Weekly Blog by Philip King, CEO of the ICM - Giving credit to the beautiful game'

As I write these words, the Chancellor has yet to start his budget statement and - in any event - I wanted to write about something unrelated to credit or business this week. It's rare that I do so and I therefore ask you to indulge me.

I was at White Hart Lane on Saturday evening when Fabrice Muamba suffered a heart attack on the pitch during Tottenham's FA Cup quarter final against Bolton. Those of you who attend football matches will know that emotion and vitriol can run high and sympathy for opposition players when they need treatment on the pitch can be in short supply. These though were not normal circumstances.

It took almost no time for the crowd to appreciate the significance and seriousness of what was happening before their eyes, and 36,000 people were united in willing what were obviously frantic attempts to save the player's life to succeed. The almost spontaneous chanting of Fabrice's name, accompanied by sustained applause, were begging him to respond to the expert attention he was receiving on the pitch, and football was now the last thing on anyone's mind. When the announcement was made that the game had been abandoned, I heard no complaints or dissenting voices and - as has been widely reported - the decision was met with further applause acknowledging that this was the right thing to do.

As the stadium emptied, people talked in hushed tones. At the local station, the staff and network were surprised by the passenger surge arriving almost an hour earlier than expected but nobody moaned at the long wait for the first train, nor at the fact that it was only made up of four rather than the usual post-match eight carriages meaning the majority couldn't get on, and nor that they would have to wait another 15 minutes for the next train to arrive.

The shock of the events they had witnessed minutes earlier had created a surreal reverential atmosphere among people who couldn't believe what they had experienced and were desperately hoping against hope that they wouldn't hear even worse news before they got home.

Of course, we've all been delighted by the ever more encouraging news as this week has unfolded and hope and pray that Muamba's recovery continues and his condition improves. I never want to go through another experience like this but I do feel privileged and proud to have borne witness to such an outpouring of sympathy, respect and unity. Because there is such an appetite for bad news and the reporting of awful behaviour by minorities, it is sometimes refreshing and consoling to get a reminder of the intrinsic goodness of the majority of the population.

Weekly Blog by Philip King, CEO of the ICM - 'Help and helping oneself'

I attended a Prompt Payment workshop last week, organised by BIS and hosted by Mark Prisk. There was clear consensus among the attendees, representing government and business organisations, that late payment continues to be an issue impacting negatively on business. No surprise there then; every week we see the results of one survey or another reinforcing the message that businesses suffer when they don't get paid promptly.

The EU Late Payment Directive coming into force in March 2013 might help but if anyone really believes it's going to fundamentally change things then they are deluded. Guidance and advice issued by numerous organisations, including the ICM whose Managing Cashflow Guides will shortly reach the 300,000 download milestone, is valuable and helpful but many small business owners are too busy trying to survive to commit time looking for advice about late paying customers even though doing so might resolve many, or even all, of their cash-flow problems. Making 30 day payment terms mandatory for all transactions (as has been proposed by one organisation) would remove one of the key negotiable elements of business transactions and would be tantamount to insisting that all goods must be sold, and services provided, at exactly the same price; that seems a bit perverse and self defeating to me, in a fee economy.

If you've been following the Global Entrepreneurship Congress 2012 in Liverpool this week (I have, but I confess only on Twitter!) you might have seen Richard Branson quoted as saying: "Cashflow is everything when getting a business started..." He is right. One of our challenges is to get advice to business before they're suffering from late payment so that they get the basics right from the beginning of any new trading relationship - basics such as knowing who your customer is, agreeing payment terms before supplying, invoicing promptly and accurately, and so on. I was speaking to a small business owner recently who was complaining he hadn't been paid on time. I asked how he advised the customer what the payment terms were. His answer: "I didn't, because he needed the material urgently". We don't always help ourselves, do we?

The workshop last week was productive and I'm delighted the Institute is going to be even more involved in helping BIS take actions forward. In the meantime, those of us who deal with SMEs could do worse than signpost them to good advice such as the Managing Cashflow Guides available at http://www.creditmanagement.org.uk/ and to encourage them to do the things that we take for granted.

