Creditinfo Lithuania included immunization levels into its list of corporate indicators
After the Department of Statistics launched publication of immunization levels in specific companies, credit office Creditinfo Lithuania immediately included this indicator into its corporate reports. From now on, clients ordering detailed information about a selected company will be able to see the proportion of immunized staff.
“The inclusion of immunization indicator into corporate reports will facilitate a better risk analysis of potential disruptions of activities due to staff illnesses which will help a business partner, or a client make further business decisions”, Aurimas Kačinskas, CEO of Creditinfo Lithuania said.
The first ever publication of immunization levels has demonstrated that, e.g., the largest share of immunized staff (80%) work for the IT sector, and the least immunized staff (as little as 27%) work for transportation companies. In comparison, as many as 80% of Creditinfo Lithuania staff have already been vaccinated.
Moreover, the official information published by the Department of Statistics will soon enable comparison of the share of immunized staff in one enterprise with counterpart organizations in the same business sector. To this end, an additional indicator is published as well – the so-called percentile. For instance, if an enterprise’s percentile is 100, it means that it is among one percent of companies with the highest immunization level. The lower the percentile, the fewer employees have immunity, i.e., have been vaccinated with at least one doze or have recovered from the coronavirus.
According to the Department of Statistics, for the purpose of confidentiality the percentage of immunization is indicated only for those workplaces with over 10 members of staff.
“We believe that monitoring these indicators contributes to the national fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, encouraging companies to take a more proactive approach with regard to staff vaccination”, A. Kačinskas said adding that “we always try to include new indicators into our reports in a timely manner so that our clients could benefit from exhaustive information about other companies”.
As of last May, Creditinfo Lithuania included into the list of monitored indicators information about average gender pay, and soon is planning to introduce yet another one – the sustainability indicator.
Credit Post-Covid
Historically, every time that there was a crisis, lessons were learnt. The Authorities, be they political or financial, rushed in to introduce and implement corrective regulations and legislation to either block legislative loop-holes or correct oversights that permitted players in their respective fields, but especially in the financial sector, to take advantage of same for their own individual benefit with little regard for the rest.
The lessons and improvements implemented by regulators and financial institutions since the from the last financial have stood the banks and financial services in stronger position when facing the financial crisis which is following the health crisis. Banks are reacting by using data insights through monitoring and early warning solutions to address problem debts before they escalate.
A few years later, with the introduction of strict regulatory measures, the requisite confidence and stability in financial markets was gradually established. Central banks are now closely monitoring these, issuing directives on a regular basis to further stabilize and impose tighter controls to prevent a repeat. Regulating banks is difficult, unfortunately, and there is always the risk that a similar crisis raises its head again.
This is a very simplistic reference to the Financial Crisis of 2007-2009, which forced changes and tighter controls on the global financial markets.
Changing the scenario to the present day, COVID-19 pandemic, although different, in that it is more of a medical beast, has impacted the global population and, as a result, the global economy has turned out to be messier than the Financial Crisis of 2007-09. Individuals who own and control both global economic and non-economic practices are the victims this time. Through its secondary effects, the pandemic, may also be considered as a financial crisis. The policies put in place to control and ultimately curtail the pandemic, have so far had limited success in curbing the spread, but they did manage to create havoc with the global economies. Some industries, such as food distribution, benefited from rising demand, while others, such as telecommunications and pharmaceuticals, were unaffected and continued their operations, although maybe at a slower pace but certain sectors took a heavy beating.
The airline, travel, hospitality, leisure, and entertainment sectors have been hit the hardest with dramatic reduction in activity and with closures being the norm.
The airline industry, on its own, according to a KMPG report, estimate a revenue loss worth USD200 billion in 2020 and to prevent a total collapse, government assistance, worth USD200 billion is being considered.
However, the airline industry is just the beginning. One has also to consider other businesses that are directly and indirectly linked. Millions of individuals are affected – loss of jobs or reduced hours of work translate into less consumer spending, higher risks, defaults and similar. At this point, the Great Depression comes to mind, but the true impact of the pandemic will be gauged towards the end of 2021 and throughout 2022.
