Increasing SME access to credit insurance: Announcing our latest partnership with Nimbla
As the UK Government launches its £10 billion Trade Credit Insurance scheme, we’ve joined forces with credit insurer Nimbla to offer their breakthrough single-invoice BDP (Bad Debt Protection) product to UK SMEs when they apply for invoice finance.
With lockdown causing spending and employment to drop precipitously, the economic crisis caused by COVID-19 has left many UK SMEs vulnerable to non-payment by their customers.
That’s bad news for all of, as it risks causing a ‘domino effect’ of insolvencies across supply chains.
Credit insurance – or Bad Debt Protection – is one way of protecting our economy against these shocks, by giving businesses the confidence they need to continue trading. But while demand for credit insurance is set to increase and the UK Government has pledged massive sums to support trade credit insurers, many SMEs will be unable to access the cover they need to supply new customers.
That’s why we’ve partnered with London-based Nimbla to bring their pioneering single-invoice cover to our c3 and e3 systems. It’s the latest chapter in our credit insurance strategy, building on our longstanding partnerships with BDP platform Tinubu Square and insurer Euler Hermes.
Peace-of-mind protection
Nimbla enables SMEs to insure individual invoices via an easy-to-use digital platform. In turn, SMEs have faster, simpler and more cost-effective access to the credit insurance they need to tackle the uncertainty caused by COVID-19.
Under our new partnership, SMEs will be able to purchase both single-invoice and whole-book cover when they apply for invoice finance from lenders using our receivables operating system, currently used by nearly 40 UK banks and lenders. We’re working with a number of these clients to design and develop this new functionality, helping us to offer the best borrower experience possible.
A progressive partnership
Our collaboration is the latest step in our respective businesses' campaigns to support UK SMEs through the COVID crisis.
In May, Nimbla mounted their ‘Get Britain Trading Again’ campaign to successfully encourage the UK Government to provide a backstop for SME credit insurance. Meanwhile, we launched f3 – a simple platform for SMEs to apply for government and non-government commercial finance in just 15 minutes.
Of our partnership, Nimbla CEO Flemming Bengtsen says “embedding our risk pricing and risk transfer technology within Dancerace delivers our next generation of digital credit insurance to the Receivable Finance industry. In the current climate the need for the product could not be greater and the efficiencies that it brings cannot be underestimated.”
“The Government’s Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme and Bounce-Back Loan Schemes have put commercial finance at the centre of the UK’s economic recovery from COVID, and the forces encouraging SMEs to use invoice finance are the same ones steering them to consider credit insurance,” says Dancerace CEO Elliot Avison. "Working with Nimbla to embed their single insurance cover into our platform is, therefore, a natural fit and a big step forward for us and should help give SMEs the confidence they need to start trading again. That’s something that benefits all of us!”