CREDIT INSURANCE

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 59, 7 September 1926, Page 18

CREDIT INSURANCE

AIDING OVERSEAS TRADE

The Manchester Association of Importers and Exporters has been investigating the question of credit insurance, and ;t has issued a very interesting report on it (states "The Times" Trade Supplement). The present state of international trade is such that the association thinks that credit insurance might induce some merchants to favour it, but this would probably lead to temporary competition by ' producers and manufacturers until these i bad learned by bitter experience the real value of merchants. On the whole, it finds that there is no great desire for a State-managed scheme on the part of efficient merchant exporters, and it may be added that there is very good reason to believe that the Government has no intention of embarking on a scheme of insurance against bad debts that would be applicable to short-term credit transactions. The Manchester Association says that Government control is viewed with suspicion, and many would prefer a good credit insurance company, but it should be remembered that the Minister of Overseas Trade has made it clear that the Government, too, would be glad if the business were undertaken by the insurance companies. The difficulty is that there is insufficient experience from which to put the business on an actuarial basis, but it is thought that if the Government could accumulate a sufficiently full record to enable rates to be made with some confidence, insurance companies might then be willing to relieve the Department of the work.