC director at Coface,
said: “We are recruiting in London
and Watford at the moment and the
demographic of the candidates for
vacancies at each location is quite
different. Understanding this and
staying flexible to individual worker
preferences when it comes to hybrid
working is helping us to attract
the right people. Greater focus on
training and skills development is
also helping.”
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 26
RISING TIDE OF INSOLVENCIES
With inflation rising and ongoing
uncertainty surrounding trading
conditions, the challenges facing
businesses are expected to continue
through 2023. The hike in energy
costs, due next April, could be a
pivotal moment for some businesses.
A survey conducted recently by the
Office for National Statistics (ONS)
found that:
UK businesses reported being at a
‘moderate-to-severe’ risk of insolvency,
with rising energy costs cited as a major
factor.
Smaller firms with fewer than 50
employees were among those most
likely to report being at risk.
Bethan Evans, business recovery
partner at Menzies LLP, said:
Corporate insolvencies in
England and Wales rose to a
record level in Q2 and some
businesses are seeking advice
about entering an insolvency
process now, because they know
that cost and staffing pressures,
as well as market uncertainty,
are not going away. They are
already on the brink and the rise
in the energy price cap next April
could push them over the edge.
For in-house credit management
teams, reading customer behaviour
and spotting red flags is increasingly
important. Some businesses are still
working through customer issues
caused by the pandemic restrictions.
In some cases, contracts have been
successfully re-negotiated or ‘Covid
credits’ issued. However, in other
instances, demands for payment and
legal action for breach of contract
have proved unavoidable. Overall,
there is a willingness to be flexible
but, with more customers favouring
short-term contracts and seeking
greater control over when and how
they make their payments, credit
managers are feeling the strain.
Sue Chapple commented: “It has
never been more important for
businesses to know their customers
and understand the pressures
and risks they are facing. Through
effective communication, credit
management professionals can help
to build a more complete picture.”
MORE FOCUS ON SUPPLY-SIDE
RISKS
Customer risk isn’t the only source
of financial risk requiring senior-level
attention. Companies understand
the importance of underwriting
customer credit risk, but a growing
number are now seeking advice
about how to mitigate supply-side
risks too. “Communication is vital,
as businesses need to understand
where external risks lie and how
to identify them. They also need
accurate data about where risks
might arise in the future, so they are
better informed,” commented Craig
Evans.
Simon Philpin, head of trade credit
at credit assurance provider, Markel,
added: “We have seen increased
demand for credit assurance
linked to suppliers. Unfortunately,
businesses in some sectors have
been experiencing defaults or delays,
which can be highly disruptive and
financially damaging.”
“Fraud is another major risk factor for
businesses across industry sectors.
Sometimes it is linked to the activities
of financiers, such as invoice
discounters, and we are advising
businesses to be particularly cautious
when auditing their suppliers and
customers. Fraud linked to the
misuse of Government-backed loans
is also widespread.”
FORTUNE FAVOURS THE AGILE
Despite the many challenges
that businesses and their credit
management teams are facing on
a day-to-day basis, there will also
be commercial opportunities in the
year ahead. As some businesses
demonstrated during the pandemic,
those that are quick to diversify
to meet new or growing areas
of demand could reap rewards.
According to Bethan Cooke, senior
lawyer at Admiral Money: “While
risk understanding is important,
businesses should also be thinking
about how they might expand
products or service lines in the year
ahead. In particular, digitisation can
deliver better quality data about
customer journeys to support crossselling
or other revenue-generating
initiatives.”
Even in the midst of a ‘profound
economic crisis’, some businesses
will succeed in growing their market
share or expanding into new
markets. Craig Evans added: “In the
2008/09 recession, we worked with
a construction business that took on
more risk and increased its market
share as a result. Now they are back
and looking to do the same thing
again. As long as they can quantify
the risk they are taking on and don’t
over-stretch, it could be another case
of ‘fortune favours the bold’.”
This report is based on
a roundtable event for
employers and credit
management professionals,
chaired by the CICM and
hosted by accountancy firm,
Menzies LLP.
Menzies LLP’s Creditor
Services team offers
complimentary support and
advice to credit managers and
businesses of all sizes, across
industry sectors. Where
possible, the firm’s experts
provide practical solutions for
improving cash management
and operational resilience and
early engagement is key to
improving outcomes.
For further information on
our complimentary creditor
services offering, please get in
touch.
BETHAN EVANS
PARTNER
bevans@menzies.co.uk
+44 (0)29 2044 7512
GIUSEPPE PARLA
DIRECTOR
gparla@menzies.co.uk
+44 (0)20 7465 1919
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 27
INTERVIEW
MIEUX VAUT TARD
QUE JAMAIS!
Sean Feast FCICM talks to Pierre Haincourt MCICM
about international collections, the benefits of an
Endives au Jambon, and why late is better than never!
WHEN Pierre Haincourt
was young, he wanted to
be a vet. Work experience
in a veterinary practice,
however, brought him
out in a rash, and a fast
diagnosis that he suffers an allergy to
animal fur.
With a love of cooking, he thought briefly
about becoming a chef: “I knew I didn’t want
to work in a restaurant,” he explains. “But I
had an idea of buying a van, and taking it to
the market like a ‘pop-up’ and cooking up and
serving whatever I fancied cooking that day. I
also envisaged doing a deal with the local wine
merchant to match a wine with the food.”
As it was, Pierre’s career took him in a
completely different direction, although his
early years were far from plain sailing.
French connection
Born in Le Touquet, the charming French
seaside town that Pierre says is habitually
‘invaded by tourists’ (I should point out that I am
one such tourist, as Pierre knows. On every visit
I call him for his culinary recommendations.),
Pierre’s mother owned a high-end fashion shop:
“I am forever respecting of our invaders because
they visited my mother’s shop which helped pay
for my swimming lessons and clubs,” he jokes.
A keen sportsman, Pierre showed particular
promise in volleyball, and as a junior was a future
French hope, but was never quite good enough:
“I went to the national training centre and at the
time was quite tall for my age. Unfortunately,
others became taller.”
First educated locally, Pierre admits to making
a slow start academically: “I was not very good at
much,” he concedes. “My English was OK and I
enjoyed economics. I was also OK at French up
to a point, but never great at seeing a particular
meaning or interpretation in a poem. If the
teacher said it meant one thing, I always seemed
to find the opposite meaning!”
As an asthmatic, Pierre’s early schooling was
followed by time spent at a school in the Pyrenees,
where the fresh air was more conducive to a
healthier lifestyle. His fellow students were
an eclectic mix of locals, asthmatics and those
headed to the mountains to become future ski
instructors: “It built my network from all over
France,” he laughs.
He scraped through his first baccalaureate by
the skin of his teeth, so opted to stay on and retake,
this time with a greater focus on economics
in preference to French language and philosophy.
With a considerably improved result, he left for
Montpellier, where he studied between 1986 –
1988 for a degree in International Trade.
International payments
It was through his studies that he first became
familiar with different methods of payment
and credit – Documentary Credits, Letters of
Credit, Open Account etc. – as well as customs
rules and regulations, and how they varied
across borders. He also became familiar with
Incoterms – the set of international rules which
define the responsibilities of seller and buyer in
an export transaction.
With his new-found qualification, Pierre
chose to remain in Montpellier, partly to be
with his girlfriend at the time, and at first took
a job as an English language teacher in a private
school as well as selling insurance door-to-door.
Despite sending off countless CVs to prospective
employers, no-one seemed interested: “I
recognised that in France, unless you have
experience or have graduated from one of the
top business schools, jobs were difficult to come
by, so I got fed up and went to England!”
In England, Pierre at last struck lucky. His
mother had given him the name of the credit
manager at Burberry’s, and a phone call led to
an interview where he discovered they were
looking for a French-speaking credit controller.
Ten days later he started out of the offices in the
East End, adding a slight cockney accent to his
already accented English: “I was pretty much
given a sales ledger and told ‘off you go’!” he says.
Within three years he had risen to assistant
credit manager: “I wanted to be able to phone
the clients who were paying us late but was told
this was what the sales manager did, so I decided
to look elsewhere,” he explains. “I spotted an
advertisement in the Evening Standard for a job
at Credit Limits Ltd (CLL) in High Barnet, and
so at the start of 1992 extended my career into
debt collection.”
Cross-border agencies
His brief from the founder, Derek Dishman, was to
create and develop a cross-border service within
CLL: “When I arrived, we had one bank customer
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 30
INTERVIEW
AUTHOR – Sean Feast FCICM
❝
“I was not very good at much, my English was OK and
I enjoyed economics. I was also OK at French up to a point,
but never great at seeing a particular meaning or interpretation in
a poem. If the teacher said it meant one thing, I always seemed to
find the opposite meaning!” – Pierre Haincourt MCICM
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 31
continues on page 32 >
INTERVIEW
AUTHOR – Sean Feast FCICM
❝
“But I had an idea of buying a van, and taking it to the
market like a ‘pop-up’ and cooking up and serving whatever
I fancied cooking that day. I also envisaged doing a deal with
the local wine merchant to match a wine with the food.”
❝
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 32
INTERVIEW
AUTHOR – Sean Feast FCICM
that had foreign debtors. So, I set up a network of
overseas agents where I needed coverage. Then
Derek extended my brief and said I had to go out
and find new business, so I took off in my car
and started knocking on the doors of Debt
Collection Agencies (DCAs) in France. It worked
well. Many started using Credit Limits as their
UK agent, and some for their work worldwide.
Over time we built the business such that the
international activities became a meaningful part
of the business.”
After 13 years within the business, Pierre
decided the time had come to move on: “I hope
Derek won’t mind me saying it, but I wanted a
piece of the cake, but our ambitions couldn’t
align at the time. Derek said that the cake was still
only small!”
Approached by STA International, Pierre spent
two and a half years within the business as
Director of Collections until the loss of a major
client obliged him to move on. He joined Steris
Ltd, the European arm of a major US healthcare
business, as European Credit Manager, always
maintaining his contact with Derek to the point
that in March 2009, Derek said ‘actually,
shall we talk?’: “I was delighted.”
Pierre smiles.
They struck a deal. Pierre bought
the international activities of CLL
and Credit Limits international Ltd
(CLI) was born. As well as servicing
CLL’s existing clients, CLI built its
own portfolio, notably working larger
ledgers within the insolvency space:
“Many of the clients I had been dealing with
previously came back to us,” Pierre explains, “and
so we were able to expand the business, take on
new staff and start exhibiting at various local
events to build our profile.”
‘Selling commercial collections is not without
its challenges: “Convincing a credit manager
to employ a DCA can be difficult,” he explains,
“because they somehow see it as a failure if they
need to bring in third-party help. That’s odd when
you consider they don’t have any problems with
outsourcing work to a legal firm.”
Third-party influence
Pierre admits that part of the difficulty is that the
credit manager doesn’t see the approach of a thirdparty
to be any different from the techniques they
have already deployed themselves: “Some of our
clients can’t believe we do anything particularly
remarkable,” he says, “but the fact is we resolve
around 85 percent of the instructions we receive
amicably, and nearly all of it has been worked
before, sometimes for two years or more.”
As well as the age of the debt, location, it seems,
is also not a barrier: “One of the largest debts we
collected recently was in the book publishing
sector from a debtor in Egypt. We collected
£743k of the £1.9m owed, with the balance in
returned unsold stock.”
“With any debt, it becomes quite obvious
quite quickly what is collectable and what isn’t,”
he continues, “and we don’t tend to vary our
commission rates as others do based on the age
of the debt, for example. We have a sliding scale
for where the debtor is based, and the volume and
size of the debt, but it is all on a traditional ‘no win
no fee’ basis.”
Pierre says that some credit managers are also
concerned about their company reputation: “Some
categories of client are surprised and puzzled that
we don’t need to threaten their customers with a
baseball bat to get such good results,” he laughs.
