At Company Watch, we help organisations manage financial risk with clarity and confidence. One of our long-standing partnerships is with EFCIS Limited, the specialist trade credit insurance broker, where our data sits at the heart of client risk assessment.
Client
EFCIS Limited is a multi-award-winning, FCA-registered independent specialist trade credit insurance broker. It is the sole UK member of the International Credit Broker Alliance (ICBA), a global network of 900+ specialist brokers.
Andy Moylan founded EFCIS over 25 years ago and has spent more than 37 years in Trade Credit Insurance as both underwriter and broker. The business is growing fast and continues to grow in all industry sectors.
Andy Moylan, CEO, EFCIS Limited
Challenge
The market is under real strain, and that comes as no surprise. Across sectors, EFCIS is seeing more payment delays and tighter tolerances. Andy places the current stress level on par with 2019. In such a tense climate, shaped by an unstable geopolitical environment, risk decisions built on accounts filed 18 months ago simply are not good enough in many cases.
Companies now demand better-informed, up-to-date information for their everyday risk decisions. That difference can determine whether they ultimately get paid for the goods and services they provide.
Several of the brokers on the EFCIS team are former underwriters. They check the credit limits supplied by volume data providers against the actual financials, and too often they find nothing behind them other than last file account which could be 18 months old. In one case, EFCIS assessed a company at £5,000, while a volume provider recommended £237,000.
“Clients are looking for quality data rather than a volume data solution. They want decisions based on more relevant and up-to-date data that provide a more current risk assessment of the individual company risk today.”
Andy Moylan, CEO, EFCIS Limited
Poor risk assessment carries a real financial cost. That’s why many businesses need access to accurate, up-to-date data when making everyday risk decisions. This is especially true when weighing whether to trade with a company where only partial credit insurance cover exists, or none at all. With quality data on hand, you can make these calls with confidence and trade with far greater payment certainty.
Solution
EFCIS now uses Company Watch as a premium source of financial risk insight, valuing the depth of the distressed-debt analysis and the accuracy of our scoring system.
“I still think the Company Watch data is probably one of the best in the market. I like the coverage on the distressed debts. It’s a premium product.”
Andy Moylan, CEO, EFCIS Limited
What has deepened the partnership is Company Watch’s push beyond historic financials into current, multi-source intelligence:
The new PoD® score, currently in beta with clients, takes the proven financial rigour of the H-Score® and charges it with live market signals: CCJs, Gazette notices, group associations and director track records. Where filed accounts offer a rear-view mirror, PoD® reads the road ahead, surfacing distress as it builds rather than after it lands.
HMRC deliberate tax defaulter and creditor data reveals something no balance sheet can: how a company is treating the taxman today. It’s a telling signal, and as Andy points out, a critical one, since HMRC remains the driving force behind most winding-up petitions.
Director verification status under the new ECCTA rules turns a compliance obligation into an instant onboarding check. One glance shows whether directors have done what the law now demands.
Public sector contracts, acquisitions and investor data complete the picture, from live government contract pipelines to venture capital involvement, the kind of commercial context that can shift an insurer’s appetite overnight.
“The interesting bit for me is how Company Watch factors other data sources into the score. That’s an important departure. This data is current. I’m not relying on a set of financials from a snapshot in time 18 months ago.”
Andy Moylan, CEO, EFCIS Limited
Embracing AI together
EFCIS is no stranger to AI. So, when Company Watch previewed its new MCP connector, which lets clients combine their own payment data with Company Watch data through AI, Andy saw the potential straight away.
“That to me is exciting. Clients want to use their own payment data and overlay it with the financial data. Every company’s risk appetite is different. You take their data with your data, and that is quite interesting. That’s an intelligent product offering compared to the market.”
Andy Moylan, CEO, EFCIS Limited
Results
With Company Watch, EFCIS gives clients a broader, more current view of risk. That means they can keep trading with companies that survive a cover withdrawal, instead of walking away from good business.
“It’s refreshing to see a company that’s thinking more broadly. Companies that rely totally on financials data, with this fast-moving AI, will be out in the coming months and years. Risk decisions should not be based on historic financial data alone. There are so many moving parts. You could have got away with that 10 or 15 years ago, but the dynamics are moving and moving fast.”
Andy Moylan, CEO, EFCIS Limited
What began as a data subscription has become something bigger: a shared belief that modern risk decisions need current, multi-source intelligence, not just filed accounts. As the market shifts, EFCIS and Company Watch are moving in the same direction, together.
A word from our CEO
“I’ve known Andy for many years, and we’re proud to partner with specialists like him and his team. His extensive underwriting background means he holds data providers to the highest standard, and his clients depend on risk intelligence with real substance behind it. That’s exactly what we’re building: the strongest financial analytics in the market, coupled with current data, from HMRC defaults to director verification, and now AI tools that let clients blend their own data with ours. Partners like EFCIS help us to push our boundaries on data and product innovation.”
Craig Evans, CEO, Company Watch
