Gerling NCM, the leading international credit insurer and receivables management company, has launched a new credit management service for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The service was developed in response to major research by Gerling NCM which showed SMEs in the UK are increasing exposed to the problems of bad debts and slow payment.
In Gerling NCM’s study, over 80% of SMEs were very concerned about the possibility of experiencing a bad debt. This rose to 90% among the smallest companies. Almost 70% reported that many of their customers are taking longer to pay and over 70% said that they spend too long chasing payments.
Cash-flow issues have a large impact on smaller businesses. According to Gerling’s survey, businesses with a turnover of under Ј10million are twice as likely as their larger counterparts to be concerned about the threat of a bad debt. The bad debt to sales ration for very small companies is four times that of the largest companies...
