Competitive Intelligence for Business Success
Competitor Monitoring Sample
AWARE can produce a regular news update and analysis report for your industry - enabling you to keep abreast of changes in your business environment.
Letting us collect the news that is relevant to your organization means that you have the time to make the decisions that are needed to take advantage of opportunities and counter any threats suggested by the news.
This sample was produced for a client and shows a number of key news stories for the credit risk and business information industry for the period November 1995-February 1996, along with an analysis of significant events. We produce similar reports on a regular basis - but have not been given permission by our clients to use a more recent example.
This monitoring report had a primary focus on services used to minimise the risk of non-payment when offering credit to customers. There are a number of options available that will fulfil this need. These include:
- credit information reports, assessing company strength via a credit rating (so companies with poor credit ratings are less likely to be offered credit);
- credit insurance (where the company insures itself for cases when the customer defaults on payment - for instance if they go out of business);
- debt collection services (which involve using a debt collector to obtain payment when a customer delays or defaults on payment);
- factoring services which involve the up-front payment by a factoring company of the invoice (so avoiding problems associated with slow payment of invoices).
In addition, our client was also interested in developments in the general business information marketplace, and so the monitoring report also covered news stories on this topic.
Since 1996 the business information industry has changed considerably and several of the companies mentioned no longer exist as separate entities having merged with, or been taken over by, other companies.
As one notable example, the report mentions the information service provider M.A.I.D., founded by Dan Wagner. This was a well respected provider of high value business information through, for example, its Profound service.
In 1997, Dan Wagner merged MAID with Knight-Ridder Information - another online business information supplier whose core services were the Dialog and Datastar news database services. Wagner renamed the combined company the Dialog Corporation, and Profound became one of the services provided by the merged company, along with Dialog and Datastar.
The merged company was saddled with heavy debts, at a time when the Internet and free information services were entering the market. Attempts were made to increase profitability - through cut-backs, price changes and other actions (which in some cases led to customer dissatisfaction resulting in a number of customers switching to rival services). Three years later, after failing to make sufficient money, the Dialog Corporation was sold to the Thomson Corporation, who continue to run these services.
Credit Risk & Business Information Review
Key Contents / Index of Topics
Online & Electronic Business Information Services
MAID has launched an Internet version of its Profound front end to its databases. The service offers users direct Internet access to the 100 million pages of information held on Corporate Profound. Advantages of the re-engineered database include numerous hyperlinks allowing users to move around much more quickly. The Internet service also offers a new feature called Portfolio Manager that will allow users to create their own customised stock portfolios. Portfolio Manager will be linked to other areas of the database allowing customers to monitor news and price changes as they occur.
Source: Information World Review 1/96.
Comment: MAID has stated that most new development work will be focused on the Internet. MAID's CEO, Dan Wagner, has admitted that he is a recent convert to the Internet. "Two years ago I believed that the Internet was fit only for kids and that the appropriate way to deliver quality information was via private networks". Wagner's conversion has been wholehearted. MAID has entered an alliance to offer information via the Microsoft Network and saw its share price soar following the announcement. MAID turnover for the third quarter ended 30th September 1995 was £3.79 million. Turnover for the nine months ended 30th September 1995 was £9.55 million, up 55 per cent. from £6.17 million for the same period in 1994. The group made a pre tax loss of £3.39 in the third quarter, but this was expected owing to the launch costs incurred in respect to the Profound product. MAID plan to raise additional finance from a launch on the US NASDAQ stock exchange for almost 20 million new shares worth $50 million. Money is required for developments involved with MAID's alliance with Microsoft; a joint venture with Bertelsmann to develop a German language version of Profound; further developing the capability to offer Profound over the Internet and to developing licence agreements and enhancing network capabilities. MAID's CEO, Dan Wagner, said that business had grown faster than expected and now needed funds to create a larger infrastructure.
ICC has launched a new CD-ROM containing credit information on the UK's 1.2 million active companies. Credit Index has 20 search categories - including pre-tax profit, working capital, employee numbers, credit score and CCJ summaries. The CD-ROM also includes an automated link to the ICC Direct online service.
Source: Information World Review 1/96
An English language CD-ROM covering Finnish business is being launched by the Blue Book division of Helsinki Media Company. The CD-ROM includes the 1996 version of the Major Finnish Companies Directory (with 4000 entries) and the Business Finland Yearbook which includes export-import contacts and news stories.
