Enquête sur les indicateurs clés du Credit Management
Par l’intermédiaire de la FECMA (Fédération Européenne des Associations de Credit Managers), les associations de 15 pays ont décidé de mettre en place une grande enquête sur les indicateurs clés du Credit Management. Chaque Credit Manager européen a ainsi l’occasion de participer à ce sondage et pourra donc comparer ses pratiques à celles de ses homologues.
Merci de prendre quelques minutes pour répondre à cette série de questions : CMI-EUROPE SURVEY !
CMI-Europe
European risk and prosperity forecasting indicator of FECMA (Federation of European Credit Management Associations) members representing 15 countries.
In November 2011. on the Council meeting of FECMA in Helsinki representatives of the Hungarian Credit Management Association (HCMA) made a proposal to set up a Pan-European Credit Manager Index (CMI-Europe) with the participation of FECMA members that would be suited for predicting general risk and prosperity outlook of Europe regularly, Credit Manager Index was published in only few European countries (United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Hungary) though based on the experiences this indicator predicts accurately the changes and directions of risk and prosperity trends. The reason is that volume and conditions of supplier’s credit limits influences economic outlook significantly, similarly to the behaviour of banks in lending. Experts and professionals (credit managers) are affecting dealing with these credits thus their experiences, expectations and attitudes can serve as a very good base of forecasting economic trends and directions in the future.
HCMA developed the IT and infrastructural background of operating CMI-Europe and will process data gathering and publication of the results quarterly. With the support of representatives of FECMA member Associations the planning and preparation was started in the first months of 2012. The final concept, the whole procedure and web-site of CMI-Europe were presented on the FECMA Council Meeting in Berlin where decision was made with one voice to launch CMI-Europe on 1st July 2012.
The concept is based on a standardized methodology so there are several advantages of the common, European CMI system:
– indicators of countries or regions are comparable from time to time,
– changes of CMI can be followed continuously and in a given country further conclusions can be drawn regarding economic and risk outlook,
– aggregating CMI by countries European CMI can be calculated,
– CMI-Europe is permanently comparable with the Credit Manager Index of United States of America.
Credit managers will be able to get acquainted with the website of CMI-Europe as the data gathering survey for Q2 2012 is to be opened on 2nd July 2012.
About CMI
CMI consists of ten factors: three of them are favourable and seven unfavourable ones. Favourable for example is the volume of sales or new credit applications. Unfavourable among others are payment delays, overdue or number of insolvent clients. Credit managers evaluate the ten components and all of them that will be used in calculating CMI with equally weight. Index of positive and negative factors can be expounded separately where favourable items have reference to shaping of business while unfavourable ones referring to changes of risk parameters.
Favourable factorsWhy favourable?Credit salesGrowth of credit sales means business expansion thus it has positive affect on the economic expectations.New credit applicationsIncreasing in required credit limits forecasts higher demand that means growth in business volumeOrder bookRise of orders reflects to better utilization of suppliers’ capacities, greater volume of production and expansion of business activity,Unfavourable factorsWhy unfavourable?Credit application rejectedIncreasing number of rejected and decreased credit limits are indicating that less creditable customers will not receive the option for deferred payment and the risk level of clients are.DSOHigher turning period (Days Sales Outstanding) marks that customers are more dependent on suppliers’ credit, suppliers have to finance their clients longer.Overdue debtorsIncrease in value of overdue debtors means that more and more clients are unable to pay in time i.e. having cash-flow problems.Payment termsGrowing payment terms are reflecting to more favourable conditions have to be granted to customers.CollectionsHigher number of overdue accounts referred to third parties means that collection present difficulties for suppliers and number of non-paying customers is increasing.InsolvenciesRaise in number of insolvencies is the result of higher number of companies can not solve cash-flow difficulties.DisputesIncreasing ratio of unpaid amount due to disputes correlates with clients who have cash-flow difficulties and try to save some time with disputes.
In case CMI is a figure above 50 economic expansion, if under 50 slow down, narrowing of economy is expected.