Exclusive to ICA members, the ‘Safe Trading Zone’ provides an instant, online search facility that is automatically linked to the Association’s default and advisory notice lists and its membership database, making it quicker and easier for its members to check the status of a firm.

The Safe Trading Zone will be managed by the ICA’s Business Intelligence Team (BIT), which was introduced in October last year to proactively 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. We are confident that it will become an essential trading tool and will add even more value to being an ICA member.”

Tom Lowndes, ICA Business Intelligence Analyst, who was involved in creating the new facility said: “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’, amber for firms with an ‘advisory notice’ and red for a ‘defaulter’.”

International Cotton Association