Reed has introduced a CD-ROM covering 157,000 Central and Eastern European companies and 300,000 executives. Reedbase Eastern Europe CD-ROM covers countries including Russia, Hungary, Croatia, Estonia, Uzbekistan and Hungary. Data is obtained from the Kompass directories.
Source: Information World Review 11/95
France Telecom is introducing intelligent agents onto the Minitel system using Telescript technology from General Magic.
Source: Information World Review 11/95
Comment: Minitel is looking increasingly dated - with slow baud rates and videotext terminals. However French Telecom is aware of the shortcomings and is in a process of modernising the product. Minitel is accessed by over 18 million users, via around 6.5 million terminals and 600,000 PC's. Intelligent agents allow users to search automatically for information and to interact with remote services automatically, to sort mail and to monitor online events.
The UK's Royal Mail and PhoneLink are to begin trials of a service for turning e-mail into letters. Computer users can craft an electronic letter on their machines and e-mail it to the Royal Mail, which will print it, place it in an envelope and deliver it through the normal postal system at a price between the cost of a first class stamp and double the cost (to cover paper and printing costs). This integration of online and offline worlds promises to bring everyone within reach of electronic postal communications. E-mail items sent on the system will be routed first to PhoneLink's computer warehouse in Liverpool, from where they will be sent on to the Royal Mail's Electronic Services headquarters in London. There the e-mail is printed, inserted into envelopes and put into the postal delivery system. E-mail dispatched from PCs anywhere in the country by 6 pm should be delivered next day anywhere in Britain speeding up the time postal services can take from remote areas.
Source: Sunday-Times, 24/12/95
Comment: PhoneLink was set up in 1989 and provides a variety of online services through its Tel-Me software. Tel-Me's package now features access to the Internet on top of its range of on-demand database services such as AA Roadwatch, British Telecom's directory enquiries, the British Rail timetable and company reports from Infocheck and CCN. Tel-Me has also instigated a major poster advertising campaign, aimed at raising its profile. Effectively, Tel-Me has reinvented itself as an online service targeting businesses and as such, provides a significant potential channel for Infocheck and CCN (although both companies restrict information to specific reports only, and do not offer their full range). Reports suggest that the strategy may be working, with sales considerably up on the pre-Internet period.
Commercial company and credit information industry news
Equifax expects a record 1995 and continued global and US growth as its chairman and CEO, Jack Rogers, gives up his role of CEO - passing it to Daniel McGlaughlin. Internationally, Equifax Europe extended its reach by acquiring Infocheck. Infocheck's data acquisition company, The Database Company Limited, based in Ireland, gives Equifax Europe new data acquisition and analysis capabilities across the entire company. ASNEF- Equifax, in Spain, expanded to provide the first automated credit reporting services in Portugal. Outside Europe, Equifax South America, through its Chilean joint venture, DICOM SA, began operations in Peru, forming a new information company, INFOCORP. In October, Equifax received clearance from the government of Mexico to provide credit information to Mexican financial institutions.
Source: PR Newswire - 11/1/96.
Comment: Although the price Equifax paid for Infocheck has not been disclosed, sources at the International Online Meeting which took place in London, in December 1995 claimed that Equifax paid the equivalent of Infocheck's latest turnover figure- i.e between £13 - £14 million. (1994 turnover value was £13.3 million). If this is true, it puts the price paid at around 35 times 1994 earnings which is high but not unreasonable, considering the overall value that the acquisition could bring to Equifax in the long term.
CCN claims to have enhanced its payment performance database, CAIS, with the addition of new flags, highlighting accounts. An example is an "arrangement to pay" where a borrower in difficulty has asked to make a reduced monthly payment. Other flags highlight credit insurance claims and account queries. CAIS is used for both consumer and commercial payment details. CCN has also opened a Hong Kong office to provide risk management consultancy and software and an Italian consumer information bureau.
Source: Vision, Aug 95.
ORT has joined the BigNet consortium of companies which include CCN and CreditReform. Seven countries are currently on line, although by early 1996 all 16 member companies should be online. It is likely that Dimensione will become the Italian member . BigNet will also include TRW in the US, and Canadian and Swiss companies are expected to join during 1996.
Source: CCN & ORT at International Online Exhibition, 12/95.