“Clients often become too emotional about debt
and some of our success can be attributed to the
‘third-party effect’.”
Accelerated growth
In the last 10 years, the business has continued
on its positive growth trajectory, and the brand
has become well-known and well-respected in
international collections circles. It has particularly
benefited from becoming UK Shareholder
of the TCM Group, a strong international network
with a solid ethical stance. That’s not to
say there haven’t been challenges along
the way. Complying with General Data
Protection Regulation (GDPR), for example,
has sucked up huge amounts
of time and investment in compliance,
especially given the nature of
their business that takes them into
multiple jurisdictions.
The Pandemic was also a shock:
“COVID-19 meant the business took a hit,”
Pierre says, “and we had to retract, but we were
luckier than most. While we lost some business
in some areas, we also won a large new client
and so our margins grew. Our mission now is to
keep growing and we are actively looking at other
agencies to acquire.”
In April of this year, CLI became a Department
for International Trade (DIT) Export Champion,
one of a small number of British businesses
appointed by the DIT to inspire and support small
businesses ‘to seize opportunities in new markets
around the world’. As well as being recognised by
the DIT, Pierre is also an active supporter of the
Kent branch of the CICM, and was a committee
member for nine years, helping to organise events
in the UK and France to benefit local members.
So, what of the future? Pierre continues to
work hard and is proud that business growth is
accelerating once again, despite the challenges of
COVID and the ongoing recruitment challenges.
At 56, Pierre still has a considerable amount
of passion and drive for future projects in the
industry. “However, I’d like to do more cooking,”
he concludes. “I have a signature dish which is
Endives au Jambon – braised chicory with a thick
slice of ham in a sauce mornay. It is delicious.”
Maybe that pop-up market stall will
yet materialise.
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 33
International Trade
Monthly round-up of the latest stories
in global trade by Andrea Kirkby.
TWO POST-BREXIT
DEALS IN TROUBLE
ACCORDING to CityAM, the UK’s trade
deal with India could be derailed over
Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s
‘disrespectful’ migrant comments. She’s
reported to have told the Spectator that
‘the largest group of people who overstay
are Indian migrants’. Understandably,
the Indian Government was less than
impressed with her comments and the
agreement is ‘on the verge of collapse’.
The Times was told that Indian
ministers were ‘shocked and disappointed’
by the comment and that it had set the
relationship a ‘step back… there’s still a lot
of goodwill but if certain individuals are
still embedded in the Government it will
paralyse the talks’.
This could be a problem for those
relying on an Anglo-Indian trade
relationship worth £24bn in 2021.
And when it comes to a UK-US trade
deal, that could be years away.
Despite Boris Johnson, the former
Prime Minister, pushing for a deal, he
had to admit that Washington ‘had a
lot of fish to fry’. And the now former
Prime Minister, Liz Truss, discovered
the same. When en route to the United
Nations General Assembly, she said that
‘there aren't currently any negotiations
taking place with the US and I don't have
an expectation that those are going to
start in the short to medium term.’ Part
of the problem is the possibility of the
undoing of the Northern Ireland Protocol
that followed Brexit which governs trade
rules between the EU, Great Britain and
Northern Ireland.
Instead, Truss noted that her vision
(then) was to look to the East with
India (!), the Gulf Cooperation Council
that includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman,
Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United
Arab Emirates, and to seek accession
to the Comprehensive and Progressive
Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership
that includes Australia, Canada and Japan.
BE CAREFUL IN VENEZUELA
VENEZUELA has some 300bn barrels
of oil, yet its Government cannot
resuscitate the economy. It shouldn’t
surprise, then, that Reuters has
reported that Venezuelan business
owners are struggling to access
credit and are seeking loans through
foreign banks, business people and
finance industry.
In essence, local banks are now
offering few loans to the private
sector because of the Venezuelan
Government’s attempt to lower
inflation by increasing the supply of
foreign cash, limiting the expansion of
credit, reducing public spending and
raising taxes.
The matter isn’t helped by
Venezuelan law which mandates that
local banks must retain 73 percent
of their deposits in the central bank,
which leaves little to lend out.
Reuters notes that several firms
seeking credit elsewhere are in the
agricultural sector and need the funds
to purchase wheat, fertilizers and
other goods from abroad. Other sectors
affected involve the export of food
and drink.
Be careful that your customers in
Venezuela can pay their bills after
they’ve paid any overseas lenders.
AFTER two years of port congestions
and container shortages, it appears that
the global disruption of shipping is now
easing. And it’s partly due to falling
Chinese exports as the global economy
is slowing down.
According to a CNBC report, container
freight rates, which rose to record
prices during the pandemic, have been
on a sharp downward curve for a while
now. The report noted that retailers and
bulk buyers have been ordering less
and at the same time, port congestion
Shipping is on the up
has eased with faster container
turnaround times.
In fact, the Drewry composite World
Container Index — a benchmark for
container prices — is $ 3,483.19 per
40-foot container. That’s 65 percent
lower than an October 2021 peak. While
that may be good news, the current low
is still 245 percent higher than prepandemic
rates of $1,420.
According to Drewry, freight rates on
major routes have also fallen. Costs for
routes like Shanghai-Rotterdam and
Shanghai-New York have fallen by up
to 13 percent. And Container xChange, a
container trading and leasing platform,
said ‘the European market is finding
itself flooded with 40-foot high cube
containers. As a result, the region is
experiencing a fall in the prices of these
boxes.’ It added that ‘containers are
stacking up at a lot of import-led ports.
Shippers are giving containers away
just because they are being stuck there.’
So, some good news in a world full
of doom.
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 34
Exporters hit hard by falling trade
ACCORDING to a survey from the British
Chambers of Commerce (BCC), more small
and mid-sized exporters are reporting
falling overseas sales than are seeing
an increase.
The BCCs quarterly poll of 2,200
companies reported a drop in export growth
in the three months to mid-September, with
the percentage of companies reporting
growing sales dropping from 35 percent to
22 percent of the total. In contrast,
28 percent saw export orders
fall, while 50 percent reported
no change. It also found
that 39 percent of exporters
expected their profitability to
decline, compared with
34 percent expecting
an improvement.
The BCC said that
small firms 'are much
more exposed to the
combination of supply
chain disruption,
THE UK Government wants to drag trade
documentation into the 21st century by
giving digital documents the same legal
status as their paper-based equivalents.
The Government says laws dating back
to the 19th century demand that many
documents must be on paper and that by
going digital firms could save more than
£1bn over 10 years.
The proposals for change are in the
Electronic Trade Documents Bill which
was introduced to Parliament in October
and welcomed by Logistics UK as a
‘positive step’ since Brexit brought in a
‘significant increase in paperwork’.
Paperless trade plans
INVOLVED IN PETS?
SELL TO CHINA
ACCORDING to state owned Sixth Tone,
the pet industry is booming in China as
are pet detectives.
A recent report in the online
publication said that the value of the
domestic pet sector grew 18 percent
year on year to reach £25bn last year.
With nearly 100m households now
having a pet, ownership has grown 44
percent since 2014. And this has opened
up a huge market for pet detectives
who become heroes to happy owners
and often have a huge following on
social media.
The key point is that not only do
pet owners spend a small fortune on
their charges, but that pet detectives
buy in and deploy cat traps, nightvision
devices, monitors, alarms with
wireless transmission functions and
other devices.
In other words, there’s a huge
market in China for any exporter in the
pet sector.
soaring prices, and the impact of Brexit
red tape and compliance costs, than
larger companies.'
The survey was conducted before the
recent fall in the value of sterling against
the dollar.
As if to drive the point home, the monthly
S&P Global/CIPS Manufacturing Purchasing
Managers’ Index, published at the end of
September found that new export orders
fell in September and at their fastest
since May 2020. The index cited lower
demand from the US, China and
the EU.
It said that ‘manufacturers
faced weak global market
conditions, rising uncertainty,
high transportation costs,
reducing competitiveness
and longer lead times
leading to cancelled
orders.’ Of course, the
drop in sterling didn’t
help matters.
It’s hoped that the change will cut
processing times from days to seconds
in areas such as bills of exchange, ship's
delivery orders, warehouse receipts, and
marine insurance policies.
However, while the Government’s plans
have been welcomed, it’s been pointed
out that there needs to be a reciprocating
paperless system in any country being
traded with for the changes to work.
Beyond that are still problems with
systems such as the Customs Declaration
Service. It should be said that the
legislation will allow firms to go electronic
but won’t mandate change.
KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER
– AT LEAST IN ITALY
THE role of the mafia in Italian life
is well known, but it appears that –
as Bloomberg has reported – Italy’s
economic and social crisis is increasing
its vulnerability to organised crime.
In May, former Prime Minister Mario
Draghi warned that organised crime
had ‘insinuated itself into the boards of
companies’ and was working its way into
the economic fabric of Italy. It’s reckoned
that now criminal groups control around
nine percent of the economy.
Of concern to Draghi was the €260bn
of EU recovery funds, which he felt gave
the gangs a “fat new target”. Now, there
is worry that the mafia are acquiring
businesses at risk of default, as the
economic crisis takes hold. It doesn’t
help that SMEs make up 80 percent of
the economy and there’s been a real
growth of the organised crime groups
whose identities are concealed by a shell
company – who acquire small stakes in a
firm and gain effective control.
FUNDING AVAILABLE FOR
BUSINESSES IN ENGLAND
THE Internationalisation Fund is part of
a package of support available to SMEs
through the Department for International
Trade (DIT), which provides co-investment
of between £1,000 and £9,000 to help
them overcome tangible barriers to
internationalise their business and enter
new markets.
The fund is supported by the European
Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and
provides £38m split across four regional
projects – The Northern Powerhouse
Internationalisation Fund, Midlands
Internationalisation Fund, South
Internationalisation Fund and London
Internationalisation Fund.
While the London fund is now closed –
as at the end of September – there’s still
funding for other regions.
To secure a grant, firms need to fund
a proportion of their costs themselves
which varies according to where the
business is based and is either 40 or 50
percent of the total cost.
The fund can be used to support areas
including market research, IP advice,
translation services, international social
media/SEO, trade fairs, independent
market visits, consultancy and other
international commercial services.
Those interested should navigate to
great.gov.uk.
❝
To secure a grant, firms need
to fund a proportion of their
costs themselves which varies
according to where the business
is based and is either 40 or 50
percent of the total cost.
CURRENCY UK
EXCHANGE RATES VISIT CURRENCYUK.CO.UK
OR CALL 020 7738 0777
Currency UK is authorised and regulated
by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
HIGH LOW TREND
GBP/EUR 1.16769 1.13206 Down
GBP/USD 1.20063 1.11076 Up
GBP/CHF 1.15715 1.10508 Down
GBP/AUD 1.81800 1.74588 Down
GBP/CAD 1.58954 1.51817 Up
GBP/JPY 172.075 163.395 Down
This data was taken on 16 November and refers to the
month previous to/leading up to 15 November 2022.
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 35
EGYP
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 36
COUNTRY FOCUS
Rich in resources,
the Egyptian economy
is a gold-mine for
exporters.
The land that
time didn't forget
AUTHOR – Adam Bernstein
COUNTRY FOCUS
AUTHOR – Adam Bernstein
IT’S no surprise that many
associate Egypt with pharaonic
dynasties and biblical tales. And
for the most part they’d be right
in light of the pyramids, various
lost and found temples, the Nile,
Cleopatra, mummies and Tutankhamun.
While Egypt has a history that goes back
8,000 years to the dawn of creation, its
modern history and resources, including
the prized Suez Canal, has made it into
one of Africa’s biggest economies.
Egypt might not be the centre of
attention right now, but the value of
its economy and physical position
should place it high up on the agenda of
any exporter.
