Trade finance
Trade finance is the financing of international trade flows. It exists to mitigate, or reduce, the risks involved in an international trade transaction.
There are two players in a trade transaction: (1)an exporter, who requires payment for their goods or services, and (2)an importer who wants to make sure they are paying for the correct quality and quantity of goods.
WHAT ARE THE RISKS?
As international trade takes place across borders, with companies that are unlikely to be familiar with one another, there are various risks to deal with. These include:
Payment risk: Will the exporter be paid in full and on time? Will the importer get the goods they wanted?
Country risk: A collection of risks associated with doing business with a foreign country, such as exchange rate risk, political risk and sovereign risk. For example, a company may not like exporting goods to certain countries because of the political situation, a deteriorating economy, the lack of legal structures, etc.
Corporate risk: The risks associated with the company (exporter/importer): what is their credit rating? Do they have a history of non-payment?
To reduce these risks, banks – and other financiers – have stepped in to provide trade finance products.
TYPES OF TRADE FINANCE PRODUCTS
The market distinguishes between short-term (with a maturity of normally less than a year) and medium to long-term trade finance products (with tenors of typically five to 20 years)
Trade finance signifies financing for trade, and it concerns both domestic and international trade transactions. A trade transaction requires a seller of goods and services as well as a buyer. Various intermediaries such as banks and financial institutions can facilitate these transactions by financing the trade.
While a seller (or exporter) can require the purchaser (an importer) to prepay for goods shipped, the purchaser (importer) may wish to reduce risk by requiring the seller to document the goods that have been shipped. Banks may assist by providing various forms of support. For example, the importer's bank may provide a letter of credit to the exporter (or the exporter's bank) providing for payment upon presentation of certain documents, such as a bill of lading. The exporter's bank may make a loan (by advancing funds) to the exporter on the basis of the export contract.
Other forms of trade finance can include Documentary Collection, Trade Credit Insurance, Finetrading, Factoring or Forfaiting. Some forms are specifically designed to supplement traditional financing.
Secure trade finance depends on verifiable and secure tracking of physical risks and events in the chain between exporter and importer. The advent of new information and communication technologies allows the development of risk mitigation models which have developed into advance finance models. This allows very low risk of advance payment given to the Exporter, while preserving the Importer's normal payment credit terms and without burdening the importer's balance sheet. As trade transactions become more flexible and increase in volume, demand for these technologies has grown.
Products and services
Banks and financial institutions offer the following products and services in their trade finance branches.
· Letter of credit: It is an undertaking/promise given by a Bank/Financial Institute on behalf of the Buyer/Importer to the Seller/Exporter, that, if the Seller/Exporter presents the complying documents to the Buyer's designated Bank/Financial Institute as specified by the Buyer/Importer in the Purchase Agreement then the Buyer's Bank/Financial Institute will make payment to the Seller/Exporter.
· Bank guarantee: It is an undertaking/promise given by a Bank on behalf of the Applicant and in favour of the Beneficiary. Whereas, the Bank has agreed and undertakes that, if the Applicant failed to fulfill his obligations either Financial or Performance as per the Agreement made between the Applicant and the Beneficiary, then the Guarantor Bank on behalf of the Applicant will make payment of the guarantee amount to the Beneficiary upon receipt of a demand or claim from the Beneficiary.
Bank guarantee has various types like 1. Tender Bond 2. Advance Payment 3. Performance Bond 4. Financial 5. Retention 6. Labour
· Export
· Import
· Collection and discounting of bills: It is a major trade service offered by the Banks. The Seller's Bank collects the payment proceeds on behalf of the Seller, from the Buyer or Buyer's Bank, for the goods sold by the Seller to the Buyer as per the agreement made between the Seller and the Buyer.
Supply Chain intermediaries have expanded in recent years to offer importers a funded transaction of individual trades from foreign supplier to importers warehouse or customers designated point of receipt. The Supply Chain products offer importers a funded transaction based on customer order book.
New developments
Trade finance is going through a revolution. New technologies and development are energizing traditional players, transforming their offerings and pulling trade into the 21st century. One of the main developments is the introduction of blockchain technology into the trade finance ecosystem. The promise of blockchain is that it has the ability to streamline the trade finance process. In the past, trade finance has been provided primarily by financial institutions, unchanged for years, with many manual processes on old-legacy systems that are expensive and costly to update. Such structures are mostly managed manually or through antiquated systems, which are not scalable and result in higher operational costs for financial institutions.
