Hermes Kreditversicherungs-AG, the German insurance group, has dealt a blow to Spar, the retail group, by increasing the deductible contribution to advance credit insurance paid by the group's suppliers, to up to 45 per cent. This means that the companies are only able to insure up to 55 per cent of their supplies, at an unaltered premium, which equates to an increase of up to 20 percentage points.
Hermes refused to say why it had differentiated Spar from other retail organisations, but some of the group's suppliers offered the opinion that it was due to Spar's propensity to default on small payments.
Source: Handelsblatt