Comment: TRW joining BigNet is significant as it will mean that BigNet will now include a non-European member. Dimensione's membership is also of interest, as Dimensione had, hitherto, been the Italian representative of Graydon's Eurogate network alongside Coface owned Eurocredit. Graydon used to own the majority of Dimensione but has recently been diluting its stake in the company. ORT will continue to keep its current links with ICC and Cerved, etc. claiming that Bignet targets a different kind of customer. The links with ICC, etc. are used by banks and are viewed as a specialist service offering recent financial data for exporters. Bignet will offer information in a standardised format, available in each member company's own language. The only exception appears to be TRW which claimed that information would be made available in TRW's own format. Currently, the only reports available are compact reports, containing summary financials from the last three years, credit rating and limit, directors and subsidiaries. Full accounts will not be available.
Intercredit Prague has opened a new office in Ceske Budejovice with plans on opening another in Plzen, west Bohemia, by mid-1996. The company claims to have processed almost 20,000 requests for information and exacted 1,500 claims in 1995,
Source: C-S-T-K-Ecoservice-Czech, 2/2/96
Comment: Intercredit has another branch office in Brno, south Moravia - and the two new offices will bring the company to a total of four offices. Intercredit Information Holding owns 71 percent of the shares, Interconsult Praha 13 percent and two Czech citizens hold the remaining shares. Czech clients of Intercredit constitute some 35 percent of total clientele, while foreigners, chiefly insurance firms, account for 65 percent. Intercredit Information Holding was founded in 1990 by Austria's Kreditschutzverband and the credit insurer Coface. Intercredit Information Holding now has 15 offices operating in eight countries.
The Norwegian Creditreform, a subsidiary of Gjensidige, has concluded a framework agreement with Den norske Bank regarding the takeover of Den norske Bank's subsidiary InkassoPartner. Creditreform recorded turnover of NKr 120m in 1995, while InkassoPartner's turnover was around NKr 80m.
Source: Dagens-Naeringsliv, 24/1/96
Incresa has reached a cooperation agreement with the Asociacion Multisectorial de Empresas Espanolas de Electronica (Asimelec). Incresa will manage and support an Asimelec database on slow payers.
Source: Expansion, 29/9/95.
CCN and Equifax have come under attack on the linkage of individuals in their consumer data files. Currently, women who have divorced but receive maintenance or child support are linked to their ex-husbands, irrespective of their own credit records. Although the companies have agreed to unlink records where the support is made via the child support agency, this may not be enough for the data protection registrar. The UK's Data Protection Register has also warned the two credit reference agencies of possible prosecutions under the Data Protection Act regarding the leaking of credit reference data to organizations which are not entitled to see it.
Source: Daily Telegraph. 23/9/95, Banking-Technology, 11/95
Comment: Both CCN and Equifax have had brushes with the Data Protection Registrar before. Both companies (and Infolink which Equifax acquired in 1994) had to revamp their consumer information databases following complaints against them under the UK's Data Protection Laws. However, it appears that the changes were insufficient - and the companies are being asked to tighten up controls to ensure that only relevant data is passed to entitled organizations.
New Prestel, a UK online company, will offer access to credit information through its Creditscreen service. A low cost subscription will give credit checks and business information from CCN, ICC, Equifax/Infocheck, Jordans or FT Profile. Total costs comprise a £25 per quarter charge plus highly competitive pay-as-you-go database charges. Source: Accountancy 11/95
ICC Information Group has split into six separate companies. Lars Save, of Hoppenstedt Bonnier Information, ICC's parent company, will replace Alan Charlesworth, ICC's Group MD on a part time basis, with each business being run as an autonomous unit. Angela Burdett becomes MD of ICC Information, which runs the database business and ICC Direct online services. This division has also been accredited with the ISO 9002 standard for quality management systems. The other five businesses formed from ICC are SiteSearch, Inter Company Comparisons, ICC Business Publications, Key Note and ICC Legal Services. Each remains a subsidiary of HBI.
Source: Information World Review, 11/95, 12/95.
Comment: ICC's split makes sense with businesses like Key Note being very distinct in focus and customer from businesses like ICC Information - offering business and credit information. It also makes it easier for HBI to sell parts if the company fails to improve. ICC has, over the last few years, failed to shine. Alan Charlesworth has left, after five months as Group MD, following disagreements over strategy. His predecessor, Brian Earle, left "disappointed" that HBI had failed to deliver the promises to expand across Europe, made when the company was acquired in 1990.
