Euler Hermes is launching its online open data portal to share information with clients and the general public.

Euler Hermes says that open data portals are slowly making their way into the corporate world even if the trend remains in its early stages.  For instance, government bodies or public authorities are sharing their data. But now even banks, companies in the transport, media or utilities sectors have opened their portals as well. For instance, the World Bank, OECD, Airbus, Enedis and SNCF Reseau have all launched their platforms in recent years.   Euler Hermes collect a lot of data about trading and credit conditions throughout the world.  It is the intent to share such data.

As we know credit insurers collect a wide range of financial data on companies for risk assessment/insurance purposed, however such data remains confidential.  Euler Hermes stresses the point that it is very important to understand that there is absolutely no confidentiality breach: “We are not releasing any individual data.”  All data is anonymized and aggregated by trade sectors and / or by countries.

On a business side there is no threat either. Two years ago, Euler released international collection country profiles explaining how to collect a debt in 50 countries, and there was no adverse consequence on our debt collection services, simply because it does not replace our collection know-how, our international presence and proximity to the debtors. Similarly, the open data portal will not replace our credit risk assessment, proximity to our policy holders and credit management services.

The first dataset’s goal is to help study trade flows between countries and payment incidents relating to those trade flows. All data are aggregated by sectors and countries. The dataset covers 218 countries or territories. It is therefore possible to compare between countries and trade sectors and to isolate certain trade sectors like the automotive sector.

Source:  Euler Hermes  –  To read the full interview with Jennifer Baert – Head of Information & Credit Risk Assessment Euler Hermes, click on this link