Businesses are striving to be successful, and one thing they need help with is credit risk management. Failure to manage credit can result in huge economic losses and can negatively impact your overall business approach.
Usually, senior management and finance departments are responsible for credit risk management, but an effective credit risk management policy allows all employees to play their part. In this article, we will learn what credit risk management is, its benefits for businesses, and ways in which employees can help protect the business from credit risk.
What is Credit Risk Management?
The process of assessing and managing the risk of loss or default on finances is known as credit risk management. Credit risk can occur when a business fails to repay a loan or meet its debt obligations. Credit risks are typically associated with financial organizations and businesses that offer credit to customers.
To put it more simply, credit risk management is done to ensure that your business doesn’t get into debt trouble and continues operating even if some clients or customers stop paying their bills. Credit risk management involves the following key activities:
Analysis:
It includes evaluating creditworthiness by checking financial history, debt history, credit score, and other relevant information. Conducting credit checks on new and existing clients is also a crucial part of credit analysis.
Assessment:
This involves evaluating and assessing the risks that may come with a particular loan or credit facility. All risks, including the likelihood of default and potential losses, are critically assessed at this stage.
Mitigation:
This step consists of all the measures taken to reduce the risk of default, such as collateral, establishing credit limits, and setting appropriate interest rates.
Monitoring and reporting:
Monitoring and reporting refer to tracking the entire credit performance and keeping stakeholders informed of any changes in credit risk.
Why Is Credit Risk Management Important?
There are a number of reasons why managing credit risk is beneficial for your business. Some of them are:
Protection from fraud:
Managing credit risk can protect your business from fraudulent activities. If you don’t have a standard credit risk management practice in place, you are prone to various scams and challenges attached. For example, your vendor won’t pay you or clients back out from the deal at the last minute. However, by monitoring and assessing credit reports, customer payment patterns, and tracking customer history, you can easily identify potential frauds and take appropriate action to prevent such losses.
Business creditworthiness:
With a good credit risk management plan, you learn to keep the cash flowing and utilize funds effectively. This leads your business to gain creditworthiness. When you have a satisfactory credit rating, your business can stay competitive in the market, and easily secure loans, lines of credit, and other financial products at favorable terms.
Moreover, there are various Credit Risk Managers (CRMs) available in the market. CRMs provide you with real-time updates on changes to your credit score, credit utilization, and other credit factors. Hence, integrating real-time credit data into your CRM can help you prequalify, approve, and drive relevant offers for your customers. It makes monitoring and maintaining your creditworthiness a whole lot easier.
Smooth cash flow:
Credit risk management practices allow you to smoothen your cash flow cycle so that you enjoy your business. It reduces the risk of late payments and defaults by monitoring credit patterns and taking necessary measures. It ensures that your business has adequate cash flow and helps you understand how the system works.
Good rapport with customers/suppliers:
If you work with suppliers on a credit basis, it is important for you to ensure that your payment cycle remains undisturbed. Credit risk management helps by offering flexible payment options, maintaining communication, and letting business relations grow. When your suppliers and customers are prioritized, you can enjoy several benefits, such as timely payments or materials, fewer delays, and better business affairs.
Sales Opportunities:
Credit risk management can also help you identify sales opportunities by providing insight into customer creditworthiness. By monitoring credit reports and payment patterns, you can identify customers ready to increase their purchases or upgrade to premium products or services.
How Can Your Employees Help In Credit Risk Management?
Credit risk management is critical for any business. However, it is just not a responsibility on the part of finance professionals. Employees at all levels must play a significant role in protecting the business from credit risk. Here are some key ways employees can help in credit risk management.
Customer/vendor onboarding and screening:
Whenever you are onboarding a certain client, you have to verify their identity, check their credit history and assess their financial stability. Even for existing clients, this process should be done on a regular basis, which might become a bit daunting for one particular manager. So, the front-line employees who deal with customers can help with the customer screening process. They are usually the first ones to identify potential credit risks. Hence, it is very helpful if proper training is given to these employees so that they can ask the right questions, gather relevant information and identify any warning signs right at the onboarding step.
Managing collections:
Employees can help the credit risk management process by communicating with customers/vendors, working out payment collections, verifying invoices, and escalating any issues to collection managers.
Compliance with the credit policy:
Ensure that all employees are aware of your company’s credit risk policy and procedure. Your credit risk policies must establish guidelines for various functions, such as setting credit limits and managing payment collections.
Employees should be trained to follow and comply with these policies to minimize credit risk by ensuring that all decisions are based on sound and clear criteria.
Ongoing risk management:
Risk management is ongoing; you never know when your business can encounter such risks. To manage risks effectively, employees can help by monitoring customer accounts for signs of credit risks; they can keep an eye on changes in payment patterns and evaluate credit utilization rates regularly.
It is important to encourage them to report any issues directly to management and provide valuable insights if they deem them necessary.
By screening customers, complying with credit policies, and managing collections, employees can help protect their business from credit risks.
Conclusion:
Credit risk management can help improve business, increase customer satisfaction, enhance the market reputation, and ensure smooth cash flow. It is highly recommended to employ a strategic credit risk management approach at all levels in your company so that employees can play an equal part in credit risk management once they are properly trained.
Ingrid Maldine is a business writer, editor and management consultant with extensive experience writing and consulting for both start-ups and long established companies. She has ten years management and leadership experience gained at BSkyB in London and Viva Travel Guides in Quito, Ecuador, giving her a depth of insight into innovation in international business. With an MBA from the University of Hull and many years of experience running her own business consultancy, Ingrid’s background allows her to connect with a diverse range of clients, including cutting edge technology and web-based start-ups but also multinationals in need of assistance. Ingrid has played a defining role in shaping organizational strategy for a wide range of different organizations, including for-profit, NGOs and charities. Ingrid has also served on the Board of Directors for the South American Explorers Club in Quito, Ecuador.