Modern history
Officially called the Arab Republic of
Egypt, it sits at the north eastern corner
of Africa and the south western corner
of Asia. With the Mediterranean to the
north, Gaza and Israel to the northeast,
Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south
and Libya to the west, it’s well placed for
businesses wanting to access the region.
Modern day Egypt can be dated back
to 1922 and independence from Britain.
A monarchy from that date until 1952, a
revolution led primarily by Gamal Abdel
Nasser saw the creation of a new republic.
In 1958, Egypt merged with Syria to form
the United Arab Republic but that entity
dissolved three years later in 1961 when
Syria seceded.
In recent times Egypt has seen a
mixture of leaders including – in order –
the reformer Sadat, the dictator Mubarak,
and currently, the authoritarian el-Sisi.
As the CIA World Factbook summarises,
despite Egypt’s mixed record for attracting
foreign investment over the past two
decades, poor living conditions and
limited job opportunities contributed to
public discontent: “These socioeconomic
pressures were a major factor leading to
the January 2011 revolution that ousted
Mubarak. The uncertain political, security,
and policy environment since 2011 has
restricted economic growth and failed
to alleviate persistent unemployment,
especially among the young.”
The land
With 1,001,450 sq.km, Egypt is the world
30th largest country by area. It has a
very dry desert-like climate and the vast
majority of the population live either
along the Nile or in the Nile Delta – 98
percent live on just 3 percent of the land.
The UN Population Fund recorded
a 2022 population estimate of 106.2m
people and a growth rate of 1.8 percent
TBrave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com /December 2022 / PAGE 37
between 2020 and 2025. The same source
reckons that 34 percent were aged 14 or
under, 61 percent between 15 to 64 years
of age, and 5 percent were 65 years or
older. Egypt is the most populous country
in the Middle East.
Finding reliable city population figures
is difficult, but sticking a stake in the sand,
the 2010 census indicated that Cairo had
some 12.3m people, Alexandria had 5.04m,
Giza 4.02m, Shubra El Kheima 3.07m
and Port Said 1.6m. Beyond that
were another 20 cities with between
1.34m and 164,830 people. In contrast,
Worldpopulationreview.com suggested
that Cairo had only 7.73m people,
Alexandria 3.81m, Giza 2.44m, and Port
Said just 538,378 people.
Clearly, these numbers should be
treated as indicative only. But regardless,
it’s easy to see why a plan was mooted in
2015 to move the capital and its functions
to the New Administrative Capital – with a
name still to be given. Part of an initiative
called Egypt Vision 2030, it’s being built
some 45km east of Cairo – halfway to
the Suez Canal – and seeks to reduce the
congestion in present-day Cairo.
In more detail, Egypt Vision 2030 was
launched in 2016 and set eight national
goals that are in tune with the United
Nations Sustainable Development Goals
and the Sustainable Development Strategy
for Africa 2063. In essence, Egypt Vision
2030 seeks to improve the economy,
quality of life, regional peace and security,
equality and its international presence.
Beyond the new capital, various
projects featured in Egypt Vision 2030
include Hayah Karima, which aims to
provide decent housing, quality medical
and educational services infrastructure to
deprived rural villages and remote areas in
Egypt, and an integrated plan to develop
the country's military manufacturing
capability for the country’s armed forces.
The economy
The economy was formerly highly
centralised under Nasser, but later
fully opened up under Presidents Sadat
and Mubarak.
The Fanack Foundation states that
Egypt’s economy relies on seven industries
that comprise more than 80 percent of
industrial organisations. Textile, food
and beverage, and furniture industries
are the three largest, followed by mining
and chemicals.
The Egyptian economy is considered to
be relatively diverse. Notably, even during
the height of the pandemic, it maintained
positive economic growth of 3.3 percent
in 2021.
continues on page 38 >
COUNTRY FOCUS
AUTHOR – Adam Bernstein
❝
Egypt’s tourism
sector is an
important part
of the economy.
But it’s also
subject to
political events
and security
issues. The
2011 revolution
and subsequent
events, for
example, led to
a 34.7 percent
drop in tourist
numbers and
a 47.9 percent
decrease in
revenue in
2014/2015.
❝
Textiles
Manufacturer Midani says that Egypt produces
about 360,000 Feddan (175 sq. m) of pure cotton,
with total exports valued at $400m – most of
which is sent to Turkey and the EU countries.
The sector’s success is said to be based on billions
of dollars being spent on irrigation, highways,
electrical networks, and some 15 marine ports.
With low electricity costs – Midani says it pays
around a quarter of what Chinese manufacturers
pay – and inexpensive labour, production costs
are competitive. It also helps that Egyptian
Investment Law No. 72 from 2017 brought in
incentives, assurances, and other advantages
to attract more investors to the textile sector.
The June 2019 issue of Khoyout News
detailed how the Egyptian Government
sought to modernise the sector with
the replacement of machinery
in state owned cotton weaving,
ginning and spinning factories
to optimise production. The
publication noted that the
sector employs around a
quarter of the population and
that the Government wants
state owned firms to return
EGP 3bn (£135.6m) by
2022. Similarly, it reported
that the Government’s
strategy aims to increase
production capacity
with annual targets for
production of 188,000
tons of yarn, 198m of
fabric, and 50m pieces
of garments.
Agriculture
The country’s most important
agricultural exports are citrus,
potatoes, onions, strawberries,
pomegranates, sweet potatoes, beans,
fodder penguins, guava, peppers, mangoes,
garlic, grapes and melons – according to the
Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation.
Overall, Fanack states that Egypt exported some
5.4m tonnes of farm products in 2019 of which
1.77m tonnes were citrus fruits, 687,842 tonnes
were potatoes, and 602,016 tonnes were onions.
However, exports are a subset of production and
in 2020, Statista stated that sugar cane was the
largest crop at over 14.9m tonnes, followed by
sugar beet at 13.04m tonnes, wheat at 9m tonnes,
maize at 7.5m tonnes, tomatoes at 6.73m tonnes
and then potatoes at 5.21m tonnes.
In terms of livestock, the Egyptian Ministry of
Agriculture estimated the size of Egypt’s livestock
in early 2021 to be some 6.5m animals comprising
3.8m cows, including 200,000 imported cows, and
1.3m buffalo, and 2.7m sheep, goats, and camels.
2020 World Bank Data reckoned that the value
of agriculture to the Egyptian economy was
$41.78bn or 11.51 percent of GDP. The bank also
noted that 20.62 percent of the total labour force
was employed in agriculture.
Furniture
According to the WoodShow 2020, the Egyptian
furniture sector is the third largest industrial
sector in terms of establishments and employment
in the country and accounts for 13 percent of all
industrial employment.
Damietta city is the centre of furniture
manufacturing where 70 percent of its population
is involved in the furniture industry directly
or indirectly; the show says that the city has an
estimated 35,000 furniture production facilities
and workshops.
In November 2021, Egypt Today reported that
the Egyptian Furniture Export Council’s data
showed that the sector's exports during the first
nine months of 2021 increased by 13 percent to
$184m over the same period in 2020. Key
export markets are Saudi Arabia, the
UAE, Iraq, Oman and the US.
Mining
Egypt is mineral rich and has
reserves of gold, copper, silver,
zinc, platinum and a number
of other precious and base
metals. Located beneath
Egypt’s Eastern Desert and
the Sinai Peninsula, there’s
an estimated 6.7m ounces
of gold, 48m tons of
tantalite, and 50m tons
of coal. Egypt clearly has
great potential.
But while Egypt is
rich in resources, the
country formerly lacked
a solid mining policy. But
recent policies and laws
since 2014 have countered
that position; international
tenders for exploring and
extracting gold in locations in the
Eastern Desert and Sinai were offered
and won by firms that included UK, Spanish,
Egyptian and Australian bidders. More rounds of
licences have been offered.
And in 2020, new mining regulations introduced
a rent, royalty and tax system to further exploit
the country’s mineral resources. The Government
is targeting $1bn in investments in the mining
sector by 2030.
Overall, Statista reckons that mining in Egypt
in 2021 was worth EGP 102.12bn (£4.61bn) in GDP.
Chemicals
Chemicals is one of the largest industrial sectors
in Egypt and includes seven main subsectors:
plastics, rubber, paper, detergents, paints,
miscellaneous, chemicals, fertilizers and glass.
Crowe’s Dr A. M. Hegazy & Co reckons that
the petrochemicals sector represents about 12
percent of Egypt’s total industrial production
and is worth more than $7bn annually; various
onlookers believe that the country could become
one of the region’s leading players, especially
with the implementation of the National Plan for
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 38
COUNTRY FOCUS
AUTHOR – Adam Bernstein
Petrochemicals (2002-2022).
To illustrate this, the Chemical and
Fertilisers Export Council released a
report in August 2022 which stated that
Egypt’s chemical exports witnessed a 35
percent increase in the first half of 2022,
rising to $4.33bn, compared to the same
period in 2021 of $3.21bn.
Tourism
With such a storied history and a warm
– hot – climate, Egypt’s tourism sector is
an important part of the economy. But
it’s also subject to political events and
security issues. The 2011 revolution and
subsequent events, for example, led to a
34.7 percent drop in tourist numbers and
a 47.9 per cent decrease in revenue in
2014/2015. Terrorism in the Sinai and the
bombing of a cathedral caused massive
losses along with, in places, a nearly 90
percent layoff rate among 700,000 workers
in 2016 and 2017.
However, tourism did grow again with,
in 2018, around 11.6m visitors. But then
came the COVID-19 pandemic. Two years
on it is expected that tourism will have
rebounded.
According to the Central Agency
for Public Mobilization and Statistics,
Europeans accounted for 64.3 percent
of the total number of tourists in 2019,
and Arab tourists accounted for 24.3
percent, Americans 4.2 percent and other
nationalities 7.2 percent.
Statista reckons that in 2019, the
number of rooms in hotels and similar
establishments amounted to 202,430
units; however, the number of rooms
peaked in 2010 at close to 226,000 units.
Hotelmanagement.net noted that, in 2018,
there were 300 chain hotels and resorts
across major cities, including Sharm El-
Sheikh and Hurghada.
Taxation
Corporate income tax
In Egypt, companies are generally liable
for corporate income tax (CIT) at a flat
rate of 22.5 percent; excluding the Suez
Canal Authority, the Egyptian Petroleum
Authority and the Central Bank of Egypt,
which are liable for CIT at 40 percent.
Firms in oil and gas are liable for CIT at
40.55 percent.
CIT is imposed on companies resident
in Egypt on all profits realised in Egypt
and abroad. For companies that are nonresident
in Egypt, CIT is applied to profits
realised by permanent establishments in
the country.
Personal income tax
In general, this tax is withheld at source
from payments to Egyptians and foreign
Petra is a famous archaeological site in
Jordan's southwestern desert. Dating to
around 300 B.C., it was the capital of the
Nabatean Kingdom. Accessed via a narrow
canyon called Al Siq, it contains tombs
and temples carved into pink sandstone
cliffs, earning its nickname, the "Rose
City." Perhaps its most famous structure
is 45m-high Al Khazneh, a temple with an
ornate, Greek-style facade, and known as
The Treasury.
nationals working in Egypt. It is imposed
on the total net income of the resident
individuals for income earned in Egypt as
well as the income earned outside Egypt
for residents where their activities are
centred in Egypt.
Income of non-resident individuals for
their income earned in Egypt is also liable
to tax.
There are seven income tax brackets
that apply to marginal income. They start
at zero for income up to EGP 15,000 to 2.5
percent (EGP 15,000 to 30,000), 10 percent
(EGP 30,000 to 45,000), 15 percent (EGP
45,000 to 60,000), 20 percent (EGP 60,000
to 200,000), 22.5 percent (EGP 200,000 to
400,000) and a maximum of 25 percent on
income over EGP 400,000.
