The PC Association, the UK lobby group for systems builders, is planning to debate the existence of Euler Trade Indemnity, the dominant supplier of credit insurance to the UK channel, with over 60 per cent of the market.

In an email sent last week to PC Association members, executive director Keith Warburton said: "As a monopoly supplier in our industry should there be some external regulation of Trade Indemnity, which we understand is largely French owned?".

Warburton also expresses suspicion of a "common theme seems to run through many of the front page reports of UK based IT companies "in difficulties" - many of them have had their credit ratings and limits cut by Trade Indemnity and one can't help wondering which came first - the cut or the "difficulty". One might also wonder who is leaking news of such limit changes to the press and to what purpose."

We're not sure what purpose external regulation would serve - ETI could always pack its bags and abandon the channel altogether. Credit insurers have taken a bath in the channel in the last year or so - and they are ratcheting up the premiums, especially in the retail and system builder sectors. There is an alternative, and that is for the disties to take on the credit risk themselves. ®

The Register has a new section for resellers. It's called Channel Flannel. And there is a permanent link to the section on the front page.

The article above also appeared in Microsoft Partner, a site for UK resellers only.