Late Payment Affects 90% of Businesses in Western Europe, Atradius Survey Reveals

Around 90% of the respondents of the latest edition of the Atradius Payment Practices Barometer survey for Western Europe had invoices paid late by their B2B customers over the past year. Respondents in Great Britain were the hardest hit by late payment from export customers (46.4% of the total value of British export credit sales were reported to have been paid late by B2B customers, compared to a 38.3% average for Western Europe). Late payments resulted in an average of nearly 40% of the total value of B2B receivables being defaulted on. Respondents in Italy and Greece were the most adversely affected by late payments by domestic B2B customers (on average, nearly half of the total value of their B2B invoices were defaulted on, which is around 10% above the average for Western Europe).