Three major trading risks identified at Coface ‘Opportunities in Trade’ Country Risk Conference

June 21, 2011 - PRLog -- The Conference, held at Emirates Stadium, attracted over 260 delegates, making it the largest UK Coface Country Risk Conference to date.

Delegates heard five keynote speakers assess the economic developments of the past year and examine the main trends shaping the UK, European and world economies.

David Smith, Chief Economics Editor of The Sunday Times, analysed the broader world economic picture.

Dr Robin Niblett, Director at the international ‘think-tank’, Chatham House, looked at the challenges facing Europe and the Eurozone.

The UK economic picture was updated with the latest market data from Chris Williamson, Chief Economist at Markit, the publishers of the highly-regarded Purchasing Managers’ Indices.

Coface’s view on global trading risks was presented by Yves Zlotowski, Chief Economist, Coface Group.

Glen Bullivant, from the ICM discussed the issues faced by export credit managers (http://www.cofaceuk.com/CofacePortal/UK/en_EN/pages/home/who-you-are/exporter) in the UK in this fast changing global economic environment.

Three major trading risks were identified by the speakers:

1. The combination of budget cuts and inflation could choke-off the recovery in the highly-indebted Western economies

2. The euro crisis has not been totally resolved yet

3. Overheating may lead some emerging countries to have a hard landing.

Companies in the UK & Ireland also face day-to-day risks. The number of insolvencies in the UK and abroad is currently low, mainly because the most fragile companies have disappeared during the recent crisis.

However, Coface does expect insolvencies to increase in the coming months – and this is where trade credit insurance (http://www.cofaceuk.com/CofacePortal/UK/en_EN/pages/home/...) has a vital role to play. Coface’s scoring models have improved dramatically over recent years and provide more transparency in risk underwriting.

Eighteen months on from the financial crisis, Coface is also “confident on China, Brazil and India”, according to its UK and Ireland Managing Director and Conference host, Xavier Denecker.

“These are examples of the countries that are generating strong demand and will be able to pull the global economy through to the future. They are good countries to export to,” he stressed.


The presentations and photographs of the conference are available on www.cofaceuk.com


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Media: For further information please contact Justin Strong, associate director, SKV Communications, on 0161 838 7770 or email at justin.strong@skvcommunications.co.uk

Notes to editors:
 Coface is a leading provider of country, sector and business climate ratings, providing country ratings for 165 countries. The country and sector ratings assess the average level of risk of payment default associated with a country’s companies and business sectors
 Coface also provides a ‘business climate’ rating to assess the overall business environment in a country and the degree and reliability of corporate information and if a country’s legal system provides fair and efficient creditor protection
 Coface is a world leader in credit management - primarily credit insurance but also business information and receivables management (debt collection)
 Coface serves businesses that trade either domestically or overseas on credit terms. Its clients range from multi-nationals to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
 Coface - UK & Ireland is part of the Coface Group headquartered in Paris and owned by Natixis, a top five investment and corporate bank in France
 Coface - UK & Ireland has offices in London, Watford, Leeds, Birmingham, Cardiff and Dublin.

About Coface
Coface's mission is to facilitate global business-to-business trade by offering its 130,000 customers solutions to fully or partly outsource trade relationship management and to finance and protect their receivables: credit insurance, factoring, business information and receivables management. Thanks to the worldwide local service delivered by 6,600 staff in 65 countries, over 45% of the world's 500 largest corporate groups are already customers of Coface. Coface is a subsidiary of Natixis whose share capital (Tier 1) was 16.8 billion Euros at the end of December 2010.

In the UK and Republic of Ireland Coface has been a leading provider of credit management services since 1993 - it’s objective being to enable businesses to trade securely at home and overseas. Operating from offices in London, Dublin, Watford, Birmingham, Leeds and Cardiff allows Coface to provide a local service.

The company’s credit insurance offer integrates credit assessment, collection services and cover for unpaid debts. Multinational businesses can protect their worldwide subsidiaries through Coface’s international network.

The company also provides access to domestic and international business information and a collection network at home and overseas. Coface is also a recognised operator in the London political risk market.

www.cofaceuk.com and www.coface.ie

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We offer trade credit management solutions from credit insurance to related services such as credit reports, online credit ratings, debt collection, and receivables finance, our holistic approach to credit management gives you greater flexibility.