Quarterly credit checking will be introduced across the whole of ESSA membership from October 2018
At the start of 2018 ESSA introduced an additional process during the verification of new applications for membership; this process was the introduction of credit checking of all new member applications with a minimum requirement of 30 being set as the benchmark for qualification. This is an addition to all current requirements for membership.
This minimum credit rating was agreed upon by the then ESSA Board after seeking advice and investigating rating mechanisms of several approved credit checking facilities. The introduction of this process for new member applications has shown clear benefits and on the whole has been positively received by companies who have applied for membership in 2018. The two companies whose applications were declined on the basis of this new check, both responded positively to the news, had not realised their credit rating had dipped so low and assured us that they would seek out ways to remedy the situation before any future reapplication. Both companies understood and appreciated the value of creating a more rigorous membership application process.
Therefore, it has been agreed by the ESSA Board that there are clear benefits to the process of regular financial health checks on our current membership and in a similar fashion to our regular insurance checks, quarterly credit checking will be introduced across the whole of ESSA membership from October 2018.
The desired outcome is that as part of a standards based association, ESSA has a duty to make sure the companies it represents and conversely, those companies trading under the ESSA Kite Mark, uphold the standards of the ESSA Code of Conduct and Quality Charter. We also hope that it gives greater confidence with regard to member to member trading which is a key part of ESSA membership.
