Best site for export credit
Coface
The decision to present Coface with the award was not difficult. Some export credit agencies met questions about their e-strategy with a stunned silence while others, a little embarrassed, asked to be contacted when they had had internet access installed.
Coface started life as a trade export credit insurer for France but since its privatization in the early 1990s its reliance on French trade has been diluted. Now 70% of the company’s revenue comes from outside France. Compared with competitors, it has been internet savvy for a while, with a large database of accessible information on companies and details about creditworthiness. This database, accessible over the internet, has a large global reach and is fed with live continuous news regarding the corporates that Coface covers.
At the beginning of the year the credit insurer and information provider went further. It built a ratings service, called @rating, off the back of its extensive library.
“When trading on the web you are in a classic export-trading situation. Exporters need credit insurance because they never meet the people opposite, so they don’t have an occasion to build a relationship. With an @rating it gives the companies creditworthiness.