David Waldron Speaks at the National

Chemical Credit Association Education

Conference

On February 11, 2009, David Waldron, Executive Manager for Atradius Collections Americas, gave a presentation on International Collections in San Francisco, California.  He spoke of the economic issues facing US companies, the impact on the US export business and the shift towards lines of credit. The international markets are in a dynamic flux and there are dramatic disconnections between the BRIC, EMEA and NAFTA trading blocks, but Atradius is seeing growth in four key areas:

• Support borrowing relationships; provide more frequent audits for banks and ABLs;
• Recommending invoice-to-cash solutions and other process improvements to help generate effeciencies and cost savings;
• Consulting services to revisit credit management environment and help manage debtor repayment risk; and
• Helping clients to monetize their receivables through accelerated collections with earlier debt placement and more timely action.

A key topic discussed was the need now more than ever before to apply the 80:20 rule in credit management.  Clients should focus their scarce resources on their key accounts and critical business relationships that typically account for 80% of their sales and receivables.  Atradius Collections can manage the remaining 20% - which frequently can account for 80% of invoices issued for the smaller and ‘one-off’ sales that frequently are overlooked given that most credit departments are starved of resources in these ‘down-sizing’ days!

He also discussed items to think about when doing business with your international customers, such as: “How well do you know your customer?” and “How ‘enforcement ready’ are you for collections?”  Finally, he spoke about collections in various countries, such as Mexico, China, and Italy, and ended with a few anecdotes about Atradius Collections US’s experience in collecting debts in those countries.

If you would like to see the entire presentation, please send an email to the Editor by clicking This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it