Creditscorer comment

ICC Credit, the leading UK commercial credit reference agency, has confirmed the acquisition by Bisnode of Creditscorer Ltd.

Creditscorer Ltd was formed in 2001 by founding members, Professor Nick Wilson and Paul Wetherhill. The company has sought to drive best practice in commercial credit granting and collections procedures by providing risk scoring solutions, market intelligence and portfolio management applications.

Creditscorer first emerged as a University of Leeds spin out company in 2001, with financial support from White Rose Technology Seedcorn Fund - which provides funding for spin-out companies from the universities of Leeds, York and Sheffield – and from the University of Leeds.

Professor Nick Wilson is highly regarded in the industry. He runs the ICM sponsored chair in credit management at Leeds University. ICC Credit is a primary sponsor of the chair.

Recent customers of Creditscorer have included GE Commercial Finance and Lloyds TSB Asset Finance. CreditScorer delivered Basel II compliant scoring solutions for the latter, incorporating ICC Credit data.

Creditscorer worked with ICC Credit analysts in 2005 in order to develop the new ICC Credit Risk Score, which was launched in January 2006. This development covered the ICC Credit limited and non-limited company database and was unique in extending scoring to newly incorporated companies.

ICC Credit will be a primary customer for Creditscorer and Joris Peeters – Head of Scoring for Bisnode, will work with Professor Nick Wilson and CreditScorer to further develop the business. ICC Credit Scoring Solutions will be launched shortly.

Professor Nick Wilson said, ‘we are delighted to become part of the Bisnode Credit and Risk Group. We have built a strong understanding of the ICC Credit database and will enjoy working with them to deliver market leading risk scoring solutions to the UK credit management profession.'

Darren Spratt, MD of ICC Credit said, ‘working with CreditScorer on the recent Basel II project highlighted the synergies between our two companies and we look forward to developing a range of top quality products with Creditscorer over the coming months.'

Comments Ed Coombs, of Aberdeen Asset Managers, who manage the White Rose Technology Seedcorn Fund, “This acquisition is testament to the management team's success in turning an academic's expertise into a commercial entity, which is one of the fund's objectives.''