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UK Companies top the tables for prompt payment
The Better Payment Practice Group (BPPG) welcomes the latest survey
from Dun & Bradstreet which has found that UK companies are
the second fastest in Europe for paying their bills.
UK companies are paying their bills, on average, only 14.2 days
late. Belgian companies had the worst average payment performance
at 18.4 days late, followed by the Dutch who average 17.7 days late.
| Country |
Average days late in
Fourth Quarter 2000 |
| Germany |
8.9 |
| UK |
14.2 |
| France |
16.0 |
| Italy |
16.6 |
| Netherlands |
17.7 |
| Belgium |
18.4 |
| (Source Dun & Bradstreet) |
The results were drawn from a survey of 1.3 million companies across
six European countries.
The survey also found that smaller companies pay their bills more
promptly than larger companies with 41.5% of companies with fewer
than 5 employees, and 32.6% of companies with 5 to 49 employees,
paying their bills early. In comparison, only 19.9% of companies
with 50 to 249 employees and 10.6% of large companies (more than
250 companies) pay their bills early.
Kurt Obermaier of the Credit Services Association and a member of
the Better Payment Practice Group says: “UK
companies used to have the reputation for being one of the slowest
payers in Europe. It is therefore very encouraging that we have
secured second place in the league table. Yet despite this success,
there is no doubt that there is a lot of work to do in addressing
credit management techniques.”
A free guide to the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest)
Act 1998 is available free by telephoning 0870 150 2500. It
can also be found on this website by clicking here.
You can keep up to date with the Better Payment Practice Campaign by sending us an email
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