Atradius: UK credit insurance claims rise 13% while insolvencies fall 4%

Claims received by trade credit insurer Atradius from its insured UK businesses increased by nearly 13% month on month in September, despite a 4% decline in registered company insolvencies in England and Wales, highlighting a divergence between formal business failures and insured payment difficulties.

The insurer’s latest claims figures suggest that financial pressure on customers and suppliers may remain elevated even as the headline insolvency count improves.

Official data from the Insolvency Service recorded 1,882 company insolvencies in September, down from 1,953 in August and 1,973 a year earlier. However, the decrease was not uniform across different insolvency procedures.

Compulsory liquidations rose to 341, compared with 321 in August and 273 in September 2025, indicating that more companies were being wound up through court proceedings despite the overall decline.

The official September data and the increase in compulsory liquidations were previously reported. The additional development is the increase in claims now disclosed by Atradius, which provides a separate view of payment and counterparty risk.

Owen Bassett, UK Risk Underwriting Manager at Atradius UK, said the insurer had also recorded month-on-month claims increases across construction, consumer durables and transport.

He cautioned that claims experience can provide an earlier indication of financial strain than formal insolvencies, which generally emerge later in a company’s deterioration.

That distinction is relevant to suppliers extending trade credit and to financiers purchasing or lending against receivables. Payment delays, disputes and debtor distress can affect cash conversion and recoveries without immediately resulting in a corporate insolvency filing.

The figures nevertheless require careful interpretation. Atradius has disclosed a percentage change in claims received, not the absolute number of claims, their combined value or the amount ultimately paid to policyholders.

Its experience also reflects its own insured customer base and should not automatically be treated as a measure of claims across the entire UK trade credit insurance market.

For receivables financiers and credit insurers, the divergence reinforces the importance of monitoring debtor payment behaviour and sector exposures alongside insolvency statistics, rather than relying on the headline failure rate alone.