All Creditors Data: Full Visibility from the Statement of Affairs

Chris Oatts — Head of Data and Product Strategy

Creditor data from the Statement of Affairs: Now available on Company Watch

When a company enters insolvency, the Statement of Affairs provides one of the most complete and reliable pictures of its financial obligations. Company Watch now surfaces that data in full — giving users visibility across all creditor types, not just unsecured trade debt.

What Is the Statement of Affairs?

The Statement of Affairs is a formal legal document submitted by a company’s directors when it enters administration or liquidation. It sets out all known liabilities at the point of insolvency; who the company owes money to, how much, and under what category of debt.

Because it is filed as part of formal insolvency proceedings, it is one of the most structured and legally verified sources of creditor information available. It captures obligations that may never appear in standard financial accounts, including secured bank debt, HMRC arrears, intercompany loans, and overseas creditor exposure.

Why unsecured creditor data alone isn’t enough

Most creditor monitoring tools focus on unsecured creditors i.e. trade suppliers, utilities, and service providers. While useful, this represents only one layer of a company’s total debt picture.

A business may show a modest unsecured creditor book while simultaneously carrying:

• A large secured loan from a bank or invoice finance provider
• Significant HMRC arrears classified as preferential debt
• Substantial intercompany borrowing from a parent or subsidiary
• Liabilities owed to overseas suppliers not visible in UK filings

Without sight of these categories, any risk assessment based on creditor data alone is incomplete. The order in which creditors are repaid (secured first, then preferential, then unsecured) also determines what recovery, if any, lower-ranking creditors can expect. That context matters enormously when assessing exposure to a distressed counterparty.

Understanding the six creditor categories in insolvency

Company Watch now provides creditor data across all six categories reported in the Statement of Affairs:

• Secured: Creditors holding a legal charge over company assets, typically banks or asset-based lenders such as invoice finance providers. Secured creditors sit at the top of the repayment hierarchy and are repaid before any other class of creditor.

• Preferential: Creditors granted statutory priority under UK insolvency law. This includes HMRC for certain tax liabilities and employees owed wages or holiday pay. Preferential creditors rank above unsecured creditors but below secured.

• Unsecured: Trade suppliers, service providers, and utilities. The largest category by number of creditors in most insolvencies, but lower in repayment priority than secured and preferential claims.

• Associated Company: Loans from parent companies, subsidiaries, or other entities within the same corporate group. Intercompany funding arrangements can significantly inflate a company’s true liability position and are often invisible without Statement of Affairs data.

• International: Creditors registered outside the UK. The presence of international creditors can indicate overseas supply chain dependencies or cross-border financial exposure.

• Other: Accounting liabilities not captured in the above categories, including accruals and outstanding expenses.

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