from the president

Welcome to the second edition of the AICM’s Credit Management Magazine for 2023.

It is shaping up to be a fantastic year of events within the AICM with both learning opportunities and social events.

Planning is well underway for an even bigger and better Young Credit Professional Award to be presented at this year’s National Conference in Adelaide together with a great line up of speakers and sessions currently being built. I look forward to yet another amazing conference and catching up with you all in October. We thank ARMA, a Credit Clear Company and CreditorWatch for their continued support of this award now in its 26th year.

I am excited to announce that we are launching the Credit Professional of the Year award that will recognise professionals who lead a team of 2 or more direct reports or work as a credit specialist at a senior/strategic level within a credit provider. Applications for the division awards will open shortly with the national award presented at the National Conference. We thank illion for sponsoring this award and making it possible for us to recognise the achievements of our high achieving credit professionals.

Our 2023 Women in Credit, WINC theme is “A Catalyst for change” and celebrates AICM’s actions toward a gender equal future. We have already had a great start of the WINC program with the first webinar, “4 Questions to move from Stuck to Significance” recently being held on International Women’s Day, 8th March. We had a record of 247 registrations and we are

Julie McNamara MICM CCE National President

already in the planning for the next webinar in July. I do hope you all took something away from the webinar as did I.

Almost all face-to-face WINC events are now open for registrations. The first WINC luncheon is kicks off in Sydney on the 5th of May! We are likely to sell out in most locations so check out the calendar in your state and hurry if you don’t want to miss out.

We look forward to supporting our chosen charity for 2023, The Women’s Resilience Centre.

We have published two reports since the last edition of the magazine with the Overdue Credit Index Report and Risk Reports being circulated, both of which are available on our website.

The Risk Report was published on the 22nd of March to inform the profession as a whole. The report draws on a survey of AICM members and Certified Credit Executives to provide insight on how recent and future economic conditions are impacting their ability to manage risk and ensure their businesses are paid promptly.

Our National Roadshow is currently taking place with the Risk Seminars and Economic Breakfasts.

We have been organising the Risk Seminar series for six consecutive years now; this seminar has been developed by a national committee of credit, legal and insolvency professionals in collaboration with the Australian Restructuring Insolvency and Turnaround Association, ARITA with a purpose to: l Identify where credit and insolvency risk may arise l Manage and forecast to include risk l Adapt to new reforms and the ever changing landscape l Understand emerging trends

AICM’s annual Economic Breakfasts are designed to give members a holistic view of economic conditions relevant to how they manage credit risk and cash flow for their business. Not to mention a lovely opportunity to network with old and new friends.

With the recent failures of significant building companies leaving so many families with unfinished homes, it is becoming more and more obvious that 2023 will be a time to be diligent and proceed with caution when we are making our day to day credit decisions making it even more prevalent to be attending AICM’s events provided for our benefit and to keep us all informed.

Don’t miss your opportunity to register and attend these great events including our new courses outlined on the AICM websiteAICM provides a range of qualifications and short courses for beginners who are keen to advance in their careers, right through to more senior position holders wishing to refresh their knowledge, or test their skill with the coveted CCE, Certified Credit Executive status.

The new AICM member portal makes it very easy to check your points and start planning how you can achieve 100 points to qualify to sit the assessment and achieve your Certified Credit Executive status.

There are many ways to earn your points whilst at the same time keeping up to date with changes in legislation, from the many seminars, workshops, certifications such as Cert IV and Diploma in Credit Management through to the free webinars which are frequently and readily available.

We are on track with our membership target with great results to date, we are striving to reach 3,000 members by the end of June thanks to our hard working and passionate council members.

Once again, on behalf of our distinguished board of directors, I would like to thank all our members, colleagues, sponsors, partners and our AICM office for their continued support.

The AICM board, National office and Division Councils strive to continually provide more opportunities for you to succeed in your role and career. This work is highly reliant on a small but passionate group of credit professionals who volunteer on the board and division councils. Like all credit professionals these volunteers have very busy lives and workloads so on behalf of all members I thank them all for their contributions. You can see who your council representatives are here.

To continue growing the AICM we need more passionate credit professionals to step forward and contribute to their profession. If you feel you have the experience and passion to enable you to help in any way and you feel you could support your council or board, I encourage you all to do so. It is the most rewarding and satisfying experience knowing you can make a difference. We are currently looking to grow in most areas, particularly South Australia and Perth, so please email aicm@aicm.com.au and we will put you in touch with your local division council.