VAT
The standard rate of VAT is 14 percent
and is levied on all taxable goods and
services unless exempted. Machinery
and equipment used for production
purposes is in contrast subject to a five
percent rate of VAT (although buses and
passenger cars are subject to different tax
rates). Exported goods and services are
subject to zero percent VAT. The threshold
for VAT registration is EGP 500,000 of
annual turnover.
Notably, there is a reverse charging
mechanism that applies to transactions
involving non-residents providing services
to resident entities subject to VAT in Egypt.
The recommendation is that non-residents
appoint a representative or an agent to deal
with obligations including registration,
payment of the tax, the additional tax and
any other due taxes.
Summary
Egypt may not be a first world country.
But it’s not backward either. While there is
a strong, if not authoritarian Government
at the helm, it is relatively stable and
filled with plenty of opportunity. In an
age where resources are everything, UK
exporters should really consider Egypt
as a destination if they have not already
done so.
Adam Berstein is a freelance writer.
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 39
HIGH COURT ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS ASSOCIATION
In Search of Choice
Freedom of choice in enforcement is vital
for court users in 2023 and beyond.
AUTHOR – Alan J. Smith
LET’S make 2023 the year where
freedom of choice becomes a
reality. Since 2015, the HCEOA
has been listening to court users
and gathering their opinions
on how their judgments are
enforced. Our 2022 survey shows a consistency
of opinion over the last seven years amongst
court users. They are crying out for change.
We believe 2023 is the year the Government
needs to make this happen.
This autumn, almost 400 landlords,
solicitors, debt collection agencies, in-house
legal recoveries teams and claimants in person
took the time to voice their concerns in our
‘Supporting Court Users’ survey over the current
state of the County Court system. The results
show that many businesses and individuals
are continuing to just write-off money that
is owed to them rather than dealing with a
process which doesn’t meet their needs. That
is an unacceptable drain on the success of
the UK.
THE LATEST RESULTS SHOW:
• 97 percent of court users would like
the freedom to choose between a HCEO
and County Court Bailiff to enforce their
unregulated judgments under £600
• 93 percent of court users support a
further change allowing HCEOs to collect
debts arising from Consumer Credit Act
regulated agreements
• 96 percent of court users are still
concerned about County Court delays
• just four percent of court users feel the
current system meets their needs
With creditors facing increasing costs,
improved approaches to managing caseloads
with more effectively managed systems will
help to reduce costs to them and the taxpayer,
but without jeopardising the needs of the
judgment debtors.
We are asking Government to take timely
action on behalf of court users who are calling
for more choice over how their debts are
recovered, by making two small changes to
the High Court and County Court Jurisdiction
Order 1991 which would allow High Court
Enforcement Officers (HCEOs) to enforce
judgments and recover unregulated debts
under £600 and regulated debts.
This will mean a more effective, responsive,
and flexible service to judgment debtors
and creditors alike with improvements in
communications, payment arrangement
handling and reporting, which will all lead to
improved collections within shorter timescales.
Not only would these small changes give
thousands of individuals and businesses
who are owed money a greater chance of
reclaiming their debts, but they would also
help the economy to prevent today’s creditors
from falling into debt through no fault of their
own by giving individuals and businesses
the freedom to choose how their judgments
are enforced.
We believe this will provide relief to the
County Courts by helping to clear the huge
backlog of cases and freeing up resources to
give customers who want to continue using
the County Court service every option to do so,
with no cost to the taxpayer.
In fact, 45 percent of court users who took
part in our survey said they would be likely to
issue more judgments than they do currently
if they were given the option to use a HCEO.
For the past year we have been engaging
constructively with the Government to ask for
these changes. Government has listened, and
we’ve answered Ministers’ questions about
the details of the plan. We believe it is now
the time for action as our survey shows court
users can’t afford further delays.
We’ve proposed that the fees that HCEOs
charge for collecting debts under £600 should
match the non-High Court fee scale for debts
of the same amount – they would be 100
percent in line with the current system.
HCEOs have vital skills that can help the
businesses and individuals who choose to use
them if given the option. Including:
• recovery through first-time compliance and
early payment
• a flexible and sympathetic approach
to enforcement
• proven capacity to deliver a
nationwide service
• experienced and highly trained teams
• full transparency and real time reporting
• the latest advances in technology.
The High Court enforcement profession is
ready, willing, and able to support this change.
We are urging Government to take action now
and support the thousands of court users who
would benefit.
You can read our full ‘Supporting Court Users
– A Right to Freedom of Choice’ report on our
website at: www.hceoa.org.uk/campaigns/
supporting-court-users.
Alan J. Smith is Chair of the High Court Enforcement
Officers Association (HCEOA).
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 40
SHEFFIELD & DISTRICT BRANCH
STUDENT PRIZE
Celebrating excellence in
qualifications in January 2023
The CICM Sheffield & District
Branch has funded an annual prize
to be awarded to a student of the
branch who achieves the highest
score in any mandatory unit of the
Level 3 Diploma.
The CICM Benevolent Fund is
here to support members of
the CICM in times of need.
Some examples of how CICM have helped our members are:
• Financed the purchase of a mobility scooter for a disabled member.
• Helped finance the studies of the daughter of a member who
became unexpectedly ill.
• Financed the purchase of computer equipment to assist an
unemployed member set up a business.
• Contributed towards the purchase of an orthopaedic bed for one
member whose condition was thereby greatly eased.
• Helped with payment for a drug, not available on the NHS, for
medical treatment of another member.
If you or any dependants are in need or in distress, please apply today – we are here to
help. (Your application will then be reviewed by the CICM Benevolent Fund committee and
you will be advised of their decision as quickly as possible)
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 41
OPINION
DEAD FUNNY
Do you know your ‘bear market’ from your
‘dead cat bounce’?
AUTHOR – Michael Hewson
IT'S not surprising that people find financial
markets terminology baffling. As market
professionals we have to get used to new
acronyms on a regular basis, and that's before
you take into account the ones that are in regular
use. If you're looking to hone your interest in
financial markets, it's a huge benefit if you
can understand the language that gets
used on a regular basis.
So what are the 15 most baffling stockmarket
terms, according to Google, and
what do they mean?
With 103,000 monthly searches, ‘ETF’ is
the most baffling stock-market term in the
world. So, if you’re keen to find out what an
ETF actually is, you’re in luck.
ETF – ETF stands for exchange-traded fund,
which is essentially a fund that trades on exchanges,
generally tracking a specific index. While stocks are
just one instrument, an ETF consists of diversified
investments such as stocks, commodities, bonds, and
other securities, which are known as holdings. ETFs are
often less volatile than individual stocks, meaning your
investment shouldn’t swing in value as much, however,
there is still a risk in loss of value.
IPO – In second place with 95,000 searches comes
another abbreviation: IPO. IPO stands for initial public
offering. This is when a private company becomes
public by selling its shares on a stock exchange.
Companies often issue an IPO to raise capital to fund
growth initiatives, raise their public profile, or to pay
off debts.
Broker – With 46,000 searches, people are also asking
what the word ‘broker’ means. In layman’s terms, a
broker is an individual or firm that acts as a middleman
between an investor and a securities exchange. They
facilitate trades between individuals or companies and
may provide investors with research, investment plans,
and market intelligence.
Arbitrage – Another term that’s baffling internet users
is ‘arbitrage’. The Cambridge dictionary defines this as
‘the method on the stock exchange of buying something
in one place and selling it in another place at the same
time, in order to make a profit from the difference in
price in the two places.’
ADR – ADR is another frequently questioned
abbreviation, according to our data. However, ADRs
are simply American depositary receipts for foreign
companies that are listed on US stock exchanges. An
ADR is a form of equity security, offering US investors
the opportunity to gain investment exposure to non-
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 42
OPINION
AUTHOR – Michael Hewson
❝
Bear Market – Another term that’s proving to be popular is ‘bear market’ which is
defined by a prolonged drop in asset prices. Typically, a bear market happens when a
broad market index falls by 20 percent or more from its most recent high.
US stocks without the complex task of
dealing with foreign stock markets. Many
large companies based outside of the US
list their shares on US exchanges through
the use of ADRs.
Bear Market – Another term that’s
proving to be popular is ‘bear market’
which is defined by a prolonged drop
in asset prices. Typically, a bear market
happens when a broad
market index falls by 20
percent or more from its
most recent high. It’s
believed that the term
originates with pioneer
bearskin traders. As
the traders hoped
to buy the fur from
trappers at a lower price
than what they'd sold it for,
‘bears’ became associated
with a declining market.
Bull Market – On the other hand, bull
market is the opposing term to bear
market. Bull market refers to a period of
time when the price of an asset or security
rises continuously by 20 percent after two
declines of 20 percent each.
To The Moon – Often used by stocks
and cryptocurrency traders, the phrase ‘to
the moon’ essentially means the price of
an asset is continuously growing.
Dividend Yield – The dividend yield
is a financial ratio that tells you the
percentage of a company’s share price
that it pays out in dividends each year.
Some investors, such as those who
are retired, rely on dividends for their
income, meaning the dividend yield of
their portfolio could have a meaningful
effect on their personal finances.
Dead Cat Bounce – With 3,200 monthly
searches, it’s no wonder so many people
are asking what ‘Dead Cat Bounce’ means.
The saying refers to a temporary recovery
in share prices after a substantial fall,
caused by speculators buying in order to
cover their positions. Derived from the
famous Wall Street phrase ‘even a dead
cat will bounce if it falls from a great
height’, dead cat bounce is now applied to
any case where there’s a brief resurgence
following a severe decline. You may also
hear this referred to as a Sucker Rally.
Tanking – When you hear the phrase
‘tanking’ or ‘in the tank’, this typically
means that a stock has encountered a
poor quarterly performance, leading to
a price decline shortly after. If someone
says their assets are ‘tanking’, it means
they aren’t doing great right now.
Averaging down – There is a
common strategy called 'averaging
down' which investors use when their
investment decisions go against them.
‘Averaging down’ involves buying more
shares after they fall in price, lowering
the average cost of all the shares held, in
the effort to add value to their portfolio.
Whales – While whales are usually
found in the ocean, when it comes to
stocks, the term ‘whale’ is a nickname
given to investors who have the potential
to manipulate the market. A whale
can be an individual or company
with enough money or power to
influence the price of a stock. These
individuals usually make huge
investments, with their actions
causing a huge ‘splash’.
Day Trading – Day trading is a
strategy which involves buying
and selling shares of stocks within
the same day with the intent of
profiting from price movements.
For example, a day trader may
open a new position of a stock at
9am, then close that same position
at 2pm. These traders rarely hold
positions overnight.
Margin Account – A margin
account involves borrowing funds
from your broker-dealer to purchase
securities, using the account as
collateral. You will also be required
to pay a periodic interest rate to
the broker. A margin account can
increase your purchasing power
however it can also expose you to
greater losses.
Michael Hewson is Chief Market Analyst at
CMC Markets – cmcmarkets.com/en-gb/
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 43
CICM TRAINING
Training courses that offer high-quality approaches
to credit-related topics and practical skills
Now, more than ever, the Credit Management and Collections industry is
seeing drastic changes and impacts that affect the day-to-day roles of Credit
and Collections teams.
CICM Training offers high-quality approaches to credit-related topics.
Granting you the practical skills and necessary tools to use in your workplace
and the ever-changing industry. A highly qualified trainer, with an array of
credit management experience, will grant you the knowledge, improved
results, and greater confidence you need for your teams to succeed in the
Credit Management profession.
Get trained with your
professional body and the only
Chartered organisation that delivers
Credit Management training
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 44
On-Demand | Online | Face-to-Face
METHODS OF DELIVERY
CICM Training courses can be delivered through a variety of
options, ensuring a range of opportunities for your teams to
be trained on the most up-to-date methods in the industry.
CICM On-Demand
Training
CICM Online
Training
CICM Face-to-Face
Training
On-Demand training can be viewed anytime, anywhere with our
downloadable training videos.
Online training will be for those who find it easy to learn from the space
of their home or office.
