Coface, one of the world's largest export-credit insurers, has launched an on-line credit-rating service for e-commerce companies, a first for Asia.
Jerome Cazes, managing director of Coface, said a big problem for companies trying to enter e-commerce was establishing credibility.
'The Internet does not solve the problem of security in commercial transactions. Instead, it complicates the situation because it means virtually anyone anywhere in the world can become a customer or supplier,' he said.
The French insurer introduced credit-rating services in Europe in March. After launching in Hong Kong yesterday, the company will begin the service in the US next month and in Japan in July.
'In Asia, excluding Japan, B2B (business-to-business) is estimated to have had turnover of at least US$9.2 billion in 1999 and is expected to generate up to US$996 billion in 2004,' Mr Cazes said.
A company can apply to Coface via the Internet for a credit rating and must provide financial information.
Coface will check the information with its own database which contains credit records of 35 million companies worldwide.