Trade Credit Insurance in a nutshell

Trade Credit Insurance is a credit risk management solution that safeguards the development of your business, in particular by protecting you against losses due to non-payment of invoices.

Trade credit insurance (TCI) is a solution for managing trade credit risk with a very simple aim: to help your business grow securely by protecting it against losses from unpaid invoices.

Your day-to-day business involves extending credit to your clients in your domestic and export market. But it’s a practice that lays you open to the risk of default or insolvency, which together account for 25% of corporate bankruptcies.
To avoid unpaid debts and help you manage receivables more effectively, trade credit insurance includes three complementary services: 

  • Business information (BI), designed to rate the financial solvency of your current and future clients in real time based on the economic and political context. 
  • Debt Collection of your outstanding invoices. 
  • Indemnification of receivables guaranteed by your credit insurance policy.

 

What commercial risks does Trade Credit Insurance cover? 

Trade credit insurance is a powerful tool for controlling commercial risk. It covers: 

  • Extended payment defaults (late payments). 
  • Bad debts arising from customer insolvency. 
  • Political risk: non-payment resulting from political or climate-related events, currency restrictions, interruption of trade or expropriation.

 

How does a Trade Credit Insurance policy work?

With Coface, your credit insurance policy works simply and easily: 

  1. You provide us with certain information about your company and clients. 
  2. We assess the financial health of your customers so we can draw up credit limits and commercial terms to suit your particular needs. 
  3. We monitor your clients around the clock and tailor the coverage accordingly for the entire term of the policy. 
  4. In time, we can include your new clients in the policy as well as extending the coverage of existing customers. 
  5. If your clients do not pay in a timely manner, our debt collection services ensure that the vast majority of your unpaid invoices are settled... anywhere in the world!
     

What type of Trade Credit Insurance should I choose?

Coface offers a comprehensive range of credit insurance solutions for every size of business (SMEs, very small companies, and multinational companies) and every type of industry or to suit your specific needs:
• TradeLiner: the simple, flexible and 100% custom-built solution for SMEs and mid-caps.
• GlobaLiner: bespoke credit insurance and dedicated teams supporting the growth of global companies.
• Single Risk: political risk and payment default insurance to cover your complex one-off or recurrent projects.

We can’t predict the future. But we can help you understand and analyse the risks associated with proper customer payment while guaranteeing you first-class protection. When you partner with Coface, you have access to all the qualified information and assessments you need to manage your credit decisions. This means you can offer competitive credit terms with complete confidence. Our solutions give you the peace of mind you need to develop your business: you minimize risks and open the door to new opportunities for growth!
- Cyrille CHARBONNEL, Group Underwriting Director

 

Why does my company (definitely) need Credit Insurance?

Taking out a trade credit insurance policy means you can: 

  • Avoid unpaid debts on a day-to-day basis while developing your business. 
  • Extend credit to your clients without worrying about unpaid debts in case of insolvency.
  • Limit customer risk to a minimum: assess the solvency of your business partners in real time so you do not sell to bad payers and can avoid taking any risk depending on the economic circumstances.
  • Recover your trade receivables without compromising relations with your client: our teams will take care of everything for you. 

Be (re)insured if collection takes time or does not get results: you are compensated for the loss incurred on your guaranteed receivables. 

 

5 (good) reasons for choosing Coface

With Coface solutions, a leading provider in risk management worldwide, you benefit from:
#1. 75 years of expertise recognised by 50,000 clients companies worldwide.
#2.  Assistance provided by our risk experts in 46 countries and coverage solutions in around 200 markets.
#3. Qualified information and unique insights into 190 million companies, 185 countries and 13 industries all year long.
#4. Over 300 experts tasked with recovering your receivables across the world!
#5 Additional services to help foster your growth: business information, debt collection and business bonds. 

Authors and experts

  • Cyrille CHARBONNEL

    Group Underwriting Director

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