ICBA

Former Country Managing Director at Coface Joins ICBA Sweden

2012-02-01T17:31:38Z

By Curt Hässler

As of January 1, 2012, the former Managing Director of Coface for the Nordic countries, Mikael Szabo, has joined ICBA Sweden, known also as Söderberg & Partners, in Stockholm, Sweden. ICBA is the largest broker of financial services in Scandinavia. Szabo had been with Coface since 2001, and had held the positions of Country and General Manager for Hungary, Slovakia, and Sweden as well as Managing Director of Coface Norden Services A/S in Denmark.

After such a long time working at a global insurer, I began looking for another way to expand my skills and knowledge, and what is more logical than to join a brokerage that deals with all aspects and suppliers within this exciting business? Having made this decision, ICBA Sweden was the natural step to take: On one hand Söderberg dominates the Swedish financial advisory market and on the other hand ICBA is the most expansive and exciting network of trade credit insurance and political risk specialists in the industry.

In my Coface years I had the opportunity to see how effectively ICBA works with its clients and how well-organised the ICBA group is. It is with great joy that I take on this new challenge! - Mikael Szabo, after one month on board as Partner at ICBA Sweden.

(Curt Hässler is Head of Credit Insurance with ICBA Sweden, Söderberg & Partners, in Stockholm)

A ten item Trade credit insurance checklist to help prepare companies for 2012

2012-01-06T19:57:46Z

By Ron Doyle

While we all are wishing for a prosperous, productive and healthy 2012, we have to be realistic. At best, the world economy will experience slow growth or possibly a regional or global recession.

The annual reports of banks should show how much actual exposure they have to toxic sovereign debt and what provisions the banking industry will need to make. The situation will undoubtedly impose a need to raise capital. As I have stated before, this demand will impact the commercial credit markets, as banks will be required to restrict lending and demand higher credit quality.

Banks Make Quick Decisions When Better Credit Quality is the Goal

2011-12-07T20:17:12Z

By Ron Doyle

In Canada, we have recently seen two well-established companies filing for protection: Hart Stores Inc. and Norgate Metal. In neither case did the creditors nor the credit insurers suspect that the companies were about to file. In the Hart Stores case, two credit insurers reviewed the portfolio just prior to the company filing and found, that while the company had experienced a small loss at year end and another small loss at the end of the first quarter, there wasn’t any reason to reduce coverage. What wasn’t anticipated: these small losses resulted in the company’s bank refusing to renew the Line of Credit and then the company’s inability to find new financing in today’s market.

ICBA Australia and New Zealand now has official licence in Singapore

2011-12-05T15:25:56Z

By Kirk Cheesman, originally published in part, in National Credit Insurance (NCI) News

As of November 27, 2011, ICBA Australia and New Zealand welcomes it's new branch office in Singapore: NCI Brokers (ASIA) PTE LTD.

For two years, NCI has been working towards a licence in Singapore. The approval of this licence is a significant step for ICBA's growth in the Asia Pacific region. Ten year ICBA veteran, Sally Wilkinson has moved to Singapore to set-up the new operations.

ICBA Australia, New Zealand and now Singapore is excited to be able to offer specialist services to clients in Asia from a more local location. After all, ICBA is known for the advantages of its "glocal" service. ICBA currently has offices in 30 countries on five continents. ICBA partners combine local service and expertise with global coordination to provide trade, credit and political risk insurance solutions for multinational companies.

(Kirk Cheesman is Managing Director of ICBA Australia and New Zealand, National Credit Insurance (Brokers) Pty Ltd and a Director of NCI Brokers (Asia) Pte Ltd)

Bank Risk, The New Threat: How credit insurance mitigates this type of exposure

2011-11-30T17:03:11Z

By Ron Doyle

Sovereign entities and various state governments have trillions of Euros in debt, and they continue to run deficits, which will have to be financed. Household debt also continues to rise. Who holds most of this debt? Banks!

The various agencies responsible for monitoring the finances of banks are increasingly concerned and are subjecting more banks to “Stress Tests” to determine if their Balance Sheets would withstand a major drop in the stock markets and increased unemployment. While the interest of government regulators is to be expected, what is more telling and of more concern, is the perception that banks themselves are becoming more restrictive in lending to one another.