Work has begun to enhance and standardise company information from 13 countries with the aim of launching a "homogenous pan-European database." Aided by a European grant from the EU's Impact program of £140,000, the project is being coordinated by the UK's Reedbase, part of Reed Information Services in partnership with Eurocredit of Italy, Graydon Belgium, SCRL of France and Interface Business Information of Ireland (part of the rising Irish competitor, French & Associates). A German supplier is being sought. The partners will enhance information already held on 385,000 European companies by adding up to 4 years accounts,, news stories and acquisition / divestment information. Data will be standardised using the Kompass Product classification system and products and services will be retrievable by any of 29 criteria. The database will be available online and on disc.
Source: Information World Review 11/95.
Debt Collection
Graydon has launched a new debt collections service aimed at exporters. The service is a three-stage process, including payment prompting labels, a reminder letter service, followed by phone negotiations. Membership of the scheme costs £95 with a £20 per debtor fee for the letter service. The final stage, conducted by one of Graydon's Eurogate (or worldwide) partners carries an up-front fee and commission on the debt collected. All stages of the service are available in the language of the debtor - including the payment prompting labels which warn the customer that their supplier uses Graydon to collect overdue accounts.
Source: Credit Management, 11/95
A survey by the Society of Practitioners of Insolvency shows that the loss of market is now less important as a cause of insolvency - being cited as the cause in 37% of liquidations. Bad debts (11%) and financial problems (22%) were the primary cause of failure in a third of all cases. The SPI survey suggested that during recession businesses failed due to loss of customers. During economic growth, failure of customers to pay becomes more important - especially from established customers. (80% of bad debts are due to defaults from existing customers).
Source: Accountancy 10/95.
The UK small business sector has been angered by remarks made by Michael Heseltine, the UK deputy prime minister. Heseltine claimed that in the past, he aided the success of his own firm by being "quite skilful at stringing along the creditors", appearing to legitimise late payment by large firms to small business.
Source: The Daily Telegraph, 10/2/96.
Comment: Heseltine's remark gives additional arguments to debt collectors and the Right to Interest Group who are lobbying the UK Government to allow interest to be charged on late payments. Heseltine's former department, the Department of Trade appeared not to endorse their previous boss when they stressed that firms should be encouraged to have systems in place that assist in earlier payment collection.
Intrum Justitia has acquired the assets of Tietoperinta Oy, Finland's largest debt collection company. Tietoperinta will be combined with the group's current Finnish operation, making Intrum Justitia the clear leader in the Finnish debt collection market. After adjustments for net asset movements, the final price is expected to be around FIM 33 million (£4.7m). Tietoperinta had a turnover of FIM 47 million (£6.7 million) in 1994, on which it made losses of FIM 4.6 million (£0.6 million).
Source: Regulatory News Service, 15/2/96; The Times 14/2/96.
Comment: In addition to domestic debt collection, Tietoperinta is involved in credit management training and credit information and is the country's second largest operator in international (cross border) debt collection. Prior to the acquisition, Intrum's Finnish market share was 23% while Tietoperinta's share was 34%. The combined company, will represent over half the Finnish debt collection market, leaving Contant OY, the other player in the market with around a third at 35% market share. However Tietoperinta's activity in the credit information market should not be ignored as it is a further addition to Intrum's capabilities in this market. The acquisition is of interest, coming a few months after Asiakastieto's acquisition of Luottotieto, suggesting that there has been scope for rationalisation within the market. At the same time, there has been speculation that Intrum itself, may be taken over. A major shareholder of Intrum, MAI , holding 19% has recently merged with the UK newspaper publisher, United News & Media. The financial aspects of MAI's business look out of place in the combined group, which will be primarily a media company. As a result, MAI's stake in Intrum may be up for sale. Payco, Intrum's US partner has been named as a possible buyer, as has the UK based Provident Financial. With a p/e ratio of under 10, share analysts are tipping the company as a good speculative purchase.
Intrum is opening a £375,000 call centre in Liverpool city centre, creating 120 jobs. The company is expanding to Liverpool, having outgrown its UK head office in Stratford-upon-Avon, where 400 people are employed.
Source: The Daily Post 2/2/96
Comment: The choice of Liverpool as a location was made based on the advice of a consultant who ranked areas in the North of England. A likely factor in the decision will have been the proximity of one of Intrum's key accounts - Littlewoods Home Shopping. Intrum's group services director, Michelle Scott, commented that the company had to move quickly owing to the rate of growth of the business - and did not even apply for grants. Intrum expects to recruit 60 part time staff (rising to 100)and 20 full time administrative staff and supervisors.
