Many businesses have been hit by the withdrawal of credit insurance and a dramatic reduction in their credit rating during the recession, which has led to cash flow problems as they lose credit lines from their trade suppliers but still have to extend credit to their own customers.

Ratings agencies have been accused by trade bodies of overreacting, lowering their ratings on entire sectors irrespective of an individual company’s trading performance.

But the agencies argue that their ratings are largely based on the trading information in the public domain, including accounts filed at Companies House and magistrates’ courts records, which pick up disputed late trade payments.

To counter this shortage of up-to-date information, the new free service, called CreditPal – developed by a company called Future Route and credit reference agency Graydon UK – aims to improve the flow of information to the ratings agencies, insurers and banks.