Company Credit Scorecards

Giving your business the power of foresight, with one of the industry’s most predictive company scorecards

Creditsafe have launched a series of new scorecards, find out more about our scorecards and the value this brings to your business below.

Enhanced risk protection that keeps delivering

Our new scorecards with advanced analytics to help your business grow

Trusted by businesses worldwide from commercial lenders to global manufacturers we strive to be at the forefront of our industry, providing superior risk intelligence that your business can thrive on. With decades worth of experience, our International Analytics Team have been developing, testing and validating a number of new country scorecards for markets across Europe, including the UK and Ireland.

 

What benefits does the new scorecard bring?

Higher level of predictability

Our scores confidently measure the probability of a company failing up to 12 months in advance.

Additional data analysed

Thousands of data sources are combined and evaluated to provide instant and transparent scores on each business.

Understand tricky businesses

We shed more light on businesses with limited information available such as non-limited companies, allowing you to make more confident decisions.

More business opportunities

By increasing the power of the scorecard, your business can benefit from exposure to more opportunities without having to increase its exposure to risk.

Heightened accuracy with increased business segmentation

No two businesses are the same, but many show similar signs of failure within the population

To increase the discriminative power of the scorecard, population segmentation is conducted.  The aim of the segmentation is to define a set of sub-populations that, when modelled individually and combined, rank risk more effectively than a single model on the overall population in each country.

The UK government previously introduced the term "micro-entity" as a sub-set to the Companies House business classifications. The individual filing requirements for these businesses are reflected in the scorecard with their own individual scoring model.

Our 7 business segments now include;

  • Newly incorporated
  • Micro-entity
  • Small company
  • Medium-sized company
  • Large company
  • Public limited company
  • Non-limited company

Find out more about our UK scorecard on the Help Hub.

Book a consultation with a Creditsafe expert

A scorecard change can impact every business differently and we are on hand to help you navigate any adjustments. Our Account Managers are happy to provide additional resources and information. Book a call or consultation with your account manager below to find out more about the services we can offer.

What factors influence a company credit score?

From over 8000 data sources globally we carefully identify the factors that have a strong correlation with business failure

From small local businesses to large multinational corporations, the factors that either influence or are indicative of a business' failure vary across businesses of different sizes and industry. To increase the predictability and stability of our scoring, Creditsafe segments all companies within a population based on the information available, its size and business type (as listed above). 

Within each scorecard, the weighting that each factor has on the score will vary according to the statistical significance it shows in relation to a business failing within a 12 month period. Below we show some of the factors which are used to calculate the score under the new scorecard.

CCJs

Audit Qualification

Director Changes

Industry

Payment Data

Financials Filed

Linked Companies

Business Size

Assuring the quality of the Scoring Models

Predictability

Stability

Evaluation

The precision of the scorecard is vital to guarantee maximum exposure to opportunities whilst also minimizing the risk of bad debt. Of course, failing to recognize a business who is at risk of insolvency poses an immediate risk. However, falsely rejecting a potential customer means a loss of business and therefore poses a cost in itself.

The distinction between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ companies, i.e. companies with a high probability of insolvency, is the essential point of a good scoring model. 

We are able to predict a higher rate of insolvencies than before, as well as increase your opportunities with the same credit score cut off point.

It is important that our scorecard holds accurate for the foreseeable future and not only for the time period of the initial analysis. To ensure this we conducted out-of-time validation (OoT) over several historical periods. In order to exclude any seasonal effects, the OoT was carried out in addition to different seasons. This enables us to confidently verify the scorecard's stability and accuracy.

 

Evaluation

The scorecard is validated on a monthly basis in order to be able to make reliable predictions on an ongoing basis. Market conditions will naturally change during the lifetime of a scorecard, therefore we continually monitor these changes. As a result, we can identify any changes in the factors which indicate future insolvency and, if necessary, adjust the weighting of variables within the scorecard accordingly.

Creditsafe's more robust scorecard strengthens our ability to continually assess the predictability of variables and adapt the model in line with economic changes.

Predictability
Stability
Evaluation

Details of the individual scorecards

Download a PDF of the Executive Summary by clicking on the below icons

As we draw closer to the launch of each scorecard we will be sharing an executive summary of the individual scorecards with details of the segmentation applied, the definition of failure and risk bandings.

As each document is launched, you will be able to download them by clicking the PDF icon containing the country flag in full colour.

Germany

Q3 2019

Netherlands

Q4 2023

Sweden

Q4 2019

UK

Q4 2019

France

Q2 2021

Belgium

Q2 2022

Denmark

Q3 2022

Frequently Asked Questions

Will Creditsafe's scorecards change in every country?

No, we have not changed scorecards for all countries.

We are launching new scorecards for a number of countries over the next year. Our anticipated timeline is as follows:

Netherlands: October 2018

Germany: September 2019

Sweden: October 2019

United Kingdom: December 2019

France: 2021

Belgium: 2022

 

Do I need to do any changes in my system when you make the changes?

You will NOT need to make any changes to your Creditsafe account, app or API when the new scorecard is launched. All changes will be implemented automatically.

Why are Creditsafe changing its scorecards?

It is perfectly normal for Credit Reference Agencies to update and change their scorecards every now and again. As new information becomes available, we must seize the opportunity to utilise this data and improve predictability further.

We must also be vigilant in tracking marketplace trends and make sure that our predictive models are reflective of current developments. With constant changes to economic, social and political climates, some of the indicators that are predictive of failure today are likely to change in the years to come.

Creditsafe continually enhances our scorecards to reflect the current risk factors that have emerged within the local economies. Assessing the entire business population, we have refined and confirmed what indicators commonly hold for commercial stability, and what is predictive of a company heading into hardship

How do I know if the new scorecard is suitable for my business?

The Creditsafe scorecards are built to assess the entire business population of the country in question, utilising Creditsafe owned data as well as third party data.

Our assessment of this data produces a score which reflects the likelihood of business failure within the next 12 months. In addition, the Limit Solution is designed to offer a recommended maximum amount of credit to be extended to this business based on numerous financial factors. 

Our scorecards are built to compliment any business, however, we do also offer bespoke analytical services. Naturally, all businesses have unique business models, strategies and objectives. In order to help businesses gain greater clarity over their commercial landscape and opportunities, our world-leading analytical team have been commissioned to build a number of bespoke analytical models for companies in many countries.

For further details on our bespoke services please reach out to your dedicated account manager.