Credit Insurance
Credit insurer Namur has launched an on-line service, giving access to all elements of the company's product range including domestic and export credit cover and debt recovery. Namur Net is part of an integrated system encompassing a database of hundreds of thousands of companies worldwide, as well as published and unpublished information. Clients can submit claims, obtain information relating to cover, identify debtors, input turnover declarations and make debt and indemnity calculations. Access requires an IBM compatible PC and Hayes compatible modem.
Source: Post Magazine 14/12/95.
Comment: Namur's service is not the first online credit insurance service. The Credit Insurance Association offers a service called CIA Link which allows customers to select from different policies. Infocheck's credit indemnity product also offers online credit insurance. However Namur Net appears to cover a wider scope and essentially makes a full range of credit services available online. As such, it should be seen as first of the next generation of online credit insurance offerings and with its company database, poses a larger threat.
Trade Indemnity, the largest UK credit insurance company has agreed a £177m cash offer from the French, Compagnie Financiere SFAC. The offer is for 97p in cash a share, and Trade Indemnity shareholders will be entitled to a second interim dividend of 1.4p net per share. The offer represented a 33% premium over TI's share price at the close of business on 31 January 1995. The merger is expected to go through by May. Source: Financial Times, Times, Independent, Lloyds List, 2/2/96; Regulatory News Service, 16/2/96; Daily Telegraph, 17/2/96.
Comment: Over the last few years, Trade Indemnity has seen a proportion of its business eaten away by new entrants into the UK market. The company failed to acquire the privatised components of ECGD - which were sold to NCM, and NCM Credit Insurance has captured some of TI's market (and vice versa - as TI recently entered the export credit insurance market). More seriously, the company gave a poor return to its shareholders, and only recently returned to profitability - with underwriting losses between 1989 and 1992. Effectively, SFAC has acquired TI at what may be the top of the insurance cycle. TI had an excellent year in 1995, with all businesses improving and pre-tax profits surging from £5m to £22.5m for the year ending December 1995. A motive for the merger was a 22% rise in management expenses, resulting from upgrading risk management controls and systems. TI had insufficient funds to develop the range of services and policies needed for international clients. The move allows SFAC to move into another market outside its dominant position for French domestic credit insurance. SFAC already owns Cobac in Belgium and a small Dutch credit insurer - Royal Nederland. TI has subsidiary offices in Australia and Canada. Both SFAC and TI have worked together and been joint providers to a number of customers. The merger would allow the companies to offer better services to multinational clients and to cut overhead costs such as the costs of IT and information gathering. The SFAC acquisition also means that the two leading credit insurers in the UK will both be subsidiaries of non-UK based companies, leaving only Sun Alliance and the Hilton Malcolm Underwriting Lloyd's syndicate (responsible for Infocheck Credit Indemnity) as UK owned credit insurers with market shares of 4.6% and 1.8% respectively. (Trade Indemnity has a market share of around 44% and NCM has a share of 35%. Other non-UK based entrants such as Coface (with a 2.5% share) and Namur represent the remaining 15% of the UK credit insurance market). The UK market is known to be the most competitive within Europe with 21 companies operating. However the acquisition is a further example of the consolidation and internationalisation of the market in Europe. (Leading non-UK insurers have offices or subsidiaries within the UK - as exampled above. Similarly, TI recently opened an office in Italy, Gerling of Germany acquired Namur in Belgium, Hermes moved into Scandinavia , Coface owns Insurance Corporation of Ireland and Viscontea in Italy and has recently opened a subsidiary in Spain).
NCM has signed a three year licence agreement with the online host, MAID, to provide NCM customers with MAID's Profound software for accessing business information online. The agreement provides for NCM to pay MAID a £4.5 million subscription fee over three years with a minimum commitment of not less than £3 million by the end of 1997. In addition, NCM's installed customer base is expected to generate significant usage revenue, as well as offering the potential of upgrading from Executive Profound to Corporate Profound.
Source: Regulatory News Service 22/9/95, 25/10/95.
Comment: The deal with MAID gives NCM customers access to a wide variety of business information services. NCM anticipate that improving its customers access to information will better help them manage their customers, credit and business - ultimately reducing NCM's risk exposure. For MAID, the agreement is a further example to stock market doubters that MAID is an innovative company that should not be dismissed or ignored.
