The Klockner & Co Group is one of the world’s
leading steel and metal distributors and their
UK operation, trading as ASD metal services,
has been a client of Amlin Credit for three years.
ASD’s primary clients are in the construction
related industries, sheet metal, steel fabrication
and general engineering. As one of our larger
credit insurance accounts, we negotiate with the
Finance Director and Group Credit manager,
together with their broker Aon Trade Credit.
In common with more than 50% of our trade
credit accounts, ASD metal services is managed
by our northern regional office in Halifax.
In the trade credit industry, clients select a risk
carrier based on several core criteria including
financial strength, underwriting and analytical
expertise. ASD metal services decided to move
their account to Amlin in order to obtain a more
flexible approach to the cover, derived from a mix
of commercial instinct and underwriting expertise.
At the start of each policy year, Amlin sets a
premium based on projected annual turnover
and the type of cover required. However, with
thousands of customers, all of whom may owe
money to ASD at any given time, the goalposts
are constantly moving. Our solution is to offer
a discretionary limit given certain conditions,
whereby they can insure a large number of
smaller accounts without reference to Amlin.
For the larger value customers, ASD applies for
limits using Amlin Credit’s dedicated website.
Decisions are automatically generated and, if
subsequent risk analyst involvement is required,
decisions are generally received within 24 hours.
It is worth noting that Amlin Credit was the first
trade credit insurer to launch an online decision
making system in 1998.
Speed of response is vital in ASD’s target sectors,
as in order to trade with a new customer they need
to rapidly obtain the necessary trade credit
approval. Required to deliver goods quickly
from any of their UK sites, each of ASD’s 20
UK branches has a separate log-in to the Amlin
website and are assured of a swift decision.
As Brian Kent, ASD’s Group Credit
Manager confirmed:
“The speed and efficiency of Amlin’s decision
making has enabled us to improve our own
response times to some business enquiries.”
As broker, Aon’s role once the policy is written
is one of specialist advisor. They provide advice
and information on difficult limits, and claims
handling expertise to enable Amlin to service
their client efficiently. While there was initial
scepticism about the introduction of e-business
in this sector, it is clear that by balancing this
with personal intervention as the situation
demands, Amlin Credit and Aon are providing
the best possible service to the ASD metal
services Group.
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