Graydon, Validis launch credit information service

The new service will allow small and medium-sized enterprises to exercise greater control over the information provided about them to prospective creditors by credit rating agencies, Graydon UK and Validis said.

The service will be based on real-time company financial information, where companies using the service will benefit as assessments made of their financial strength and viability by banks, credit insurers, factors, suppliers, invoice discounters and ratings agencies will be based on validated up-to-date monthly management accounts.

Martin Williams, managing director for Graydon UK, said the service represents an enormous step forward for the commercial credit referencing industry.

Mr Williams said: "We believe it will play an important role in helping to restore the flow of finance to UK companies in what has become a market starved by macro-economic conditions. Enabling the basing of creditworthiness assessments on independently validated and current monthly management account information will enhance further the overall quality of recommendations made by credit reference agencies."

The service further assists users by identifying potential issues, anomalies and errors in their management accounts, making sure its content is compliant for use as part of the credit-rating process.

Graydon UK and Validis believe that SMEs will be able to strengthen their own credit recommendations as a direct result of using the service and will be able to play a crucial role in ensuring that they are better placed to access the benefits of the government's trade credit insurance scheme, which was announced in the recent Budget.

The government-sponsored scheme will enable UK firms the opportunity to purchase "top up" insurance from the state if credit limits on their UK customers are reduced.

Christopher Poll, chairman and chief executive officer of Future Route, the parent of Validis, added: "We are offering a fundamentally new model for the way in which businesses operate, especially in the availability and costing of their finance and credit facilities.

"Validis’ software gives businesses and their accountants the ability to quickly and comprehensively reassure themselves that they can cost-effectively and time-efficiently provide verified and validated management account information for an up to date assessment of financial risk by creditors or providers of finance. The recipients will feel much more confident that they have to hand both the insight and information they need to price risks appropriately.

"We believe that this is a fundamental change in the way UK business in general, and the credit information industry in particular, is managed. Graydon-Validis have combined to inject a new commercial realism into the UK economy at a time when the banks and the credit industry alike continue to be partially paralysed in a terms of lending activity."