By Mark Attley

English is the second language for many of my 26 global partners in ICBA, but often the eloquence of a comment spoken by these partners communicates the message with much greater clarity than those of us who claim English as our first language. At a recent ICBA meeting, it was exclaimed, “We do not know what we do not know.” Normally, I would give appropriate credit for such a gem of wisdom, but for fear of embarrassing the prolocutor, I will refrain on this occasion.

This comment has stuck with me and I have used variations of it on several occasions. As recently as this week, I was visiting with a new client who had made the decision to engage our company to help manage, understand and improve their credit insurance program. As I pondered the competitive environment that is the credit insurance world and the brokerage model that seeks to compete with large multinational direct-writing insurers, it occurred to me that unless you are a credit manager or an insurance buyer that constantly monitors and interacts with the entire credit insurance industry, you really “do not know what you do not know.”

Over the years we have all broadcasted to existing and prospective clients that credit insurance brokers provide value both before and after the transaction, but what does this mean? How do you accurately define “value”?

Knowledge is the key. Every client needs knowledge on his or her side, especially in the current economic environment.

Representatives of individual credit insurance companies provide knowledge of a sort, but it is restricted to knowledge of their own specific companies. Knowledge on a broad, competitive scale is what ICBA partners bring to the table and offer an intimate knowledge of the entire credit insurance world - what is possible, what questions to ask, what are reasonable answers, what structures are possible, what risks can be covered? Only our industry-wide knowledge can ensure that your coverage meets all the needs of your company.

Daily and unreservedly, ICBA brokers deliver knowledge of a complex trade credit insurance market with complex solutions. It is what we do and it is what we know.

(Mark Attley is an ICBA Canada broker and President of Millennium Credit Risk Management – credit and political risk insurance specialist – www.mcm.ca. ICBA is the world’s largest team of independently-owned, specialist trade credit insurance brokerages. Partners combine local service with global coordination to provide credit and political risk insurance solutions for multinational companies.)