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Credit Risk Management

Credit management or credit risk management is usually the area responsible for managing the credit and collections function of a company. This area of CreditPulse will feature articles related to credit risk management both on the micro and macro level.

Recent Articles

California Software Company Uses AI to Improve Cash Flow

February 11, 2020

A California software company has developed a state-of-the-art accounts receivables platform uniquely designed to minimize DSO and maximize cash flow. 

In today's collections environment, understanding your customer data is one of the most critical elements in the collections process.  If you can't identify customer payment trends or tendencies it becomes nearly impossible to reasonably forecast company cash flow.

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Footwear Industry DSO Benchmarks

July 11, 2019

DSO and bad debt benchmarks improved even as overall liquidity and solvency worsen in the multi-billion dollar world of athletic footwear.

Nike and Adidas are two of the most well-known brand names in the world as their athletic footwear have been worn for years by professional and amatuer athletes in just about every competitive sport.  A closer look at the two industry giants...

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The Three Keys to Effective Credit Analysis

March 13, 2017

Understanding three important principles of credit analysis will lead to better, safer and more credible credit decisions.  "A matter of perspective."

When it comes to credit risk no one has a crystal ball.  The closest anyone can come is the ability to examine information from the past while looking closely at what is happening in the present to hopefully gain insight as to what may happen in the future.

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Billionaire Investor Wilbur Ross Jr. on Negotiations and Tariffs

January 20, 2017

One of the business world's top negotiators talks about the disadvantages of multilateral negotiating and why the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a bad deal for the United States.

Wilbur Ross Jr., the chairman and chief strategist of W.L. Ross & Co., a private-equity firm, has amassed a fortune over the past 15 years by purchasing bankrupt companies in old-line manufacturing industries such as steel, textiles and auto parts and rehabilitating them, often turning a profit by selling to overseas investors many in China.

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Is Credit Insurance Really Necessary?

February 9, 2016

Credit practitioners and finance executives have ignored this question for years.  A nine-month discussion that began on LinkedIn last year reveals why the silence has been deafening.  

Since the days of Adam Smith over two centuries ago, the extension of credit has served as one of the most important and enduring aspects of commerce.  Yet, to this day, credit risk--a key component of credit extension--remains an enigma to many.  Find out why credit insurance really isn't necessary in this CreditPulse feature story.

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Why DSO is the Best Way to Measure Credit Performance

August 21, 2015

DSO's sensitivity to so many sales and industry-related factors give it strength, not weakness, in measuring the performance standards of credit departments.

The DSO benchmark is making a comeback.  Yet, despite the ratio's simplicity and benchmark status in the financial world, DSO has arroused controversy with some in the credit establishment who complain that it doesn't fully account for variances in net terms and sales fluctations.  Get the facts in this CreditPulse feature article.

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Cloud-based Software Companies Rack Up Huge Losses

July 29, 2015

Cloud computing has been all the rage recently but cloud-based software technology companies are posting the industry's biggest losses, according to CSI data.

Cloud-based software companies, many of which have been publicly-traded for less than three years, posted some of the biggest losses in the software technology industry group of the CSI making the companies an increased credit risk factor as market capitalizations return to normal.  Find out which companies pose the biggests risks in this CreditPulse exclusive.

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Bankruptcy Watch: YRC Worldwide Inc

November 12, 2012

In the past few years, YRC Worldwide has worked near miracles to stay out of bankruptcy court but the end may finally be drawing near for the nation's second largest trucking company.  "They're still burning cash."

With a fleet of 15,000 trucks and 23 percent of the less-than-truckload (LTL) market among public carriers, few companies in corporate America have delivered less value to its shareholders in relation to its industry position than YRC Worldwide, Inc., a $4.8 billion trucking company,

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Crisis Benchmarks: DSO Industry Benchmarks To Watch In 2012

July 9, 2012

As our economy worsens toward possibly another recession, CreditPulse looks back at the industries that endured the highest DSO increases during the last recession spawned by the credit crisis of 2008. 

From 2008 to 2009, days sales outstanding (DSO) benchmarks increased in 50 of the 70 industries included in the Credit Standards Index (CSI), a ranking of over 2,000 publicly-traded companies around the world based on bad debt allowance, DSO, operating cash flow, current ratio and debts-to-assets.  Find out which industries to watch in this CreditPulse exclusive.

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Top 10 Biotechnology Risk Factors

March 15, 2012

As the biotech and biopharmaceutical industries grow in economic importance, driven mainly by investment capital, the credit risk factors associated with these research firms are coming into clearer focus.

May 27, 2011 was a big day for Optimer Pharmaceucticals, a seemingly high-risk biopharmaceutical company based in San Diego, California.  That was the day that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the company's leading product candidate -- a drug called DIFICID

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