The Chubb Group of Insurance Cos.

The Chubb Group of Insurance Cos. has introduced a trade credit insurance policy. This insurance helps ensure that policyholders will be paid for merchandise shipped or services rendered on credit to commercial customers who have difficulty paying on time and/or in the full amount due to insolvency, currency fluctuations, general economic decline or other contingencies.

Trade credit insurance is the newest addition to the family of products that Chubb's Multinational Resource Group offers to companies doing business overseas. Other products include political risk insurance, exporters' packages and coordinated international insurance programs. Peter Aitken, a vice president of Ghubb & Son, recommends the new trade credit policy for manufacturers, processors, distributors of goods or services companies that already sell on credit terms or are anxious to offer competitive payment terms to customers by moving away from highly-secured forms of repayment such as letters of credit. By integrating trade credit insurance into their overall financial, credit and risk management strategies, he says they "are, in effect, unleashing the power of their accounts receivables."

Aitken adds that the trade credit policy can be tailored to each policyholder's unique needs. For example, a policyholder can insure its domestic and/or foreign sales and insure all credit customers or only key customers above a specific sales volume.