As many of our readers will know, the construction and outsourcing services provider Carillion collapsed two weeks after the start of 2018 weighed down by the massive £2.2 billion debt and pension liabilities, which became the largest corporate bankruptcy in the UK in a decade.

As it turned out, the vast majority of UK suppliers to Carillion did not buy insurance against the risk of not being paid for the goods and services they provided. Out of the estimated losses of £1.2 billion, only £31 million was insured with trade credit insurance insurers according to ABI, amounting to less than 3 percent of their losses.

The chain reaction from the insolvency is now forcing many of its SME suppliers to lay off personnel.

To prevent finding your company in a similar situation, we can only encourage you to speak to us at the earliest opportunity. We work with many insurers active in trade credit insurance. Such insurers paid out about £210 million in claims only in 2016 according to the Association of British Insurance, so the product does respond to bad debt events.

Unfortunately, it is mainly SMEs that are most affected by the domino effect of their larger customers defaulting that often choose to ignore the real dangers of customer non-payments and not invest in a good trade credit insurance policy.

Speaking to us in advance will provide you a peace of mind that should a Carillion situation happen in your sector, you are going to be able to recover your losses. Reach out to us today via any convenient channel, including phone, email, website or live chat.