Royal & Sunalliance (RSA) is underwriting a new web-based credit insurance service that claims to be the first to offer cover on a transaction-by-transaction basis.
Ebusiness start-up coverclick.com is targeting the mid- to lower end of the credit insurance market.
It said smaller firms had traditionally been dissuaded from insuring against debtor insolvency because cover was offered on a block transaction basis.
This could mean premiums starting at £10,000. In contrast, coverclick.com is offering premiums on a transaction-by-transaction basis from £100 per invoice.
Coverclick.com founder David Neckar, a credit insurance expert formerly at Amlin and Euler Trade Indemnity, said: “By insuring credit risks per transaction, small businesses can now decide which invoices to insure and which not.
“This should give them the confidence to explore new trading opportunities both in the UK and overseas.”
Coverclick.com is backed and underwritten by RSA.
Bob Mendelsohn, chief executive of RSA, said: “Any business dealing with coverclick.com does so with the assurance that all policies are underwritten by Royal & Sunalliance.”
Coverclick.com has launched two separate products.
Instant Invoice Insurance protects against the non-payment of invoices and Insolvency Cover pays out if a customer to whom a business has supplied goods goes insolvent within the insured period.
The web-based company is planning to launch Late Payment Cover in the next few weeks.
This will assign to coverclick.com responsibility for collecting debts on behalf of a business and for paying out the agreed sum if it is uncollected by the end of the insured period.
