Ah, spoke too soon. But this is not a critical issue - I can live with the error message, which didn't appear before the update to latest release of Hikashop, so that may offer a clue to one of the Hika Team...
When I re-create one of my payment methods the message returns. (interestfree)
This payment method was written especially for us, to deal with Interest Free Credit that we offer.
Any pointers to the source of the bug gratefully received. Files that make up the plugin are attached.
A long shot, I realise, but the code might help someone looking for a similar plugin (30% down and 6 installments for the rest).