Face-to-face training It’s been a long time coming but now you can mingle
and learn together in the same room as your colleagues and peers.
TRAINING COURSES
CICM have a collection of training courses to meet the needs of your Credit and
Collections’ teams. Take a look at the courses below and start training towards the
CICM Professional Standard.
Advanced Skills in Collections • Best Practice Approach to Collections
Best Practice Skills to Assess Credit Risk • Collect that Cash • Credit Bootcamp Effective
Communication in the Credit Role • Emergency Guide to Credit
Harness your leadership Style • Know Your Customer • Managing Insolvency
Reflect and Develop • Set Targets that Work
For more details, visit our website, scan the barcode
or contact us at info@cicm.com
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 45
Introducing our
CORPORATE PARTNERS
For further information and to discuss the opportunities of entering into a
Corporate Partnership with the CICM, please contact corporatepartners@cicm.com
VISMA | Onguard is a specialist in credit management
software and market leader in innovative solutions for
order-to-cash. Our integrated platform ensures an optimal
connection of all processes in the order-to-cash
chain. This enhanced visibility with the secure sharing
of critical data ensures optimal connection between
all processes in the order-to-cash chain, resulting
in stronger, longer-lasting customer relationships
through improved and personalised communication.
The VISMA | Onguard platform is used for successful
credit management in more than 70 countries.
T: 020 3868 0947
E: edan.milner@onguard.com
W: www.onguard.com
Quadient AR by YayPay makes it easy for B2B
finance teams to stay ahead of accounts receivable
and get paid faster – from anywhere.
Integrating with your ERP, CRM, and billing
systems, YayPay presents your real-time data
through cloud-based dashboards. Automation
improves productivity by 3X and accelerates
collections by up to 34 percent. Predictive analytics
provide insight into payor behavior and an online
portal enables customers to access their accounts
and pay at any time.
T: +44 20 8502 8476
E: marketing@yaypay.com
W: www.quadient.com/en/ar-automation
HighRadius provides a cloud-based Integrated
Receivable Platform, powered by machine learning
and AI. Our Technology empowers enterprise
organisations to reduce cycle time in the order-tocash
process and increase working capital availability
by automating receivables and payments processes
across credit, electronic billing and payment
processing, cash application, deductions, and
collections.
T: +44 (0) 203 997 9400
E: infoemea@highradius.com
W: www.highradius.com
Chris Sanders Consulting – we are a different sort of
consulting firm, made up of a network of independent
experienced operational credit and collections
management and invoicing professionals, with
specialisms in cross industry best practice advisory,
assessment, interim management, leadership,
workshops and training to help your team and
organisation reach their full potential in credit
and collections management. We are proud to be
Corporate Partners of the Chartered Institute of
Credit Management.
T: +44(0)7747 761641
E: enquiries@chrissandersconsulting.com
W: www.chrissandersconsulting.com
Our Creditor Services team can advise on the best
way for you to protect your position when one of
your debtors enters, or is approaching, insolvency
proceedings. Our services include assisting with
retention of title claims, providing representation at
creditor meetings, forensic investigations, raising
finance, financial restructuring and removing the
administrative burden – this includes completing
and lodging claim forms, monitoring dividend
prospects and analysing all Insolvency Reports and
correspondence.
T: +44 (0)2073 875 868 – London
T: +44 (0)2920 495 444 – Cardiff
W: menzies.co.uk/creditor-services
FIS GETPAID solution is a fully integrated, webbased
order-to cash (O2C) solution that helps
companies improve operational efficiencies, lower
DSO, and increase cash flow. The solution suite
includes strategic risk-based collections, artificial
intelligence, process automation, credit risk
management, deduction and dispute resolution and
cash application. FIS is a global leader in financial
services technology, providing software, services
and outsourcing of the technology that empowers
the financial world.
T: +447730500085
E: getinfo@fisglobal.com.
W: www.fisglobal.com
With 130+ years of experience, Graydon is a leading
provider of business information, analytics, insights
and solutions. Graydon helps its customers to make
fast, accurate decisions, enabling them to minimise
risk and identify fraud as well as optimise opportunities
with their commercial relationships. Graydon
uses 130+ international databases and the information
of 90+ million companies. Graydon has offices in
London, Cardiff, Amsterdam and Antwerp. Since 2016,
Graydon has been part of Atradius, one of the world’s
largest credit insurance companies.
T: +44 (0)208 515 1400
E: customerservices@graydon.co.uk
W: www.graydon.co.uk
Tinubu Square is a trusted source of trade credit
intelligence for credit insurers and for corporate
customers. The company’s B2B Credit Risk
Intelligence solutions include the Tinubu Risk
Management Center, a cloud-based SaaS platform;
the Tinubu Credit Intelligence service and the
Tinubu Risk Analyst advisory service. Over 250
companies rely on Tinubu Square to protect their
greatest assets: customer receivables.
T: +44 (0)207 469 2577 /
E: uksales@tinubu.com
W: www.tinubu.com.
Building on our mature and hugely successful
product and world class support service, we are
re-imagining our risk awareness module in 2019 to
allow for hugely flexible automated worklists and
advanced visibility of areas of risk. Alongside full
integration with all credit scoring agencies (e.g.
Creditsafe), this makes Credica a single port-of-call
for analysis and automation. Impressive results
and ROI are inevitable for our customers that also
have an active input into our product development
and evolution.
T: 01235 856400
E: info@credica.co.uk
W: www.credica.co.uk
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 46
Each of our Corporate Partners is carefully selected for
their commitment to the profession, best practice in the
Credit Industry and the quality of services they provide.
We are delighted to showcase them here.
They're waiting to talk to you...
Hays Credit Management is a national specialist
division dedicated exclusively to the recruitment of
credit management and receivables professionals,
at all levels, in the public and private sectors. As
the CICM’s only Premium Corporate Partner, we
are best placed to help all clients’ and candidates’
recruitment needs as well providing guidance on
CV writing, career advice, salary bench-marking,
marketing of vacancies, advertising and campaign
led recruitment, competency-based interviewing,
career and recruitment trends.
T: 07834 260029
E: karen.young@hays.com
W: www.hays.co.uk/creditcontrol
Court Enforcement Services is the market
leading and fastest growing High Court Enforcement
company. Since forming in 2014, we have managed
over 100,000 High Court Writs and recovered more
than £187 million for our clients, all debt fairly
collected. We help lawyers and creditors across all
sectors to recover unpaid CCJ’s sooner rather than
later. We achieve 39 percent early engagement
resulting in market-leading recovery rates. Our
multi-award-winning technology provides real-time
reporting 24/7.
T: +44 (0)1992 367 092
E: a.whitehurst@courtenforcementservices.co.uk
W: www.courtenforcementservices.co.uk
Shoosmiths’ highly experienced team will work
closely with credit teams to recover commercial
debts as quickly and cost effectively as possible.
We have an in depth knowledge of all areas of debt
recovery, including:
• Pre-litigation services to effect early recovery and
keep costs down • Litigation service • Insolvency
• Post-litigation services including enforcement
As a client of Shoosmiths, you will find us quick to
relate to your goals, and adept at advising you on the
most effective way of achieving them.
T: 03700 86 3000
E: paula.swain@shoosmiths.co.uk
W: www.shoosmiths.co.uk
Forums International has been running Credit and
Industry Forums since 1991 covering a range of
industry sectors and international trading. Attendance
is for credit professionals of all levels. Our forums
are not just meetings but communities which
aim to prepare our members for the challenges
ahead. Attending for the first time is free for you to
gauge the benefits and meet the members and we
only have pre-approved Partners, so you will never
intentionally be sold to.
T: +44 (0)1246 555055
E: info@forumsinternational.co.uk
W: www.forumsinternational.co.uk
Data Interconnect provides corporate Credit Control
teams with Accounts Receivable software for bulk
e-invoicing, collections, dispute management and
invoice finance. The modular, cloud-based Corrivo
platform can be configured for any business model.
It integrates with all ERP systems and buyer AP
platforms or tax regimes. Customers can self-serve
on mobile friendly portals, however their invoices are
delivered, and Credit Controllers can easily extract
data for compliance, audit and reporting purposes.
T: +44 (0)1367 245777
E: sales@datainterconnect.co.uk
W: www.datainterconnect.com
Serrala optimizes the Universe of Payments for
organisations seeking efficient cash visibility
and secure financial processes. As an SAP
Partner, Serrala supports over 3,500 companies
worldwide. With more than 30 years of experience
and thousands of successful customer projects,
including solutions for the entire order-to-cash
process, Serrala provides credit managers and
receivables professionals with the solutions they
need to successfully protect their business against
credit risk exposure and bad debt loss.
T: +44 118 207 0450
E: contact@serrala.com
W: www.serrala.com
American Express® is a globally recognised
provider of business payment solutions, providing
flexible capabilities to help companies drive
growth. These solutions support buyers and
suppliers across the supply chain with working
capital and cashflow.
By creating an additional lever to help support
supplier/client relationships American Express is
proud to be an innovator in the business payments
space.
T: +44 (0)1273 696933
W: www.americanexpress.com
Key IVR provide a suite of products to assist companies
across Europe with credit management. The
service gives the end-user the means to make a
payment when and how they choose. Key IVR also
provides a state-of-the-art outbound platform
delivering automated messages by voice and SMS.
In a credit management environment, these services
are used to cost-effectively contact debtors and
connect them back into a contact centre or
automated payment line.
T: +44 (0) 1302 513 000
E: sales@keyivr.com
W: www.keyivr.com
Esker’s Accounts Receivable (AR) solution removes
the all-too-common obstacles preventing today’s
businesses from collecting receivables in a
timely manner. From credit management to cash
allocation, Esker automates each step of the orderto-cash
cycle. Esker’s automated AR system helps
companies modernise without replacing their
core billing and collections processes. By simply
automating what should be automated, customers
get the post-sale experience they deserve and your
team gets the tools they need.
T: +44 (0)1332 548176
E: sam.townsend@esker.co.uk
W: www.esker.co.uk
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 47
Apprentice profile
LUCY Perry started United Utilities in
September 2021 as an Apprentice Credit
Controller within the Income Department.
Since then, her confidence has grown
significantly through the communication
between colleagues and with customers.
“Not only have I developed in my role but the wide
range of interpersonal skills I have developed since
starting here have been transferable in my personal life
too,” she confides. “I never considered all that is involved
with collecting money and debt until starting my
apprenticeship, but with the support from my colleagues
and knowledge from the CICM course, I feel I have learnt
so much already in the short time I’ve been here.”
Unfamiliar journey
Credit control was not something Lucy was familiar with
until starting at United Utilities. She candidly admits that
she saw the apprenticeship as an opportunity to learn
something new and develop her skills having already
come from a customer service role.
“Although this felt completely new to me as I had never
come across the CICM, having the chance to learn while
working on the job works really well as it gives me the
chance to transfer my knowledge and skills first-hand
into my everyday role. It has been clear this has worked
well for me through the positive customer feedback I
have received since starting my role which has given me
the confidence to go even further with everything that
I do.”
Lucy is now coming towards the end of her
Apprenticeship: “It seems to have flown by,” she laughs.
This means crunch time as I am currently going through
end point assessment which has been more challenging
than I expected.
“I am grateful for the well-presented lessons and
detailed tasks we have been set in the past as these have
really helped. I now know why we were told to write
everything down! With the delivery and content of the
apprenticeship I feel I have learnt things that will allow
me to progress in my career here.
“As I am now starting to see the finish line,” she
concludes, “I feel really proud to see how far I have come
and how much I have learnt in a short amount of time.
The opportunities here at United Utilities are neverending
and I am excited to see what comes next.”
Latest in CM's series
of how CICM-led
Apprenticeships are
supporting professional
development.
