An informed source in Canada was speaking to a colleague in an undisclosed Canadian factoring company owned by a major international bank. The source asked if following the tragic events of Tuesday 11 September 2001 his colleague expected to be swimming in a sea of credit losses. His colleague is reported to have said “No. We are drowning in a sea of credit losses.” This is one of the knock-on effects of the attacks on the USA earlier in the week.
Activity in the factoring and business finance industry of the USA and Canada has been at an all-time low this week. The stalling of the US economy in the first half of 2001 meant that there was already a relative dearth of industry activity and this week’s events have helped to make a bad situation worse still.