ICA Launches ‘Safe Trading Zone’ for Members

Business happens fast, but the need to do proper due diligence on your trading partners often doesn’t. The gap between those two things is where much of the risk lies, and that’s why the International Cotton Association (ICA) developed a fast and easy way to determine the trading status of possible business partners.
Exclusive to ICA members, the ‘Safe Trading Zone’ provides an instant, online search function that is automatically linked to ICA’s default and advisory notice lists as well as its membership database, making it quicker and easier for members to check the status of a firm.
The Safe Trading Zone will be managed by ICA’s Business Intelligence Team (BIT), which was introduced in October 2012 to gather trade information and search for trade links used by defaulters and associated firms to buy or supply cotton.
“The BIT regularly identifies and receives information indicating that a defaulter is linked to or used by other companies, enabling them to continue to trade,” said Kai Hughes, ICA managing director. “The Safe Trading Zone gives us a new platform to share this vital information with our members at the touch of a button.”
Tom Lowndes, a ICA business intelligence analyst who was involved in creating the new facility, added that “The system could not be easier to use. Members simply type in a company name or a country and then it does the rest. It will automatically conduct a predictive search (a bit like ‘Google’) of our default, advisory notice and membership data, and then deliver the results on screen. It uses a traffic-light system: green for an ICA member and therefore safe to trade with, amber for firms with an advisory notice, and red for a defaulter.”
For more information, please visit the ICA Web site.