Lucy Perry
Apprentice Credit Controller
“I never considered all that is involved with
collecting money and debt until starting my
apprenticeship but with the support from
my colleagues and knowledge from the
CICM course, I feel I have learnt so much
already in the short time I’ve been here.”
Apprenticeships in Credit
Control and Collections
There are five apprenticeships for those working in the credit
profession. At each Level of apprenticeship you will be able to
gain professional CICM qualifications
• Credit Controller/Collector
• Advanced Credit Controller and Debt Collection Specialist
Apprenticeship
• Compliance/Risk Officer Apprenticeship
• Senior Compliance/Risk Specialist Apprenticeship
• Financial Services Degree Apprenticeship
For more details on how CICM can help you start your
apprenticeship journey, visit cicm.com/apprenticeships
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 48
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PAYMENT TRENDS
Regional Recovery?
The latest late payment figures show
signs of local improvement
AUTHOR – Rob Howard
LAST month saw late payments rising across the board,
perhaps unsurprising given the current climate. And while
the latest figures are not all sunshine and rainbows, there
are some signs of encouragement, particularly at a local
level, with regions across the UK and Ireland making
some progress.
The average Days Beyond Terms (DBT) across regions in the UK
decreased by 1.0 day, while the sector figure saw no change. In Ireland,
the regional figure decreased by 6.6 days and rose by 4.3 days across
sectors. Average DBT across the four provinces of Ireland reduced by
3.6 days.
Sector spotlight
The UK sector figures show 10 sectors improving and 12 sectors moving
further in the wrong direction. Of those on the slide, the International
Bodies sector saw the biggest increase to late payments, with a hefty
hike of 17.5 days taking its overall DBT to 37.2 days, meaning it is now
the worst performing sector.
Elsewhere, the Energy Supply (+7.2 days), Mining and Quarrying
(+6.0) and Financial and Insurance sectors (+4.1 days) are all getting
worse. Of those on the up, the Business from Home sector saw the
biggest improvement and becomes the best performing sector with an
overall DBT of 8.8 following a reduction of 10.8 days.
Things are split over in Ireland, with seven sectors getting better,
seven sectors getting worse, and the remaining six sectors staying as
they were. Looking at the positives, the Hospitality sector made the
biggest strides in the right direction, reducing DBT by 67.0 days, while
the Business Admin & Support (-28.2 days) and Construction (-10.4 days)
sectors also made important reductions.
At the other end of the scale, of those getting worse, the Real Estate
sector saw the biggest hit, with a hefty increase of 83.5 days taking its
overall DBT to 120.0 days. The Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor
vehicles and motorcycles (+51.3 days), Health & Social (+31.3 days) and
Transportation and Storage (+23.6) sectors also saw large increases to
late payments.
Regional spotlight
The UK regional figures make for more positive reading, with eight of
the 11 regions making reductions to late payments. East Anglia saw
the biggest improvement, reducing its DBT by 4.9 days, with London
(-4.6 days) and the South West (-3.6 days) not too far behind. Despite
no change, Yorkshire and Humberside remains the best performing UK
region with an overall DBT of 13.3 days. Increases for Northern Ireland
(+6.3 days) and Scotland (+1.6 days) mean they move to the bottom of
the standings.
In Ireland, less than a third (11) of the 26 regions are moving in the right
direction, but the average DBT figure across the country has dropped by
6.6 days due mainly to the scale of reductions. The county of Longford
saw the biggest improvement, reducing its DBT by an impressive 50.0
days. Meath (-46.9), Kildare (-38.0 days) and Louth also made sizeable
cuts to late payments. Equally deserving of a mention are Sligo (-23.0
days), Tipperary (-14.8 days), Leitrim (-11.0 days) and Laois (-5.0 days),
whose reductions mean they all now have an overall DBT of zero days.
Across the four Irish provinces, Ulster (+20.7) and Connacht (+2.7
days) saw increases, while Leinster (-31.5 days) and Munster (-5.7 days)
made important reductions. Munster improvement means it is now the
best performing province with an overall DBT of 5.7 days.
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 50
Fill your vacancy or find your next career
move at www.portfoliocreditcontrol.com
WE NEED YOU!
Contribute to our Portfolio Credit Control
Salary Survey 2022/23 today.
RECRUITING
FROM YOUR
OFFICE...
...OR
REMOTELY
Portfolio Credit Control specialise
in solely recruiting for permanent,
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professionals at all levels of the market.
Our expert market knowledge & industry
experience is trusted by businesses
across the UK for all their Credit Control
hiring needs including Credit Managers,
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Contact us to hire the
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Scan with your phone to fill your vacancy or find your
next career move at www.portfoliocreditcontrol.com
Contact one of our specialist recruitment consultants to fill your vacancy or find your next career move!
LONDON 020 7650 3199
1 FINSBURY SQUARE, 3 RD FLOOR, LONDON EC2A 1AE
MANCHESTER 0161 523 5585
THE PENINSULA, VICTORIA PLACE, MANCHESTER M4 4FB
www.portfoliocreditcontrol.com
recruitment@portfoliocreditcontrol.com
theportfoliogroup
portfoliocredit
Rated as Excellent
portfolio-credit-control
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 49
LOOKING FOR
YOUR NEXT
CAREER MOVE?
HEAD OF CREDIT
Brentwood, Essex, £45k-£60k
Working for a diverse and multi-faceted FTSE100 business,
you will be responsible for overseeing end-to-end credit
operations for the UK finance team. You will support the FC in
leading a high-performing credit team based across their site
in Essex and the remote team in India. You will be tasked with
improving collection rates across the team and you will work
in close conjunction with a dedicated transformation team to
continuously develop processes. Ref: 4179945
Contact Will Plom on 01603 760141
or william.plom@hays.com
CREDIT CONTROLLER
Chertsey, up to £30k
This position is being recruited on a 12-month fixed term
contract basis. A skilled credit controller is required to join
a busy team, working for a leading construction business.
Managing your own ledger of accounts, you will be responsible
for minimising risk and maximising cash flow. Your duties will
include proactive collections, query resolution and accurately
maintaining customer records. Strong Excel skills will also be
required for reporting purposes. Ref: 4264444
Contact Natascha Whitehead on 07770 786433
or natascha.whitehead@hays.com
COLLECTIONS EXECUTIVE
Watford, £26.5k + bonuses + annual share scheme
A leading energy supplier are looking for self-motivated
credit controllers/collectors. You will join a fast paced and
target-driven team maintaining a portfolio of SME customers
via telephone, email and meetings. You will be confident
when talking to clients over the phone and be comfortable
driving relationships with stakeholders. You will also prepare
weekly debt meetings and assist with reconciling complex
customer accounts. Ref: 3056767
Contact Anastazja Czorna on 0333 010 7025
or anastazja.czorna@hays.com
INTERIM HEAD OF CREDIT
Salford, competitive day rate
This is a 3-6 month interim, contract role. We are looking for a
skilled credit professional to assist a rapidly growing property
business, following a system implementation. The successful
candidate will have a proven track record of process mapping,
strategic improvements and initiating best practice. You will
have the opportunity to implement your own ideas and have
a direct impact on improving the OTC cycle. Ref: 4310938
Contact Adam Crossland on 0161 236 7272
or adam.crossland@hays.com
hays.co.uk/creditcontrol
© Copyright Hays plc 2022. The HAYS word, the H devices, HAYS Brave WORKING | Curious FOR YOUR | Resilient TOMORROW / www.cicm.com and Powering / the December world of 2022 work and / PAGE associated 50 logos and artwork are trademarks of Hays plc.
The H devices are original designs protected by registration in many countries. All rights are reserved. CM-1130635765
BILLING ASSISTANT/LEGAL BILLER
London (remote working), £25k-£30k DOE
An exciting full-time opportunity has just opened up
within the finance department at this fast-growing law firm.
Some of the key duties will include processing invoices in
an efficient and timely manner, processing credit notes as
required, dealing with specific bill requirements and processing
accordingly. This is a great opportunity in a well-established
company to propel your career in finance. Ref: 4312710
Contact Megan MacDonald on 020 3465 0020
or megan.macdonald@hays.com
CREDIT MANAGER
Andover, £40k-£45k + bonus
Managing a small credit control team, you will be responsible for
maximising cash collection, and minimising risk to the business.
You will ensure that the customer experience is positive, with you
and your team delivering excellent levels of customer service
at all times. Working in multiple currencies, your customer
base is based globally, therefore developing solid internal and
external relationships is key for this role. Reporting (DSO & cash
flow), departmental budget control, people management and
continuous process/policy improvement will also be required.
Ref: 4310893
Contact Natascha Whitehead on 07770 786433
or natascha.whitehead@hays.com
This is just a small selection of the many opportunities
we have available for credit professionals. To find out
more, visit our website or contact Natascha Whitehead,
Credit Management UK Lead at Hays on 07770 786433.
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 51
TOWARDS the end of summer Thames
Valley decided to host a social event
on a Saturday – first time in well over
a decade that we had run an event at a
weekend. A good handful of us met up
in the morning and had a stroll around
the Roman city walls and Amphitheatre in Silchester.
For those that know Colin Hingston and his sense
of humour you will not be surprised with his quip
of ‘I remember when it was all fields’ and the fact
he brought along an ancient Roman map to ‘help’ us
walk around!
The walk ended with a quick drive to a nearby pub –
that was closed, so we drove to another – also closed.
Third time lucky? Nope – still too early for it to open
so we gave up on the planned pub lunch. Despite this
slight disappointment we all agreed that the weekend
social event went well and we would definitely plan
another in 2023.
We made up for the closed pub disappointment
by hosting our next social event a few weeks later at
Marlow brewery’s open night – somewhere we have
been to previously. Was interesting to hear how they
managed through the COVID period and to see the
improvements to the site that they had made over the
years. The committe is looking to visit a gin distillery
(possibly Silent Pool in Albury, Guildford) or a vineyard
in 2023 – keep an eye out for the emails/event postings.
Author – Gary Baker FCICM (Grad)
BRANCH NEWS
Local Tipples
Thames Valley branch
CM
CREDIT MANAGEMENT
THE CICM'S HIGHLY ACCLAIMED MAGAZINE
Credit Management, the magazine of the Chartered Institute of Credit
Management (CICM), is the leading publication in its field. The magazine
includes full coverage of consumer and trade credit, export and company
news, as well as in-depth features, profiles and opinions. To receive the free
magazine you must be a member of the CICM or subscribe.
SPECIAL
FEATURES
IN DEPTH
INTERVIEWS
ASK THE
EXPERTS
GLOBAL
NEWS
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CURRENCY
EXCHANGE
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MATTERS
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THE LEADING JOURNAL FOR CONSUMER AND COMMERCIAL CREDIT PROFESSIONALS
TO SUBSCRIBE CONTACT: T: 01780 722903
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 54
STUART LITTLER
NEW HEAD OF ACCOUNTS
“
Having worked in an accounting practice for over 25 years,
qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in 2000 and a Director of the
company since 2010, I developed and headed up the legal services
department within the practice that dealt with the accounting
and compliance needs of our solicitors’ portfolio. I worked solely
with solicitor practices, supporting their accounting requirements,
business and profit development as well as regulatory compliance.
My finance and regulatory background has enabled me to
guide firms in developing sound financial controls and
compliance with the solicitors regulatory body, which is
crucial for any solicitors practice in the ever changing
environment in which they operate.
- Stuart Littler FCA
www.thomashiggins.com
Cr£ditWho?
CICM Directory of Services
COLLECTIONS
COLLECTIONS LEGAL
CREDIT DATA AND ANALYTICS
Controlaccount Plc
Address: Compass House, Waterside, Hanbury Road,
Bromsgrove, Worcestershire B60 4FD
T: 01527 386 610
E: sales@controlaccount.com
W: www.controlaccount.com
Controlaccount plc has been providing efficient, effective and
ethical pre-legal debt recovery for over forty years. We help our
clients to improve internal processes and increase cashflow, whilst
protecting customer relationships and established reputations.
