Trade Credit Insurance

Our credit insurance division acts for businesses from small independents to global multinationals, dealing with everything from whole turnover credit insurance to specialist products like surety bonds. And because our people are experts in this technical and changing field, Bartlett is able to create solutions that exactly match our clients' varied needs.

In fact, once our clients have seen the benefits of working with us they tend to stay around. We've been looking after some of our clients for more than 30 years, and our retention rate is 95%.

Our secret weapon? We understand how to make credit insurance not just a shield, but an active tool for growth.

How well are you dealing with the unknown?

You can't know every company you do business with personally, and in a volatile economy few are truly fail-safe anyway. So how can you protect yourself from unpleasant surprises?

A full credit risk review will uncover the real financial situation. You can counter risks with a bespoke credit insurance policy, tailored specifically to match the profile of your customer base. The benefit? You'll have the security you need to do more business, with more businesses, with more confidence.

At Bartlett we employ technical specialists rather than generalists. Our team are up to date with new market developments and products. In a market driven by tariffs and generic pricing models we go beyond one-size-fits-all solutions to offer you the credit insurance demanded by your business's exact needs.

Play it safe

Trade credit insurance protects against the risk of big losses if a customer becomes insolvent. It involves a close look at all your partners (and, just as importantly, your potential partners) to make sure you take out the right cover.

Depending on your needs, you can choose to insure just one customer, or your entire sales ledger. Or you can arrange cover for losses over a certain amount.

And it could even help reduce your DSO – because reporting delayed payments to your underwriter can easily have a negative effect on your customers' credit ratings. It's no coincidence that companies with credit insurance get paid more quickly.

Play to win

The security of credit insurance means you don't need to restrict your dealings to existing partners. If your business is ready to pursue new accounts or increase sales to existing customers, you can go ahead, without worrying whether they'll live up to your financial expectations.

You'll also gain a new competitive edge. Working with underwriters gives you access to a vast amount of proprietary information about potential partners, which can help you to make more informed commercial decisions.

The Bartlett process

Our detailed approach takes hard work – but done by us, not by you. Our account managers, brokers and technical specialists work together to support you through the entire process from completing the proposal form to making a claim.

We begin with an analysis of your business and a confidential credit risk review of your current partners. This will help you decide where to focus your efforts and what kind of cover you might need.

If you decide that trade credit insurance could help your business to thrive, we'll move on to a full review. We will carry out a much more extensive fact find and produce a detailed insurer presentation. We will then begin negotiating with the market and provide you with formal quotes.

Step 1:

business assessment

An objective review of your business and your current credit risk mitigation programmes, including analysis of your sales ledger. This will allow us to identify how and where credit insurance could bolster your operations, and make recommendations for improvements to your systems.

Step 2:

Full review

An in-depth credit risk review of all your key customers. We will produce a full, detailed insurer presentation and recommend underwriters who have the appetite and technical knowledge for your risks.

This tailored review delves much deeper than the standardised insurance proposals you may be used to. It has three advantages:

Fact-based, risk-specific pricing – not guesswork, generalisations or assumptions
Engaged, fully-informed underwriters who have the confidence to accept our suggested pricing
Robust disclosure, leaving insurers nowhere to hide in the event of a claim

Find out more about Trade Credit Insurance

We hope we've given you food for thought. If you'd like to refer offline to this information, please download it in pdf format. Or if you're interested in a face-to-face conversation, please get in touch.

Simon Martin
Head of Credit Insurance
Email: smartin@bartlettgroup.com

DOWNLOAD BROCHURE (pdf 848 KB)