In these turbulent times, with losses expecting to continue until 2022 and possible, even beyond, risk management is crucial and extremely critical for all industry players. Despite, corporate bankruptcies still being rather low, further pandemic waves with the relative lockdown and restrictive policies would deplete remaining cash reserves and eventually increase bankruptcies.
The new normal will set in at different speeds as lockdowns are lifted, but this will also depend on the recession in each country and on the effect of restrictions on demand and supply. Recoveries may vary by sectors, but severe economic necessities may induce Governments to loosen their restrictive policies in an effort to kick-start certain activities, in particular, the airline industry and travel, which indirectly would also re-activate the hospitality, leisure and entertainment sectors.
It is now more critical than ever that financial institutions and other market participants, recognize the value of using tools like a Credit Bureau. These credit bureaux deliver insights in the data such as credit scoring and financial transparency, that can identify riskier projects/individuals/businesses, and thus prevent defaults to the benefit of the lender and national stability, in general.
Now is the time to gain a better understanding of our local marketplace, and the speed in which information changes. We have to comprehend how our local marketplace will perform in the post COVID era. It is better to be informed than to continue blindly as the future is changing and businesses and individuals must adjust and act accordingly.
In the immediate future, credit risk assessments, will be based on real-time monitoring of sectoral and sub-sectoral situations, making historical data in previous known environments less important – COVID has taught us a tough lesson
Remy Damato,
Credit Reporting Manager, Creditinfo Malta.
Players in Baltic Markets (Latvia, Estonia) and Iceland Measure Risk better, benefitting from Covid-19 Impact Score Developed by Creditinfo.
Credit providers need to understand how COVID crisis affected their counter-parties and customers in order to better manage risk exposure and reduce losses. Current scoring models are unable to fully answer these needs as they were developed on pre-crisis data and need time to adjust to new conditions.
Interview with Catherine Muraga, CIO – Stanbic Bank Kenya
We interviewed Catherine Muraga the Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Stanbic Bank Kenya – one of the largest banks in Africa. Catherine is well versed with the Information Technology (IT) landscape having worked in different industry sectors including Manufacturing, Airline and Banking industry. She provides strategic vision and operational IT leadership for the Information Technology Department and controlling all IT functions. We asked her a few questions around COVID-19 and how Stanbic Bank is working around this pandemic.
New “Creditinfo CO” system reports on debtors’ debtors
Press Release
April 28, 2020. Creditinfo Lithuania today introduced the new debtor reporting system “Creditinfo CO”. The system will give businesses the ability to learn, free of charge and in one place, how many companies are late with payments to their debtors and for what total amount starting from lock down period caused by COVID-19. The aim is to provide businesses with useful information that can help them make decisions on a more informed basis – whether to negotiate with debtors on payment terms, prepare documents for an assignment of debt, or initiate a judicial recovery process. It is also worthwhile checking what length deferments and what size trade credits are being granted to business partners.
Digitalization Helps Lenders Overcome Challenges Caused By COVID-19
The rapid spread of the Coronavirus is impacting economic growth and market volatility is increasing thus impacting the industry through weakening investment returns and potentially adverse impact on the capital position of financial institutions around the world. A sustained economic slowdown triggered by the outbreak will put negative pressure on revenues and lead to a material increase in credit risk and a potential spike in claims including for health, credit and event cancellation insurance.
Trusting Creditinfo Bureau Score in a Crisis
The quality of predictive algorithms plays a crucial role in Creditinfo operations. We strive to help our Clients perform efficient credit decisions through smart and innovative use of data.
Never Has There Been Stronger Evidence for Mobile Loans in West African Economic and Monetary Union region
With many countries in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) region in lockdown, bank branches empty and movement constrained; the case for a true, robust mobile lending ecosystem is stronger than ever. In global markets where mobile lending is nascent or inexistent, and the credit market is relegated to physical interaction between underwriter and customer, physical confinement and countrywide lockdowns are the equivalent of death sentences. Credit markets are frozen because critical communication is impossible. On the other hand, where digital wallets and e-money are common, no such barriers exist.