Weekly Blog by Philip King, CEO of the ICM - A journey of discovery'

My contribution this week is going to be short and sweet, or perhaps not quite so sweet, and it's about a payday loans company. But I'm not adding to the many column inches and hours of airtime devoted to the subject in recent weeks. Indeed, the OFT's announcement a couple of weeks ago that it has launched a review of the sector makes me think it's best to wait until the outcome of that review is known - and the dust has settled from the publication of the BIS Select Committee's report this week - before adding my two pennyworth to the debate.

My comments relate instead to a story in The Times on 17 February after Cash Converters UK had issued its results for the six months ended 31 December 2011. It said that 'it's nascent lending business had shown a big rise in bad debts' rising from 9% to 11% between 30 June and 31 December. The company said: 'The UK business reviewed its lending criteria in November 2011 and as a result has made certain adjustments to their procedures. This action, combined with the appointment of a new collections manager, should reduce the bad debt percentage going forward. Over time, as the new business matures and our customer information database improves, we would be targeting a significant decrease in the level of UK bad debts.

'Cash Converters appears to have discovered what many of us already know: that tightening lending criteria, having better customer information, and appointing a new collections manager reduces bad debts. While it seems to be stating the obvious, I'm pleased it reinforces my view that professionalism is vital and adds real value. When good practice is applied to policy and process, and good credit professionals are employed, then businesses can only benefit. This is the message at the heart of everything the ICM stands for and drives.

Weekly Blog by Philip King, CEO of the ICM - 'A journey into the unknown'

I seem to have been reading and reviewing an endless stream of lengthy reports and consultation documents recently, including the 150 page Ministry of Justice 'Transforming Bailiff Action' consultation over the past weekend, but more of that later (and please respond when the Institute issues its consultation survey questionnaire in the not too distant future). Some of the documents have been more interesting than others but let me mention two reports relating to consumer debt and advice.

The first is 'Debt Advice in the UK', the final report produced by London Economics for the Money Advice Service. The Money Advice Service, which was initially set up by the Government, is funded by a charge levied on the financial services industry and collected by the Financial Services Authority. It replaced the Consumer Financial Education Body in April last year. In 2012/13 the Service will use a budget of £46.3 million to deliver against its money advice targets, and a separate budget of £40.5m to coordinate the delivery of debt advice across the UK. Credit professionals working in the sector will be keen to see that the financial services industry's levies are put to good use!

The report concludes that 'Overall, the desk review of the existing literature and information on the debt advice sector and the consultations with stakeholders show that, while there exists a fair body of material on individual debt advice providers or programmes, very few analyses take a more holistic approach, covering the debt advice sector as a whole or, at least, large segments of it. Notable information gaps relate to: estimates of the actual and total demand for debt advice; the volume of debt advice provision by form and channel for the sector as a whole; the needs of actual and potential debt advice seekers; and the comparative effectiveness in the short and longer run of the different forms and channels of debt advice provision.'

I may be being cynical here, but to my simple mind it seems that the report tells us more about what it can't tell us than about what it can!

The second is the 'Consumer Debt and Money Report' launched by the Consumer Credit Counselling Service as the first in a series of quarterly reports based on research carried out by Cebr. This reveals: that households are spending 24 percent of their discretionary income - £199 per month - on interest payments; that the demand for debt advice is forecast to remain high and peak in 2014 as unemployment rises across the UK; and that middle-aged and older people will be increasingly affected by debt problems severe enough for them to need to seek help, highlighting the challenging financial situation that older households face. The report predicts that CCCS's share of clients over the age of 45 will rise from a historic 28 percent in January 2005 to a projected 47.6 percent by December 2014.

I was privileged to chair the ICM's Credit Industry Think Tank last week - it's always great hearing the views of leading experts from across our industry - and, during the forum, we were reminded that personal insolvencies are falling, with 2011's figure of c120,000 representing a fall of about 15,000 over 2010. Good news perhaps, but let's bear one thing in mind: no numbers are collected for debt management plants arranged through the advice sector and these do not appear in the official published insolvency figures (another piece of missing but vital data!).

I hope at least some of the Money Advice Service's £86.8m will be used to identify the real size of the problem and the effectiveness of solutions. Without knowing where we are, it's hard to plan the route to a better place!