Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
New research by Premium Credit has seen strong growth in the volume of funding and number of customers it supports through its tax and VAT funding proposition, which allows companies and business owners to spread the cost of their VAT, corporation tax and self-assessment tax payments. The research found that in 2023, the total amount…
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Latest figures from UK Finance has shown further growth in business lending from high street banks took place at the start of 2024, following an increase at the end of 2023. Quarter 1 (Q1) 2024 saw a 15% increase compared with the previous quarter. At just over £4bn, this was 8% higher than the same…
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The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has urged the next government to focus on a better trading relationship with the EU, reform business rates, and clamp down on poor payment practices towards smaller suppliers. The FSB also wants to see an improvement in small businesses’ access to finance and a 33% statutory public procurement target…
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New research by Bibby Financial Services has found that construction SME have ambitious grow plans but are being held back by the impact of inflation, supply chain challenges and reduced access to capital. The survey also found that 58 per cent of construction SMEs say they are optimistic that orders will increase in 2025. While the…
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The latest Xero Small Business Insights (XSBI) data indicated that the length of time small businesses waited to be paid after issuing an invoice was 28.4 days in the March quarter, the same as the December quarter. The largest improvement was in the month of March, when this payment time metric was only 27.9 days…
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A survey by invoice finance company Novuna Business Cash Flow has found that 34% of SMEs could cease trading if unable to secure funding. The figure contrasts sharply with the surprising revelation that 50% of SMEs have not sought any form of financial assistance since November 2023, despite the precarious position many find themselves in…
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New research by Allianz Trade in its latest report on global Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) and Working Capital Requirements (WCR) has found that the looming profitability squeeze could extend payment delays further The research found that profitability is the number one driver of payment terms in Europe, more impactful than financing or the business cycle.…
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Latest data from the Institute of Directors (IoD) shows that business confidence in the UK economy took a significant leap forward in March. Bouncing back from the unexpectedly low confidence levels recorded in February, the key indicators suggest business leaders are returning to the more optimistic positions that they held in January. The IoD Directors’…
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The number of overdue invoices in Scotland reached a 16-month high in February, according to new research from R3, the UK’s insolvency and restructuring trade body. R3’s analysis of data provided by Creditsafe shows that business in Scotland had 428,824 unpaid invoices on their books last month – the highest monthly total since October 2022’s…
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Small firms are hampered by late payments and have dampened growth expectations for 2024, according to the Small Business Index (SBI) for Q4 2023, published in full by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). The report is a temperature check of small firms’ sentiment and experiences at the end of last year, and analysis of…
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The cost of late payments to small businesses has more than doubled in two years, reaching £1.6 billion at the end of 2023, according to a report by Xero. The latest quarterly data shows small firms were paid, on average, 6.1 days late during the last three months of 2023. This figure shows no signs…
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Nearly one in three (31%) of business owners anticipate the potential closure of their businesses by the end of 2024 according to research by Novuna Business Cash Flow. Novuna says that the prospect of numerous businesses facing closure is sobering, a reality underscored by a recent ONS report, showing just 3% of businesses had temporarily…
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The levels of ‘critical’ financial distress jumped dramatically in Q4 2023, up 25.9% on the prior quarter (Q3 2023: 37,772), leaving more than 47,000 businesses near collapse in the UK at the start of 2024 according to Begbies Traynor. This represents the second consecutive period where critical financial distress has grown by around a quarter.…
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