National Credit Insurance (NCI) is a specialist trade credit insurance brokerage founded in 1985 in Adelaide. Today, it is one of the largest trade credit insurance broking providers in Australia and New Zealand, and it also has operations in Asia.
It has offices in Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Canberra in Australia. In addition, it has offices in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch in New Zealand, as well as in Singapore.
NCI is part of the Steadfast Group, the largest insurance broking network and underwriting agency group in Australasia. It is also the only Australian member of the International Credit Brokers Alliance (ICBA). ICBA is a worldwide group of independently owned specialist trade credit insurance brokers, combining local knowledge and service with global coordination, in order to provide trade credit and political risk insurance for some of the largest multinational businesses.
Aside from trade credit insurance, NCI also provides specialised reports and consultancy services, credit assessment, commercial collections, claims management, debtor monitoring, pre- and post-insolvency advice, and various other related services.
According to NCI, while its main product is trade credit insurance, its main business is to protect its clients’ profitability. As such, in addition to its trade credit insurance offerings, it developed a wide range of services that seek to encourage better business practices in trade credit management from its clients, in order to improve profitability on a day-to-day basis.
To help its clients monitor their customers’ ability to pay, National Credit Insurance developed a tool called NCIRadar. This tool uses multiple data sources including NCI’s own unique data, to alert clients when one of their customers may be facing financial difficulties, which might affect their ability to pay. Around 900,000 businesses are monitored, in over 174 countries. NCIRadar is available in several accordingly-priced packages, with an increasing amount of services and businesses monitored.
National Credit Insurance is also a member of the Australian Institute of Credit Management (AICM) and the National Insurance Broking Association (NIBA). It is a member of the World Blockchain Trade Consortium (WBTC), an anti-fraud consortium composed of trade credit insurers and financial technology companies exploring the use of blockchain in preventing and detecting fraudulent activity.
Key people as of 2019
Kirk Cheesman, managing director
One of the company’s stalwarts, Cheesman has been with National Credit Insurance since 1990, he began as an office trainee, then worked his way up to general manager – client service, and then was promoted to managing director in 2008.
Prudence Chang, national sales development manager
Chang is another mainstay at NCI. She joined in 2006 as a sales executive and later was named senior business development manager in the VIC/TAS region. She was appointed sales manager for VIC/TAS in 2015, and, in 2019, she was promoted to a national capacity in her current role. Chang has consistently made the Insurance Business Elite Brokers list.
Zara Mends, account director
Mends joined NCI in 2005 as a client service manager. In 2010, she was given responsibility for the QLD region, until becoming general manager for QLD in 2013. In 2017, she was named account director, assuming a role in the company’s management team. Mends was part of the Insurance Business Elite Brokers list in 2015 and 2016.
Terry Duffy, executive manager - partners, products & developments
Duffy has been part of NCI for 28 years, or almost the entirety of his career. He has over 30 years of trade credit insurance experience, and has held numerous roles with NCI, including sales, marketing, client retention, branch management, and general management. He currently holds a global role, overseeing partners, products, and developments in Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore.
"We are only really entering the woods at this point," says NCI's MD
Winners in six categories will be revealed at the annual conference next year
Boss says there's space for more education
“It’s a very dynamic product, and we have quite a high staff to policy ratio”
