Government support insufficient, credit insurers warn
Key players in the credit insurance industry have criticised the government’s credit insurance top-up scheme as insufficient.
Euler Hermes and Atradius said the government’s top-up support for businesses – announced in this week’s budget – is two narrow and will only help a small number of firms.
A key limitation of the scheme is that only businesses who have some of their credit insurance withdrawn between 1 April and 31 December 2009 will be eligible for government support.
Fabrice Desnos, Euler Hermes UK chief executive, said: “What is impossible to predict is how many companies will actually want to pay for it.
“We don’t expect the take-up for the scheme to be very high.”
Shaun Purrington, a director at Atradius, added: “The application of the scheme could have been broader.”
However, both insurers agreed that the scheme is better than nothing, and will offer the government support to their eligible clients.
“If it makes a difference for a thousand SMEs where credit insurance is a significant component of their business model, then it will have been a success,” Desnos said.
Industry analysts said that only time will tell whether the government’s support package is sufficient.
Tarlok Teji, head of retail at Deloitte, said: “It is clearly too early to judge whether the proposals will be a success or not.”
Category: Companies News, Insurance News
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