First International Credit Insurer Licence in Russia issued to Coface

Posted on Jun 11, 2010 by Sergio Ulloa (G+)  | Tags: Coface SA, Credit Insurance, Russia

The Russian state authority for insurance (FSSN) has issued the first international credit insurer licence to ZAO Coface Rus Insurance, a subsidiary of the Paris-based Credit Insurer Coface SA. With this licence, Coface can now make all its products available to the Russian insurance market, and in particular try to become market leader in trade receivables management, aided by its global presence, deep knowledge of local risks and large repertoire of services on offer to Russian and international customers. The Russian credit insurance market is estimated by Coface to be worth US$48 million (EUR 40 million). This market is shared between four major insurers in the business, including Coface through a technical agreement for four years to offer credit insurance with a local partner, Kapital. The Coface presence in Russia dates back to 1992, when it first established a company. A database with information on about 600,000 Russian companies has been accumulated and Coface Rus Services had been offering credit management services, complemented with debt collection and business information. In a recent shares buy-back, Coface took full control of its Russian rating company, which produces credit ratings on Russian companies. Up until the end of 2009, the global financial tsunami deeply affected the payment experience in Russia and Coface expects the Russian economy to record a moderate positive growth of 4 percent in 2010, in contrast to the 7.9 percent drop of last year. Insurance Company mentioned: Coface Coface's mission is to facilitate global business-to-business trade by offering its 130,000 customers four business lines to fully or partly outsource trade relationship management and to finance and protect their receivables: credit insurance, factoring, ratings and business information and receivables management. Thanks to the worldwide local service delivered by 6,600 staff in 67 countries, over 45% of the world's 500 largest corporate groups are already customers of Coface. Coface is a subsidiary of Natixis whose share capital (Tier 1) was US$15.24 billion (EUR 12.7 billion) at the end of December 2009.