Credit insurance important tool to facilitate trade
The Netherlands has traditionally been a country of traders. Nowadays, a large proportion of SMEs are involved in trading. This means that in many cases they do not produce themselves, or at least have a significant part of their product produced elsewhere. These companies buy in products after they have received orders, but sometimes even before that, so they deliberately take some inventory risk. Credit insurance can play an important role in preventing business from grinding to a halt. In this article, we explain how credit insurance speeds up trade and makes financing easier.
The impact of increasing uncertainty on our economy
We wrote earlier that economic development is difficult to predict. There are so many factors affecting the economy that no one knows for sure what will happen. On the one hand, our economy turns out to be more resilient than we thought and the negative impact of Covid-19 pandemic is not so bad. On the other hand, the crisis did lead to other problems: shortages of raw materials, semi-finished and finished products, rising energy prices and transport costs. We are also seeing the first signs that interest rates will rise slightly. In this article, we discuss the impact of this increasing uncertainty and how to respond to it.
How our client gained greater visibility into creditworthiness and managed to hedge financial risks
A well-known A-brand multinational in the retail & fashion industry, with a turnover of over a €1.5 billion, recently enlisted Xolv's help. They asked us to advise and support them on a number of pressing challenges. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the pressure on the Accounts Receivables department at this group, like many of its peers, increased enormously. This is due to the many requests from debtors for deferred payments, (late) payments, collections and damages due to bankruptcies of their debtors. Xolv reviewed the creditworthiness of this company's buyers and looked at what options they had to cover the financial risks with credit insurance. In this client story, you can read how we tackled this challenge.
Will the euro fall victim to wait-and-see ECB?
How big are the cracks in Europe's economic recovery? The Ifo figures, which give a picture of German business confidence in the economy, will partly answer that question next Monday. The euro has firmly started its slide.
(Re)financing in 6 steps
Previously, when applying for a loan, the entrepreneur went to the house bank with his latest annual report, and often accompanied by his accountant. After a few weeks, the entrepreneur received a contract for signature or, in the most negative case, a rejection. There were not many alternatives. However, the Dutch financing landscape is becoming increasingly diverse. From four major banks and a lost leasing company at the beginning of this century, to more than 100 providers -large and small- today. And new providers are still entering the market almost every week. What a (re)financing process looks like at Xolv Finance is explained by Fred Soers in this article.
Credit information: know your customer
Taking risks is part of being an entrepreneur. To make an informed choice about which risks you will or will not accept, up-to-date business information is important. What is the financial situation of your (future) customer or supplier? What is its creditworthiness like? Last year went well according to the public financial statements, but what does that say about the future? In this article, we discuss the importance of having up-to-date data for assessing the risks of your customers or suppliers.
Be prepared for the end of COVID-19 support
Most of the cororama support measures have recently ended or will end in early October. In this article, we take a look to the future. What should you look out for when repaying support measures and what can you do to keep a grip on your liquidity?
Tips for minimising risk in prepayments
Recently, there has been a shift in supplier payment options. Due to scarcity and competition, suppliers are increasingly demanding advance payment for raw materials and products. Often, they also ask for higher percentages of the total amount to be paid in advance than before. Sometimes, they even want the full amount in advance. In this article, Menanynke Hulshof-Schippers explains the risks this poses for you and gives tips on how to minimise these risks.
Be prepared for the end of COVID-19 support
Most of the cororama support measures have recently ended or will end in early October. In this article, we take a look to the future. What should you look out for when repaying support measures and what can you do to keep a grip on your liquidity?
'See digitisation as an opportunity, not a threat'
We spoke to Ronald van Groningen, credit manager at TotalEnergies, about his views on credit management. Within TotalEnergies Marketing Netherlands, Ronald is responsible for the Credit Control department where, together with his colleagues, he takes care of accounts receivable management, from customer origination and credit check to follow-up calls. We asked him what challenges and developments he sees within his field in the near future.