Cooperation in the field of credit information
The Serbian and Montenegro Export Credit Agency (SMECA) and the Austrian Oesterreichische Kontrollbank AG (OeKB) have founded a joint financial services company, the OeKB Financial Services d.o.o. The company with seat in Belgrade was registered on 28.09.2007. SMECA holds 49% and OeKB - via their specialized affiliate OeKB South Eastern Europe Holding Ltd. (OSEE) - 51% of the new company.
Main activity of the company
The main activity of the company will be to collect credit and payment information on Serbian companies. These information shall then undergo a professional credit assessment by the company’s specialists and result in credit decisions which can, other than the usual company information available on the market now, directly be used by credit insurance companies for coverage in the insurance contracts in the shape of so called "credit limits".
"The Serbian market will profit from this cooperation by the fact that foreign trade partners and their credit insurers will have fresher and more precise information on their Serbian trade partners” says Dimitrije Stamenović, managing director of SMECA.
Potential clients
Not only SMECA will use these services for their domestic risk coverage, but also the Austrian based credit insurance companies within the OeKB-Group, OeKB Versicherung AG and the Prisma Kreditversicherungs-AG (Prisma). By special agreement the new company will also provide this information to the leading credit insurer on the world market, the French-German Euler Hermes-Group and its subsidiaries worldwide.
"We feel a growing demand from the international market for the insurance of Serbian risks and information therefore", says Mr. Helmut Altenburger, General Manager of the OSEE, and: "We have decided to cooperate with SMECA because it was important for us to have an experienced local partner here in Serbia".
"One of the advantages of our local presence on the market is that the international credit insurers will have better access to so-called soft facts. Such soft facts have a growing importance in a profound credit assessment", Mrs. Lidija Vasić, President of the Board of Directors of the new company, adds.
Debt collection services out of court
Next to credit insurers also local Serbian factoring companies and banks are in the scope of the potential clients of OeKB Financial Services d.o.o. In the mid run the company also plans to take up debt collections services out of court.