F&I Management & Training

Improvement in late payment means financial strength of the industry also remains strong

Nottingham, 20 May 2010 - The rate of business insolvencies[1] for the automotive industry fell from 0.12 per cent in April 2009 to 0.08 per cent in April 2010, according to the latest Insolvency and Late Payment indices from Experian®, the global information services company.

As well as seeing a year-on-year drop, the automotive industry halved the rate of insolvencies recorded last month, from 0.16 down in March to 0.08 in April 2010.

The financial strength (2) of the automotive industry also saw a slight improvement year-on-year, going up to 79.67 from 79.35 in April 2009.

Payment performance amongst automotive businesses saw a slight improvement from 16.57 in April last year, dropping to 16.01 in April this year, but the improvement was not as significant as it has been in previous months resulting in motor traders shifting from being the third fastest payers to the tenth.

Mark Nuttall, General Manager of Experian's Automotive business, said: "The decline in insolvencies and improvement in payment performance in April has meant that the financial strength score of the industry has remained buoyant this month."