Political Risk Event of the Month: Argentina's foreign exchange controls

2011-11-21T19:47:20Z

Submitted in part by ICBA Asia, Brazil, India and the USA via the IRC Read & Delete Monthly

European countries are not the only ones facing a crisis of currency, credit and confidence these days. Harkening back to its 2002 debt restructuring, Argentina has introduced new foreign exchange controls to bolster the peso. The new regulations, which require a tax identification number and verification of funds, have shut down many of the country’s forex offices. In its first days, The Economist estimates that the currency regime has denied 70% of legitimate hard currency transfers. Uncertainty has driven investors from peso-denominated funds to expensive dollar-denominated government bonds.

The peso has lost a third of its value since Christina Fernandez-Kirchner was elected president in 2007. Even with her decidedely mixed economic performance, with recent re-election success (last month), she has clearly won an electoral mandate and her party has regained control of Congress. Thanks largely to strong commodity prices, many Argentinians are, in real terms, much better off now than they were before her first election. However, in the face of rampant inflation (estimated to be about 25% annually), a ballooning public spending tab, and $9 billion in debt outstanding to the Paris Club, the road ahead will not be easy.

The outcome in Argentina won't become clearer until Kirchner announces a new cabinet, sometime closer to December 10, 2011.

(The Political Risk Event of the Month blog post will be a recurring post, on a sporadic basis, at the ICBA blog. ICBA Asia, Brazil, India and the USA, which is International Risk Consultants, Inc. (IRC), has agreed to continue to share these "event" posts with the ICBA blog.)

Getting Professional Advice about Credit Insurance and Political Risk is Critical to Your Business Success

2011-11-01T15:27:46Z

By Ron Doyle

As this blog is being written, world financial markets are again in turmoil as the situation in Greece has again reached crisis proportions. The Greek Government is putting the acceptance of the Euro aid package to a referendum. European governments had reached an accord to hopefully avoid a disastrous collapse by Greece - which may trigger another recession – but with the latest news from Greece, all is in flux again.

Even when reading some of the many articles outlining the details of the bail-out agreement, there remains a number of problems, the largest of which is that the agreement requires banks holding Greek debt to absorb a write-off of 50%.

Improving a company's odds in relation to trade credit risks

2011-10-24T20:40:05Z

By Kirk Cheesman

On Tuesday November 1, 2011, the race that stops a nation, the 151st Melbourne Cup, will take place in Australia. Once again, millions of dollars will be placed on the race with many punters making their selections based solely on the horses name, the jockey's colours, or the country of origin of the horse. And... sometimes this selection criteria actually works!

However most gamblers will take into consideration a horse's past form and performance, the weather conditions, the trainer's or jockey's history to make their selections that day.

In credit management, some businesses take a "punt" on a client by way of simply acknowledging the client is in business and wishes to make a sale. However, history shows a more savvy business can considerably improve its odds of selecting good risks over poor risks.

ICBA brokers in 30 countries across 5 continents

2011-10-05T19:42:49Z

ICBA offers trade credit solutions to multinational companies. The organization has a global footprint and provides local intelligence for multinational trade insurance needs.

Established in 1999, the ICBA organization has expanded. As of October 2011, ICBA brokers are found in over 50 offices, in 30 countries, across five continents. ICBA uses a glocal approach — local service by the world’s largest global team of independent trade credit risk insurance brokerages.

Download the ICBA updated Overview brochure (PDF) here.

ICBA quick facts and values:

• Specialised trade credit and political risk insurance solutions
• Glocal approach: Local service and expertise with the support of a global team
• More than 175 billion Euros annually in global trade sales
• Over 7000 clients worldwide, served by over 10 000 policies
• Employs more than 350 insurance specialists globally

Stress Testing Your Company’s Balance Sheet

2011-09-20T19:49:32Z

By Ron Doyle

In recent months European banks have been subjected to stress testing. The purpose of the testing is to determine if a bank’s capital can withstand a loss from a catastrophic event that is improbable, but possible, and will impair assets. It is surprising to realize that a relatively small impairment of assets can wipe out the capital of even banks that appear to be very solid.

What happens when a company applies a similar stress test to its balance sheet? In assessing the balance sheet of a company some areas to consider are:

What percentage of total assets is represented by Accounts Receivable?
What are the largest exposures to trade credit risk?
How strong are the accounts with the large exposures?
Could the company absorb the loss of one of these accounts? (remember: improbable, but possible)
In Non-Current Assets section, what would be the impact if assets, such as mobile equipment, fixed investments in plant and equipment and even goodwill, had to be shown as impaired due to a political event outside of the control of the company?