Atradius, the UK’s second-largest trade credit insurer, has increased cover to 13,000 businesses.

Withdrawal of trade credit cover, which protects suppliers against defaults from their customers, in late 2008 and early 2009 provoked fury in the sector and was blamed for adding to business woes in the recession.

But Atradius said this week that better sourcing of financial information, and a greater willingness by businesses to share their performance information meant it could extend its cover by up to £1bn. It predicts small and medium-sized businesses will particularly benefit.

The insurer will contact customers over the next few weeks if they are eligible for increased cover, particularly where applications made earlier in the year were unsuccessful.

“For some time we have stated that cover would increase if we could to see improvements in the sharing of information by businesses,” said Atradius UK director Shaun Purrington.


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Retailers feeling trade credit squeeze (20 October 2009)
Mandelson acts after The Grocer calls for trade credit scheme boost (22 August 2009)