We have long-standing partnerships with leading, global brand
names, SMEs and not for profits. We recover over 30,000 overdue
invoices each month, domestically and internationally, on a no
collect, no fee arrangement. Other services include credit control
and dunning services, international and domestic trace and legal
recoveries. All our clients have full transparency on any accounts
placed with us through our market leading cloud-based
management portal, ClientWeb.
BlaserMills Law
High Wycombe | Amersham | Marlow | Silverstone
Rickmansworth | London
Jackie Ray : 07802 332104 | 01494 478660
jar@blasermills.co.uk
Nina Toor : 01494 478661 nit@blasermills.co.uk
Edward Bible : 07766 013352 ceb@blasermills.co.uk
www.blasermills.co.uk
Commercial Recoveries & Insolvency
Blaser Mills Law’s commercial recoveries team is internationally
recognised, regularly advising large corporations, multinationals
and SMEs on pre-legal collections, debt recovery, commercial
litigation, dispute resolution and insolvency. Our legal services
are both cost-effective and highly efficient; Our lawyers are also
CICM qualified and ranked in the industry leading law firm rankings
publications, Legal 500 and Chambers UK.
CoCredo
Missenden Abbey, Great Missenden, Bucks, HP16 0BD
T: 01494 790600
E: customerservice@cocredo.com
W: www.cocredo.co.uk
For over 20 years, CoCredo, as one of the UK's leading Credit
Report companies, has helped protect thousands of customers
from bad debt. Our data is compiled and constantly updated from a
variety of prominent UK and international suppliers, encompassing
230 countries, so that our clients can access the latest available
information in an easy-to-read report. We offer tailored products
and service solutions, from market-leading Dual Reports and
integrated XML solutions, monitoring and delivering flexible 'data
on the go' package options that reduce costs and boost cash flow.
Our clients feel valued that we are a part of their customer journey
and we have consistently been finalists and winners of numerous
Small Business and Credit Awards since 2014.
We provide award-winning customer service which is reflected in
our client retention rate of 99%.
Global Credit Recoveries
GCR 20-22 Wenlock Road,
London N1 7GU
Charles Mayhew FCICM or Joshua Mayhew ACICM
T: +44 (0) 203 368 8630
E: INFO@GLOBALCREDITRECOVERIES.COM
W: WWW.GLOBALCREDITRECOVERIES.COM
Shortlisted as DCA of the Year, by the CICM, for the British Credit
Awards, Global Credit Recoveries Ltd are specialists in Arbitration
and Debt Collection globally.
We specialise in the UK, Europe, The Middle East and the U.S.A,
working as an extension of many CICM members companies for
over 28 years.
Speak with us today in our London or Dubai offices, to see how
we can assist you.
We have the ability, and network, to have someone visiting your
debtors offices, throughout EMEA, within 72 hours.
Recovering funds globally, on a No-Recovery, No-Fee basis.
Guildways
T: +44 3333 409000
E: info@guildways.com
W: www.guildways.com
Guildways is a UK & International debt collection specialist with over
25 years experience. Guildways prides itself on operating to the
highest ethical standards and professional service levels. We are
experienced in collecting B2B and B2C debts. Our service includes:
• A complete No collection, No Fee commission based service
• 10% plus VAT commission for UK debts
• Commission from 22% plus VAT for International debts
• 24/7 online access to your cases through our CaseManager portal
• Direct online account-to-account payments, to speed up
collections and minimise costs
If you are unable to locate your customer, we also offer a no trace, no
fee, trace and collect service.
For more information, visit: www.guildways.com
Cr£ditWho?
CICM Directory of Services
Lovetts Solicitors
Lovetts, Bramley House, The Guildway,
Old Portsmouth Road,
Guildford, Surrey, GU3 1LR
T: 01483 347001
E: info@lovetts.co.uk
W: www.lovetts.co.uk
With more than 25yrs experience in UK & international business
debt collection and recovery, Lovetts Solicitors collects £40m+
every year on behalf of our clients. Services include:
• Letters Before Action (LBA) from £1.50 + VAT (successful in 86%
of cases)
• Advice and dispute resolution
• Legal proceedings and enforcement
• 24/7 access to your cases via our in-house software solution,
CaseManager
Don’t just take our word for it, here’s some recent customer
feedback: “All our service expectations have been exceeded.
The online system is particularly useful and extremely easy to
use. Lovetts has a recognisable brand that generates successful
results.”
CONSULTANCY
Chris Sanders Consulting
T: +44(0)7747 761641
E: enquiries@chrissandersconsulting.com
W: www.chrissandersconsulting.com
Chris Sanders Consulting – we are a different sort of consulting
firm, made up of a network of independent experienced
operational credit & collections management and invoicing
professionals, with specialisms in cross industry best practice
advisory, assessment, interim management, leadership,
workshops and training to help your team and organisation
reach their full potential in credit and collections management.
We are proud to be Corporate Partners of the Chartered Institute
of Credit Management. For more information please contact:
enquiries@chrissandersconsulting.com
identeco – Business Support Toolkit
Compass House, Waterside, Hanbury Road, Bromsgrove,
Worcestershire B60 4FD
Telephone: 01527 386 607
Email: info@identeco.co.uk
Web: www.identeco.co.uk
identeco Business Support Toolkit provides company details
and financial reporting for over 4m UK companies and
business. Subscribers can view company financial health and
payment behaviour, credit ratings, shareholder and director
structures, detrimental data. In addition, subscribers can also
download unlimited B2B marketing and acquisition reports.
Annual subscription is only £79.95. Other services available
to subscribers include AML and KYC reports, pre-litigation
screening, trace services and data appending, as well as many
others.
CREDIT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
HighRadius
T: +44 (0) 203 997 9400
E: infoemea@highradius.com
W: www.highradius.com
HighRadius provides a cloud-based Integrated Receivable
Platform, powered by machine learning and AI. Our Technology
empowers enterprise organisations to reduce cycle time in the
order-to-cash process and increase working capital availability by
automating receivables and payments processes across credit,
electronic billing and payment processing, cash application,
deductions, and collections.
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 56
FOR ADVERTISING INFORMATION OPTIONS
AND PRICING CONTACT
paul@centuryone.uk 01727 739 196
CREDIT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
CREDIT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
ENFORCEMENT
Tinubu Square UK
Holland House, 4 Bury Street,
London EC3A 5AW
T: +44 (0)207 469 2577 /
E: uksales@tinubu.com
W: www.tinubu.com
Founded in 2000, Tinubu Square is a software vendor, enabler
of the Credit Insurance, Surety and Trade Finance digital
transformation.
Tinubu Square enables organizations across the world to
significantly reduce their exposure to risk and their financial,
operational and technical costs with best-in-class technology
solutions and services. Tinubu Square provides SaaS solutions
and services to different businesses including credit insurers,
receivables financing organizations and multinational corporations.
Tinubu Square has built an ecosystem of customers in over 20
countries worldwide and has a global presence with offices in
Paris, London, New York, Montreal and Singapore.
Credica Ltd
Building 168, Maxell Avenue, Harwell Oxford, Oxon. OX11 0QT
T: 01235 856400E: info@credica.co.uk W: www.credica.co.uk
Our highly configurable and extremely cost effective Collections
and Query Management System has been designed with 3 goals
in mind:
•To improve your cashflow • To reduce your cost to collect
• To provide meaningful analysis of your business
Evolving over 15 years and driven by the input of 1000s of
Credit Professionals across the UK and Europe, our system is
successfully providing significant and measurable benefits for our
diverse portfolio of clients.
We would love to hear from you if you feel you would benefit from
our ‘no nonsense’ and human approach to computer software.
Data Interconnect Ltd
45-50 Shrivenham Hundred Business Park,
Majors Road, Watchfield. Swindon, SN6 8TZ
T: +44 (0)1367 245777
E: sales@datainterconnect.co.uk
W: www.datainterconnect.com
We are dedicated to helping finance teams take the cost,
complexity and compliance issues out of Accounts Receivable
processes. Corrivo is our reliable, easy-to-use SaaS platform
for the continuous improvement of AR metrics and KPIs in a
user-friendly interface. Credit Controllers can manage more
accounts with better results and customers can self-serve on
mobile-responsive portals where they can query, pay, download
and view invoices and related documentation e.g. Proofs of
Delivery Corrivo is the only AR platform with integrated invoice
finance options for both buyer and supplier that flexes credit
terms without degrading DSO. Call for a demo.
FOR
ADVERTISING
INFORMATION
OPTIONS AND
PRICING CONTACT
paul@centuryone.uk
01727 739 196
Cr£ditWho?
CICM Directory of Services
ESKER
Sam Townsend Head of Marketing
Northern Europe Esker Ltd.
T: +44 (0)1332 548176 M: +44 (0)791 2772 302
W: www.esker.co.uk LinkedIn: Esker – Northern Europe
Twitter: @EskerNEurope blog.esker.co.uk
Esker’s Accounts Receivable (AR) solution removes the all-toocommon
obstacles preventing today’s businesses from collecting
receivables in a timely manner. From credit management to cash
allocation, Esker automates each step of the order-to-cash cycle.
Esker’s automated AR system helps companies modernise
without replacing their core billing and collections processes. By
simply automating what should be automated, customers get the
post-sale experience they deserve and your team gets the tools
they need.
SERRALA
Serrala UK Ltd, 125 Wharfdale Road
Winnersh Triangle, Wokingham
Berkshire RG41 5RB
E: r.hammons@serrala.com W: www.serrala.com
T +44 118 207 0450 M +44 7788 564722
Serrala optimizes the Universe of Payments for organisations
seeking efficient cash visibility and secure financial processes.
As an SAP Partner, Serrala supports over 3,500 companies
worldwide. With more than 30 years of experience and
thousands of successful customer projects, including solutions
for the entire order-to-cash process, Serrala provides credit
managers and receivables professionals with the solutions they
need to successfully protect their business against credit risk
exposure and bad debt loss.
VISMA | ONGUARD
T: 020 3966 8324
E: edan.milner@onguard.com
W: www.onguard.com
VISMA | Onguard is a specialist in credit management software
and market leader in innovative solutions for order-to-cash. Our
integrated platform ensures an optimal connection of all processes
in the order-to-cash chain. This enhanced visibility with the secure
sharing of critical data ensures optimal connection between all
processes in the order-to-cash chain, resulting in stronger, longerlasting
customer relationships through improved and personalised
communication. The VISMA | Onguard platform is used for
successful credit management in more than 70 countries.
ENFORCEMENT
Court Enforcement Services
Adele Whitehurst – Client Relationship Manager
M: +44 (0)7525 119 711 T: +44 (0)1992 367 092
E : a.whitehurst@courtenforcementservices.co.uk
W: www.courtenforcementservices.co.uk
Court Enforcement Services is the market leading and fastest
growing High Court Enforcement company. Since forming in 2014,
we have managed over 100,000 High Court Writs and recovered
more than £187 million for our clients, all debt fairly collected.
We help lawyers and creditors across all sectors to recover unpaid
CCJ’s sooner rather than later. We achieve 39% early engagement
resulting in market-leading recovery rates. Our multi-awardwinning
technology provides real-time reporting 24/7. We work in
close partnership to expertly resolve matters with a fast, fair and
personable approach. We work hard to achieve the best results
and protect your reputation.
High Court Enforcement Group Limited
Client Services, Helix, 1st Floor
Edmund Street, Liverpool
L3 9NY
T: 08450 999 666
E: clientservices@hcegroup.co.uk
W: hcegroup.co.uk
Putting creditors first
We are the largest independent High Court enforcement company,
with more authorised officers than anyone else. We are privately
owned, which allows us to manage our business in a way that
puts our clients first. Clients trust us to deliver and service is
paramount. We cover all aspects of enforcement – writs of control,
possessions, process serving and landlord issues – and are
committed to meeting and exceeding clients’ expectations.
