Business

Belfast insurance firm rebranded to become leading Irish trade credit specialist

Nigel Birney, head of trade credit and political risk Northern Ireland at Willis Towers Watson with Stephen Kelly, Manufacturing NI
Nigel Birney, head of trade credit and political risk Northern Ireland at Willis Towers Watson with Stephen Kelly, Manufacturing NI Nigel Birney, head of trade credit and political risk Northern Ireland at Willis Towers Watson with Stephen Kelly, Manufacturing NI

A BELFAST-based insurance firm has been rebranded to become the largest trade credit specialist on the island of Ireland.

Trade Credit Brokers, who also have a Dublin office, will now be known as Willis Towers Watson Trade Credit and Surety.

Willis Towers Watson is the third largest insurance broker in the world and employs over 40,000 people. The multinational represents over two-thirds of the credit insurance business across the island of Ireland and in the north its clients its trade credit clients insure over £1.5 billion worth of sales per year.

Nigel Birney, head of trade credit and political risk Northern Ireland at Willis Towers Watson said the rebrand represents the "evolution" of Trade Credit Brokers to become the largest and best resourced trade credit insurance broker on the Island of Ireland.

Trade Credit Insurance provides protection for businesses against the impact of bad debt which can be caused by a failure of customers to pay for goods or services sold on credit. It has come into sharp focus recently with companies Carillion and House of Fraser making the news headlines leaving their supply chains exposed to hundreds of millions of pounds of unsecured debt.

“At a time when the future of business appears to be unpredictable, Willis Towers Watson can help businesses to proactively manage this unpredictability. Trade Credit Insurance is about mitigating risks and provides reassurance and financial protection during difficult trading conditions. You only have to look at recent news headlines to see the number of businesses which have been saved due to having Trade Credit Insurance in place when a business further up the supply chain fails. No-one is immune no matter how safe they may seem," Mr Birney said.