Consultation on Proposed AMI Credit Insurance Scheme
To: CFOs and FDs of all AMI Group Members
From: Leo Sykes, Group Finance Director, What’s Possible Group
Date: 31 August 2025
CC: Martin Woolley, AMI CEO Group
Purpose of this Document
This consultation paper is intended to inform and engage relevant finance stakeholders, while also providing an update on progress made in AMI’s cost-saving and business improvement initiatives — specifically in relation to credit insurance.
Our aim is to ensure transparency, invite feedback, and address any concerns before proceeding further. We welcome input from across the AMI community to ensure all perspectives are considered and that any next steps are taken collaboratively.
Please note: participation in this scheme is entirely voluntary. Expressing interest does not commit you or your agency to any future obligation. It simply indicates a willingness to explore the opportunity further.
Background
In January 2025, the Alliance of Media Independents (AMI) launched a collaborative initiative to foster knowledge-sharing and mutual support among independent media agencies. AMI operates within the Alliance as a specialist community of channel-neutral media planning and buying agencies, united by the mission: To achieve significant outcomes together that none of us could accomplish alone.
As part of this initiative, the Finance Leaders Sub-Committee was tasked with developing a 12–24 month agenda of projects to benefit the wider AMI community. While this agenda is still being finalised, we agreed that tackling the challenge of credit insurance would be a valuable starting point.
Credit Insurance
Credit insurance is a common concern across agencies and represents one of the largest fixed costs outside of media spend and salaries. It is increasingly expensive, and many agencies struggle to pass this cost on to clients.
Smaller agencies often lack the bargaining power to negotiate favourable terms or structure policies effectively. Our goal is to identify ways to deliver tangible value to all AMI members — regardless of size.
Benefits of Credit Insurance
- Reduces uncertainty and supports business growth
- Mitigates risk of customer non-payment
- Protects short-term cash flow
- Supports long-term profitability
- Leverages insurer intelligence to align with high-growth clients
- Enables higher credit limits, facilitating more profitable transactions
- No broker remuneration paid — this is covered by the insurer
Progress to Date (Proposal)
We approached two independent insurance brokerages to gather insights and proposals on how they could add value, offer innovative solutions, and help reduce credit insurance costs.
One brokerage was unable to provide feedback. The other consulted with several major credit insurance providers and proposed the following:
- Individual policies for each participating agency (no overlap between members)
- Reduced premiums through collective bargaining
- Increased coverage percentages (lower excess on claims)
- Higher discretionary limits.
Scheme Benefits
- Economies of Scale: A collective scheme offers higher total turnover, enabling better premium rates than individual negotiations.
- Enhanced Service & Coverage: Despite individual savings, the overall premium pool is larger, encouraging insurers to offer improved service and coverage.
- Stronger Policy Terms: Insurers are more likely to offer generous terms and wording under a group scheme.
- Loss Protection: A larger premium pool provides better protection against losses, helping maintain a stable loss ratio and pricing.
1. Scheme Rates
Higher collective turnover enhances bargaining power and drives down premium rates.
The broker provided estimated premium rates based on individual agency turnover bands. They then modelled a scenario where a group of agencies with a combined turnover of £1.2bn negotiate collectively. Using a rate for a similar group in the sector underwritten by the Trade Credit Insurer Coface , the policy rate for all agencies — regardless of size — could be as low as 0.029%.
Depending on your current premium rate, this could represent a saving of 67% to 90%. A table of consolidated turnover levels and potential group rates is available upon request.
| Turnover Band | No of Members | Estimated Rate | Aggregated Turnover | Estimated Premium From Individual Policies | Group Rate | Estimated Group Premium | Potential Saving |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| <£10m | 13 | 0.290% | £65,000,000 | £188,500 | 0.029% | £18,850 | £169,650 |
| £10m to £50m | 8 | 0.180% | £190,172,448 | £342,310 | 0.029% | £55,150 | £287,160 |
| £50m to £100m | 5 | 0.120% | £347,271,506 | £416,726 | 0.029% | £100,709 | £316,017 |
| £100m to £500m | 2 | 0.089% | £609,705,701 | £542,638 | 0.029% | £176,815 | £365,823 |
| Total | £1,212,149,655 | £1,490,174 | 0.029% | £351,523 | £1,138,651 | ||
Other insurers have indicated that they would also offer similar rates – Atradius were keen to state their rate would be even more favourable. AIG’s rate were slightly higher but included in their pricing would be use of a bespoke ledger management system and a non-cancellable limit offering. Their data shows the increasing benefit of members joining the scheme
Better Together
- Even if initial uptake is small the benefits to members of amalgamation of Trade Credit Insurance programmes can be demonstrated and will progressively increase as more members join.
| Group Turnover | Average Premium Rate | Average Group Premium | Average Potential DL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| From | To | |||
| £0 | £125,000,000 | 0.147% | £75,208 | £35,000 |
| £125,000,001 | £250,000,000 | 0.092% | £169,833 | £85,000 |
| £250,000,001 | £375,000,000 | 0.079% | £245,833 | £135,000 |
| £375,000,001 | £500,000,000 | 0.071% | £308,333 | £170,000 |
| £500,000,001 | £625,000,000 | 0.066% | £371,406 | £190,000 |
| £625,000,001 | £750,000,000 | 0.062% | £428,281 | £220,000 |
| £750,000,001 | £875,000,000 | 0.059% | £475,781 | £240,000 |
| £875,000,001 | £1,000,000,000 | 0.055% | £513,906 | £270,000 |
| £1,000,000,001 | £1,125,000,000 | 0.051% | £542,656 | £290,000 |
| £1,125,000,001 | £1,250,000,000 | 0.047% | £562,031 | £315,000 |
| £1,225,000,001 | £1,500,000,000 | 0.043% | £571,979 | £335,000 |
Note: DL above £500k is estimated and may depend on structure.
2. Discretionary Limits
Discretionary Limits (DLs) allow policyholders to set credit limits without insurer approval, using trading history or reports from agencies like D&B or Creditsafe.
Typical DLs range from £10k to £20k per customer. Under the proposed group scheme, significantly higher DLs could be negotiated — subject to the number and size of participating agencies.
This would enable agencies to quickly set meaningful limits for campaigns, especially where limited information may prevent underwriters from approving cover.
Scheme Requirements
- Policies must be tailored to each member’s needs, recognising that members may be aligned competitors. All information from members will be treated as strictly private and confidential by the scheme managers and insurers and data provided will be secure.
- The scheme must maintain or improve the existing service that the members receive from their current credit insurance arrangements
- Larger agencies must also benefit — not simply serve as the basis for others’ savings
- While the group scheme protects against exceptional losses, frequent smaller losses could impact pricing. This risk will be mitigated by maintaining individual policies under a collective negotiation but also by application of agreed bonus/malus structures to agreeing pricing adjustments to be applied should these regularly occur. Current loss ratio of existing policies may be factor in membership of scheme.
- While shared buyers within the scheme members will be lower than in other trade sector schemes, insurer capacity and risk underwriting strategy will be a factor for the scheme placement
Consultation Process
We invite all stakeholders to share feedback, questions, or concerns by close of play on 30 September 2025. A summary of responses will be reviewed, and further communications will follow. For your ease of use a feedback and response form is below.
Contact
For any questions or to submit feedback, please contact me at leosykes@whatspossiblegroup.com of on 0044 7930 557895