FINANCIAL PR
Gravity Global
Floor 6/7, Gravity Global, 69 Wilson St, London, EC2A 2BB
T: +44(0)207 330 8888. E: sfeast@gravityglobal.com
W: www.gravityglobal.com
Gravity is an award winning full service PR and advertising
business that is regularly benchmarked as being one of the
best in its field. It has a particular expertise in the credit sector,
building long-term relationships with some of the industry’s bestknown
brands working on often challenging briefs. As the partner
agency for the Credit Services Association (CSA) for the past 22
years, and the Chartered Institute of Credit Management since
2006, it understands the key issues affecting the credit industry
and what works and what doesn’t in supporting its clients in the
media and beyond.
FORUMS
FORUMS INTERNATIONAL
T: +44 (0)1246 555055
E: info@forumsinternational.co.uk
W: www.forumsinternational.co.uk
Forums International Ltd have been running Credit and Industry
Forums since 1991. We cover a range of industry sectors and
International trading, attendance is for Credit Professionals of all
levels. Our forums are not just meetings but communities which
aim to prepare our members for the challenges ahead. Attending
for the first time is free for you to gauge the benefits and meet the
members and we only have pre-approved Partners, so you will
never intentionally be sold to.
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 57
Cr£ditWho?
CICM Directory of Services
FOR ADVERTISING INFORMATION
OPTIONS AND PRICING CONTACT
paul@centuryone.uk 01727 739 196
INSOLVENCY
PAYMENT SOLUTIONS
RECRUITMENT
Menzies
T: +44 (0)2073 875 868 - London
T: +44 (0)2920 495 444 - Cardiff
W: menzies.co.uk/creditor-services
Our Creditor Services team can advise on the best way for you
to protect your position when one of your debtors enters, or
is approaching, insolvency proceedings. Our services include
assisting with retention of title claims, providing representation
at creditor meetings, forensic investigations, raising finance,
financial restructuring and removing the administrative burden
– this includes completing and lodging claim forms, monitoring
dividend prospects and analysing all Insolvency Reports and
correspondence.
For more information on how the Menzies Creditor Services
team can assist, please contact Bethan Evans, Licensed
Insolvency Practitioner, at bevans@menzies.co.uk or call
+44 (0)2920 447 512.
LEGAL
Shoosmiths
Email: paula.swain@shoosmiths.co.uk
Tel: 03700 86 3000 W: www.shoosmiths.co.uk
Shoosmiths’ highly experienced team will work closely with credit
teams to recover commercial debts as quickly and cost effectively
as possible. We have an in depth knowledge of all areas of debt
recovery, including:
•Pre-litigation services to effect early recovery and keep costs
down
•Litigation service
•Post-litigation services including enforcement
•Insolvency
As a client of Shoosmiths, you will find us quick to relate to your
goals, and adept at advising you on the most effective way of
achieving them.
Key IVR
T: +44 (0) 1302 513 000 E: sales@keyivr.com
W: www.keyivr.com
Key IVR are proud to have joined the Chartered Institute of
Credit Management’s Corporate partnership scheme. The
CICM is a recognised and trusted professional entity within
credit management and a perfect partner for Key IVR. We are
delighted to be providing our services to the CICM to assist with
their membership collection activities. Key IVR provides a suite
of products to assist companies across the globe with credit
management. Our service is based around giving the end-user
the means to make a payment when and how they choose. Using
automated collection methods, such as a secure telephone
payment line (IVR), web and SMS allows companies to free up
valuable staff time away from typical debt collection.
Quadient AR by YayPay
T: +44 20 8502 8476
E: r.harash@quadient.com
W: www.quadient.com/en-gb/ar-automation
Quadient AR by YayPay makes it easy for B2B finance teams
to stay ahead of accounts receivable and get paid faster – from
anywhere. Integrating with your existing ERP, CRM, accounting
and billing systems, YayPay organizes and presents real-time data
through meaningful, cloud-based dashboards. These increase
visibility across your AR portfolio and provide your team with a
single source of truth, so they can access the information they
need to work productively, no matter where they are based.
Automated capabilities improve team efficiency by 3X and
accelerate the collections process by making communications
customizable and consistent. This enables you to collect cash
up to 34 percent faster and removes the need to add additional
resources as your business grows.
Predictive analytics provide insight into future payer behavior to
improve cash flow management and a secure, online payment
portal enables customers to access their accounts and pay at any
time, from anywhere.
Hays Credit Management
107 Cheapside, London, EC2V 6DN
T: 07834 260029
E: karen.young@hays.com
W: www.hays.co.uk/creditcontrol
Hays Credit Management is working in partnership with the CICM
and specialise in placing experts into credit control jobs and
credit management jobs. Hays understands the demands of this
challenging environment and the skills required to thrive within
it. Whatever your needs, we have temporary, permanent and
contract based opportunities to find your ideal role. Our candidate
registration process is unrivalled, including face-to-face screening
interviews and a credit control skills test developed exclusively for
Hays by the CICM. We offer CICM members a priority service and
can provide advice across a wide spectrum of job search and
recruitment issues.
PORTFOLIO
CREDIT CONTROL
Portfolio Credit Control
1 Finsbury Square, London. EC2A 1AE
T: 0207 650 3199
E: recruitment@portfoliocreditcontrol.com
W: www.portfoliocreditcontrol.com
Portfolio Credit Control, a 5* Trustpilot rated agency, solely
specialises in the recruitment of Permanent, Temporary & Contract
Credit Control, Accounts Receivable and Collections staff
including remote workers. Part of The Portfolio Group, an awardwinning
Recruiter, we speak to Credit Controllers every day and
understand their skills meaning we are perfectly placed to provide
your business with talented Credit Control professionals. Offering
a highly tailored approach to recruitment, we use a hybrid of faceto-face
and remote briefings, interviews and feedback options.
We provide both candidates & clients with a commitment to deliver
that will exceed your expectations every single time.
PAYMENT SOLUTIONS
American Express
76 Buckingham Palace Road,
London. SW1W 9TQ
T: +44 (0)1273 696933
W: www.americanexpress.com
American Express is working in partnership with the CICM and is a
globally recognised provider of payment solutions to businesses.
Specialising in providing flexible collection capabilities to drive a
number of company objectives including:
• Accelerate cashflow • Improved DSO • Reduce risk
• Offer extended terms to customers
• Provide an additional line of bank independent credit to drive
growth • Create competitive advantage with your customers
As experts in the field of payments and with a global reach,
American Express is working with credit managers to drive growth
within businesses of all sectors. By creating an additional lever
to help support supplier/client relationships American Express is
proud to be an innovator in the business payments space.
Cr£ditWho?
CICM Directory of Services
FIS GETPAID
25 Canada Square
London, GB E14 5LQ
T: +447730500085
E: getinfo@fisglobal.com.
W: www.fisglobal.com
The award-winning FIS GETPAID solution is a fully integrated,
web-based order-to cash (O2C) solution that helps companies
improve operational efficiencies, lower DSO, and increase cash
flow. GETPAID provides process automation, artificial intelligence,
and workflow across the O2C cycle, with detailed analysis and
reporting for accurate cash forecasting. FIS is a global leader in
financial services technology that empowers the financial world.
For more information visit https://www.fisglobal.com/en/cashflowand-capital/credit-and-collections
or email getinfo@fisglobal.com.
FOR ADVERTISING INFORMATION
OPTIONS AND PRICING CONTACT
paul@centuryone.uk 01727 739 196
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 58
HR MATTERS
Changing Tack
Post-Brexit changes to employment law, new
guidance on staff suspensions, and confirmation that
support of a football club is not a protected belief.
AUTHOR – Gareth Edwards
AN employment tribunal
held that support for
a football club is not a
protected philosophical
belief under the Equality
Act 2010.
In the case of McClung v Doosan Babcock
Ltd and others ETS/4110538/2019, the
claimant, Mr McClung, is a staunch
and lifelong supporter of Glasgow
Rangers Football Club. He describes his
support of the club as a way of life and
as important to him as attending church
would be to a Christian.
McClung worked as subcontractor for
Doosan Babcock, and claimed a manager
there denied him further work because
she was a Celtic fan. He brought claims
for unfair dismissal and discrimination.
There were a number of issues to
determine in relation to McClung's
claims, including his employment
status. The case concerns the question of
whether McClung's support of Rangers
qualified as a protected belief under
section 10 of the Act.
The tribunal held that his belief,
whilst strong and genuinely held, was
not a protected belief under the Act. It
considered the five Grainger criteria for
determining whether a belief qualifies
for protection under the Act, namely
that the belief must be genuinely held;
it must be a belief and not an opinion or
viewpoint based on the present state of
information available; it must be a belief
as to a weighty and substantial aspect
of human life and behaviour; it must
attain a certain level of cogency,
seriousness, cohesion and importance;
it must be worthy of respect in a
democratic society, not be incompatible
with human dignity and not conflict
with the fundamental rights of others.
The tribunal accepted that the belief
was genuinely held. However, the
remaining criteria were not met. Further,
an explanatory note to the Act stated that
support for a football club would not be
a protected belief. There is a difference
between a belief, which is the acceptance
of something a person believes to be true,
and support, which is being interested
in and concerned for the success
of something.
In addition, the tribunal held that
supporting a football team was not
equivalent to a belief in something
weighty and substantial; support for
Rangers does not invoke the same
respect in a democratic society as issues
such as ethical veganism.
This case distinguishes between the
concept of support and the concept
of belief.
Acas issues new guidance on suspensions
ACAS has published employer guidance on
how to manage staff suspensions during formal
disciplinary and grievance investigations.
The new guidance, Suspension during an
investigation at work, covers a number of key
issues, including deciding whether to suspend
an employee, how they should be suspended,
how to support their mental well-being, and
dealing with pay and holiday during the
suspension period.
The guidance reflects the fact that suspension
should not be an automatic response to
concerns or allegations being raised. However,
in some circumstances suspension might be
appropriate, for example, in order to preserve
the integrity of an investigation, and where there
are no viable alternatives to suspension which
would achieve the same result. The guidance
sets out ways employers can approach the topic
of suspension fairly and sensitively, so that it
can be properly seen as a temporary and neutral
act, and so that the individual's wellbeing can be
properly protected.
The guidance acknowledges that in some
situations it might be appropriate to take legal
advice before suspending an employee, for
example, if there is any question over pay or
the fairness of the suspension. It is also good
practice to put everything in writing, so the
terms of suspension are clear from the outset.
Suspension should be no longer than necessary
and the decision to suspend should be kept
under review.
Shake-up of employment rights expected
THE Government has introduced the
Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform)
Bill 2022-2023 to the House of Commons.
The bill could prompt a significant shakeup
of established employment rights.
Broadly speaking, the bill is intended to
confer more power on the Government to
operate free of the constraints of retained
EU law that derives from the European
❝
The guidance sets
out ways employers
can approach the
topic of suspension
fairly and sensitively,
so that it can be
properly seen as
a temporary and
neutral act.
❝
Union, which was retained within UK
domestic law following Brexit. Under the
Bill, EU-derived subordinate legislation
and retained EU legislation will be
revoked across the UK at the end of 2023.
Much of UK employment law derives
from EU law, including TUPE and the
Working Time Regulations (which contain
holiday rights and set out the parameters
of the working week). The Government is
yet to comment on what specific pieces
of legislation it might seek to remove or
retain if the Bill is passed.
Gareth Edwards is a partner in the
employment team at VWV.
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 59
The best gift you
can give your AR
team this Christmas
Accelerate cash collections by at least 34%
Improve customer satisfaction through
personalised communications
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accuracy and plan for the future
LEARN MORE
quadient.com/en-gb/ar-automation
Brave | Curious | Resilient / www.cicm.com / December 2022 / PAGE 60