Country Risk Information

According to the Federal Law #67-FZ of 30 March, 2015 Russian Tax authorities are entitled to check the correctness (reliability) of company data of registered and to be registered companies in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (EGRUL Register maintained by the Federal Tax Service of Russia). As of September 1, 2017, the Federal Law #488-FZ of 28 December, ... Read More »

Led by a severe drop in sales expectations across the country, the Index of Small Business Optimism from the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) slid from 105.3 to 103 in September. “The temptation is to blame the decline on the hurricanes in Texas and Florida, but that is not consistent with our data,” said NFIB President and CEO Juanita ... Read More »

Global trade finance revenues reached their lowest level in seven years, with a 5% decline year-on-year for the first half of 2017. Total trade finance revenues for the ten largest global transaction banks (Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, BNP Paribas, CITI, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, JP Morgan, Société Générale, Standard Chartered and Wells Fargo) fell to US$2.8bn compared to US$2.9bn in ... Read More »

A surge in capital spending and high sales expectations have caused a streak of historically high performances dating back to November to continue in the Index of Small Business Optimism from the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB).  The percentage of small-business owners who plan to make capital expenditures in the near term is at its highest level since 2006. ... Read More »

Small and medium sized businesses increasingly feel that they’re vulnerable to cyber threats but most aren’t prepared to meet them. A new survey from endpoint security specialist Webroot finds that 96 percent of businesses with 100 to 499 employees in the US, UK and Australia believe their organizations will be susceptible to external cybersecurity threats in 2017. But although they recognize the ... Read More »

Business Credit Demand Index by Equifax (June 2017 Quarter):  Overall business credit applications rose +2.7% (vs June quarter 2016) Download Infographic Sydney, Australia, Thursday, 31 July 2017 –  The Quarterly Business Credit Demand Index by Equifax, which measures the level of business loan, trade credit, and asset finance applications, rose at an annual rate of 2.7% in the June quarter, compared to ... Read More »

The 21st St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), traditionally gathering leading politicians and representatives of business community globally, took place in St. Petersburg, Russia, in June 1–3, 2017. The Forum’s official programme was developed in collaboration with over 500 leading experts from Russia, Europe, the United States, Asia, and Australia – including academic institutions, development organizations, and business community from ... Read More »

IFC (World Bank Group) Helps Increase Access to Credit in the Kyrgyz Republic The IFC (World Bank Group) is helping the Kyrgyz Republic undertake a series of reforms to strengthen the country’s financial infrastructure and boost access to finance for borrowers, including small and medium enterprises. Since 2009, IFC’s advisory services team, part of the World Bank Group’s Finance and ... Read More »

The Reserve Bank of India flagged the rapid proliferation of frauds in the banking space over the last five years marking out a 19% increase in the number of fraudulent incidents and 72% increase in the value of the amount lost in the attacks. Around 86% of the frauds reported in 2016-17 was in the space of various credit accounts, ... Read More »

Social Credit System Awareness Unified Social Credit Code System Industrial Credit system is Making Progress Enterprise Credit Management System becoming a Common Practice The Global Times reports that currently, in the Chinese society, the lack of credibility is still a very serious issue, which is an objective fact that we must face up to. At the same time, we should ... Read More »

Only 22% of companies are addressing child labour concerns in the supply chain, while only 23% are actively tackling climate change. The results of a new survey of business executives makes for sobering reading, given that there are more than 150 million children engaged in child labour around the world, and that scientists are predicting environmental Armageddon if carbon reduction ... Read More »

Russian Tax Authorities not only check tax returns.  They also check a company’s relationship with counterparties and the method of how a the company authenticates, evaluates and selects business partners Russian tax authorities examine specific links between counterparties (particularly if one counterparty/its shareholder has shares in another one/others, directly or indirectly, being a link in a chain of affiliated counterparties ... Read More »

The rate of short-term, non-financial corporate bank loans to companies in China has fallen in recent months to less than 1% from a high of 4.8% growth in January 2016.  The tightening—a result of Chinese policymakers’ shift to reduce debt in sectors with excess capacity like iron and coal production—is helping improve China’s overall creditworthiness, notes a recent report in ... Read More »

The numbers in NACM’s June Credit Managers’ Index (CMI), which will be released Friday at nacm.org, are likely to reflect a strong monthly rebound in business conditions. The index has been on a roller-coaster ride over prior months, mirroring the volatility in many kinds of economic data streams. “The fact is that there are contradictory waves coursing through the economy as ... Read More »

Companies in Asia are facing more overdue payments as the macroeconomic problems facing the region filter through the supply chain. In China, 80.6% of companies experienced overdue payments in 2015, with the the value of outstanding debt rising by 58.1% from 2014. In its annual corporate payments survey of Asia Pacific, credit insurance firm Coface quizzed 2,793 companies in eight ... Read More »

Disruption could be an opportunity for businesses, say 78% of Asian businesses, according to a new survey by Thomson Reuters.  At the same time, at 51%, Asia recorded the highest proportion of respondents who said that technology disrupters could be a direct threat to their business model; with 42% of European and 47 % American businesses saying likewise. Thomson Reuters asked ... Read More »