27 October 2014

BPIF voices concerns to Creditsafe following credit rating downgrades

The upgrade of Creditsafe's credit rating model has impacted UK printing companies.

In a letter to Creditsafe CEO Cato Syversen, BPIF Membership Director Dale Wallis points out this move has resulted in many printing companies suffering significant downgrades to their credit ratings - with some going from 'very low risk' to 'very high risk'. He points out that the scale of this has been so pervasive that many BPIF members have made the assumption - rightly or wrongly - that Creditsafe has downgraded their overall assessment of the printing sector as a whole. 

The letter asks Creditsafe to explain why this widespread shift in companies' assessments has occurred, and seeks some background on how the new model operates in practice and why the company consider this tool to be more accurate than its predecessor. Mr Wallis adds that the BPIF would be pleased to pass this information on to member companies, in order they in turn can better understand the changes made and the rationale behind them. In particular, he questions whether Creditsafe's model factors in payment cycles agreed with customers, pointing out that the application of a  blanket 30-day payment cycle would mean any company paying to agreed terms of, say, 60 days would still be deemed 'late' by the system.

The letter also asks Creditsafe to comment on whether it might be possible to improve the transparency of the credit reports, so that the cause of a drop in rating might be made clear to the companies affected. Mr Wallis stresses that "where this data is invisible and anonymous - or difficult to access - users then have to trust that the providers of the payment performance data are feeding accurate and pertinent information into the system", adding "to rely on blind faith in this way would be a recipe for user dissatisfaction and likely to cause ongoing unease and uncertainty among our member firms".