A new digital insurance brand launched today is aiming to disrupt the Nordic SME payments market by revolutionising the way that smaller businesses protect themselves against bad debts.
Combining the latest technology with the established underwriting expertise and balance sheet of Euler Hermes, the world’s largest trade credit insurance company, Credable is tackling the problem of late or unpaid invoices in a simple and innovative way. First, it can provide an instant ‘traffic light’ credit rating for an SME’s potential business partner. Second, Credable can offer to insure payments in a matter of seconds – a world first for the trade credit insurance industry.
Trends around late payments and non-payment in the Nordics are not improving, whether in the analogue or digital world. As the Scandinavian economy has grown in recent years so has the use of extended credit or deferred payment. In 2016 approximately 56% of Swedish sales were made on credit while in Denmark the rate was as high as 69%.
Research shows that late payments hold business back, delaying or preventing investment and in some cases even triggering insolvencies. At worst, businesses risk becoming insolvent because their customers pay late or simply never pay; as 64% of Swedish companies have reported negative impacts on their business as a result of late payments in 2016, up 12% on the prior year.*
“Businesses in Sweden continue to sell on credit and hence run risks to their cash flow when they get paid late. Until now they have had limited options for managing late payment - or worse still the insolvency of their clients. Factoring tends to be costly, slow and selective; bank lending may not be available and other grey market financing options too risky. This is what we want to change,” says Richard Garnier, Managing Director of Credable.
Going from concept to fully operational digital platform in less than 12 months, Credable has beaten every one of its expectations so far. The company has undertaken a BETA phase with potential business partners and clients since September 2017 and already has 100 registered SME users and a number of policy holders. Credable plans to extend its geographical reach from Sweden to other Nordics countries in the months ahead.