SME's squeezed by late payments

 SMEs squeezed by late payments

A new European Payment Report reveals over half of Britain’s small businesses have been asked to accept longer payment terms from customers than they are comfortable with. Some 55% of British companies feel that they have had to accept unfavourable payment terms, rising from 37% last year. Multinationals are often the biggest offenders, with a third of the UK’s SMEs being squeezed by large global corporations. Half of British businesses admitted to paying their bills late, with 5% stating that they paid late on at least half of their bills. Intrum Justitia, which compiled the data from a survey of nearly 10,500 businesses in Europe, said that in Britain late payment was preventing businesses from hiring more employees, with 42% of the businesses saying that faster payment would enable their companies to hire more staff. Mikael Ericson, chief executive and president of Intrum Justitia, commented: “Late payments are like a long-lasting virus to business. Prompt payment should be on the sustainability agenda.”

Source:   The Times (29/05/2017)