Slackening trade credit management and an unwillingness among financial managers to chase down difficult business debts are two trends to emerge from a survey of over 300 trade credit managers in the "real economy". "This wasn't a survey of bank credit managers but trade credit managers. Hence no relationship can be directly interpreted to bank credit demand," warned Neil Shilbury, general manager, commercial and property solutions at Equifax, which commissioned the poll.The outlook among those polled was summed up as: "Optimism amongst credit managers in Australia continues to grow, with 58 per cent expecting future economic conditions to have a positive impact on businesses - up slightly from 56 per cent in 2017."The optimistic outlook, nevertheless, along with the absence of bank-inspired credit management and collections discipline - courtesy of the extended low interest rate environment - has resulted in a loosening of the reins in regard to financial management,  with credit managers prioritising collection activity for customers with the most money outstanding over those who seem at highest risk of failure, Equifax found."This may be due to the difficulties often encountered when chasing high-risk customers, compared to customers who have borrowed more money but have a better payment history," according to Shilbury.Of further concern - and highlighted in the survey - is the effect of "competitive influences" on credit managers' behaviour, with one third (33 per cent) reporting they felt pressured to extend credit even when adverse information was present. The reason most commonly given was the need to increase sales (45 per cent).Fewer organisations have increased their collections activity (27 per cent in 2018 versus 66 per cent per cent in 2017) and fewer have tightened their credit activity (23 per cent in 2018 versus 49 per cent in 2017). This trend looks set to continue for another year, as 27 per cent of credit managers planned to tighten collections activity while just 22 per cent plan to tighten credit activity."In a strong market where credit losses are low, it can be harder for credit managers to refuse applications and protect their business from bad debts," Shilbury said.The majority of the 302 credit managers who participated in the 2018 survey were from the manufacturing, finance and insurance, construction and wholesale trade industries.