Insurance sector failing on prompt invoice payments

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More than three quarters of invoices over 10 days remaining unpaid. The insurance industry is performing poorly when it comes to the timely payment of invoices, statistics suggest.

Researchers in charge of the barometer, operated by industry analyst Sidetrade, stressed that the finance, insurance, real estate, as well as ICT, are areas where late payment rates were already high prior to the pandemic.

Sidetrack monitors six countries to see how their payment flows are progressing. The UK has the highest rate of unpaid invoices (39% unpaid), whereas the Netherlands can boast the lowest figure (18% unpaid), not far from their pre-pandemic rate of 15%.

The Sidetrade tracker shows the payment behaviour, week by week, of over 3.7 million businesses in six European countries: Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, The Netherlands and the UK.

Since the beginning of the year, Sidetrade has analysed over 26 million invoices representing €54bn in B2B transactions.

The tracker is freely accessible to all private sector decision-makers and public authorities