NCM Holding, the Dutch export credit insurer, has cancelled plans for a new share issue worth DFl 50 mln due to lack of shareholder interest. The capital injection, intended to purchase new computer technology and to consolidate NCM's international position, will be replaced by a subordinated loan for the same amount. A precondition for the share issue had been that all shareholders participate, and this appeared to be the case when it was announced in October. However, 'one or two' have now refused, according to an NCM spokesman. NCM shareholders are Dutch banks and insurers.
Source: Financieele Dagblad. 7/12/95
Comment: Following the appointment of Maarten Hulshoff as chairman of NCM, NCM appear to have made a number of board level changes. As Hulshoff's appointment resulted from the resignation of Harry Groen over policy disputes, it is likely that these appointments will eventually usher in a new era for NCM with a different strategic direction. When this will occur, will depend, to a degree, on shareholder support. The failure by a couple of shareholders to participate in the proposed share issue suggests that not all shareholders are agreed as to whether NCM should continue its international expansion or try to consolidate the group. Under Harry Groen, NCM reached the top four in world credit insurance. According to the ICIA, the group is just trailing Hermes and Gerling of Germany with France's SFAC in a comfortable lead. The target Groen set for his successor, Maarten Hulshoff, is tough - 20% to be achieved through cost cutting, the re-engineering in the NCM plan and volume increases. Unlike Groen, whose background was credit insurance, Hulshoff came straight from Citibank having worked as general manager in Turkey and Indonesia. Hulshoff considers that there is less difference between banking and insurance than many suppose. Both, he argues, are about risk assessment, pricing and customer service.
Coface, in co-operation with its Credit Alliance partners is launching a range of products, Globalliance. They are designed to ease the credit insurance arrangements of international companies with foreign subsidiaries and complex requirements. The first to be launched is Euro Trader, which will allow UK-based companies with EU subsidiaries to set up a single credit scheme with Coface London Bridge Finance (Coface LBF) in the UK to provide domestic and international cover for their group operations.
Source: Insurance-Age, 2/96; Post Magazine 11/1/96.
Comment: Coface's Credit Alliance was created in 1992 and comprises credit insurance ,credit information and direct recovery companies, with a direct presence in 15 countries and operations in 25 countries. Member companies include London Bridge Finance and La Viscontea, as well as Norwegian Insurer, Uni Storebrand, KUKE, CUAL (see above), American Continental, Insurance Corporation of Ireland and other companies.
Coface has set up a Spanish subsidiary company, Coface Iberica. Coface now offers domestic and export cover including a tailor-made insurance product - Domex - which offers both services.
Source: Euromoney Trade Finance And Banker International, 10/95.
Comment: Spain is one of the last countries in the European Union to implement the European Insurance Directive, which has deregulated commercial insurance services across the Community. Coface's objective is to service international companies doing business in Spain.
Factoring
UK factoring continues to grow, with trading volume for the latest available year - 1994 - of £26.9 billion, up 23.4%on the previous year, which in turn was up 22.5% on 1992. Growth is expected to continue with the market becoming still more competitive and the cost for businesses falling. Client numbers have also increased - up 9.6% to 14,100, from 12,900 in 1993. Factoring may now be a cheaper bet than an overdraft, according to an HMSO report, Factoring in the UK. The 12 members of the Association of British Factors and Discounters, accounting for around 90% of the industry saw demand rise 27%, with members lending £2.4 billion.
Source: The Daily Telegraph, 18/12/95; Mail On Sunday, 19/11/95, Credit Management 11/95.
Comment: Factoring appears to be a growing industry throughout Europe. The industry appears to be succeeding in removing the stigma of being a last resort for businesses in trouble. The Governor of the Bank of England, Eddie George, has described factoring as a sensible funding option and more companies seem to be coming round to his view. In Italy, Europe's largest market, the industry appears to have ended the period of stagnation, experienced over the last few years, and renewed expansion is predicted. Factoring is now thought to be the UK's fastest growing financial service. However throughout the European market, operators have had to improve the range of quality and services offered. What used to be a one-product industry now offers a portfolio of financial services to meet needs ranging from finance to administrative support and credit protection. Recent surveys by UK based factors show that most companies in the domestic market turn to them mainly for finance. Exporters find service and debt protection more important. Barclays Commercial says 49% of its clients are in manufacturing, 28% in wholesale, 17% in service industries and 6% in distribution