Blockchain technology can provide enormous benefits to solve these technological challenges in trade finance. It can be used to provide the basic services that are essential in trade finance. At its core, blockchain relies on a decentralized, digitalized ledger model, which by its nature is more robust and secure than the proprietary, centralized models which are currently used in trade finance. As a consequence, blockchain can lead to radical simplification and cost reduction for large parts of transactions in trade finance, whilst making it more secure and reliable. It keeps an immutable record of all the transactions, back to the originating point of a transaction, also known as the provenance, which is essential in trade finance as it allows financial institutions to review all transaction steps and reduce the risk of fraud. One of the blockchain’s advantages is the speeding up of transaction settlement time which currently takes days, increasing transparency between all parties, and unlocking capital that would otherwise be tied up waiting to be transferred between parties in the transaction. Several companies are working on trade finance solutions leveraging blockchain technology such as the R3 consortium, which brings together the world's biggest financial institutions and TradeIX, which developed a connected and secured platform infrastructure for corporates, financial institutions, and B2B networks through standard communication channels (APIs) leveraging blockchain technology.
Methods of payment
International trade financing is required especially to get funds to carry out international trade operations. Depending on the types and attributes of financing, there are five major methods of transactions in international trade. In this chapter, we will discuss the methods of transactions and finance normally utilized in international trade and investment operations.
International Trade Payment Methods
The five major processes of transaction in international trade are the following −
Prepayment
Prepayment occurs when the payment of a debt or installment payment is done before the due date. A prepayment can include the entire balance or any upcoming part of the entire payment paid in advance of the due date. In prepayment, the borrower is obligated by a contract to pay for the due amount. Examples of prepayment include rent or loan repayments.
Letter of Credit
A Letter of Credit is a letter from a bank that guarantees that the payment due by the buyer to a seller will be made timely and for the given amount. In case the buyer cannot make payment, the bank will cover the entire or remaining portion of the payment.
Drafts
Sight Draft − It is a kind of bill of exchange, where the exporter owns the title to the transported goods until the importer acknowledges and pays for them. Sight drafts are usually found in case of air shipments and ocean shipments for financing the transactions of goods in case of international trade.
Time Draft − It is a type of foreign check guaranteed by the bank. However, it is not payable in full until the duration of time after it is obtained and accepted. In fact, time drafts are a short-term credit vehicle used for financing goods’ transactions in international trade.
Consignment
It is an arrangement to leave the goods in the possession of another party to sell. Typically, the party that sells receives a good percentage of the sale. Consignments are used to sell a variety of products including artwork, clothing, books, etc. Recently, consignment dealers have become quite trendy, such as those offering specialty items, infant clothing, and luxurious fashion items.
cash with order(CWO)-the buyers pay cash when he places an order.
cash on delivery(COD)-the buyer pays cash when the goods are delivered.
documentary credit(L/C)-a Letter of credit (L/C) is used; gives the seller two guarantees that the payment will be made by the buyer:one guarantee from the buyer's bank and another from the seller's bank.
bills for collection(B/E or D/C) -here a Bill of Exchange (B/E)is used; or documentary collection (D/C) is a transaction whereby the exporter entrusts the collection of the payment for a sale to its bank (remitting bank), which sends the documents that its buyer needs to the importer’s bank (collecting bank), with instructions to release the documents to the buyer for payment.
open account-this method can be used by business partners who trust each other; the two partners need to have their accounts with the banks that are correspondent banks.
Methods of payment: Cash in Advance (Prepayment) Documentary Collections Letters of Credit Open Account Combining Methods of Payment Summary Resources Activities Assessment
Open account is a method of making payments for various trade transactions. In this arrangement, the supplier ships the goods to the buyer. After receiving and checking the concerned shipping documents, the buyer credits the supplier's account in their own books with the required invoice amount.
The account is then usually settled periodically; say monthly, by sending bank drafts by the buyer, or arranging through wire transfers and air mails in favor of the exporter.
Trade Finance Methods
The most popular trade financing methods are the following −
Accounts Receivable Financing
It is a special type of asset-financing arrangement. In such an arrangement, a company utilizes the receivables – the money owed by the customers – as a collateral in getting a finance.
In this type of financing, the company gets an amount that is a reduced value of the total receivables owed by customers. The time-frame of the receivables exert a large influence on the amount of financing. For older receivables, the company will get less financing. It is also, sometimes, referred to as "factoring".
Letters of Credit
As mentioned earlier, Letters of Credit are one of the oldest methods of trade financing.
Banker’s Acceptance
A banker’s acceptance (BA) is a short-term debt instrument that is issued by a firm that guarantees payment by a commercial bank. BAs are used by firms as a part of the commercial transaction. These instruments are like T-Bills and are often used in case of money market funds.
BAs are also traded at a discount from the actual face value on the secondary market. This is an advantage because the BA is not required to be held until maturity. BAs are regular instruments that are used in international trade.
Working Capital Finance
Working capital finance is a process termed as the capital of a business and is used in its daily trading operations. It is calculated as the current assets minus the current liabilities. For many firms, this is fully made up of trade debtors (bills outstanding) and the trade creditors (the bills the firm needs to pay).
Forfaiting
Forfaiting is the purchase of the amount importers owe the exporter at a discounted value by paying cash. The forfaiter that is the buyer of the receivables then becomes the party the importer is obligated to pay the debt.
Countertrade
It is a form of international trade where goods are exchanged for other goods, in place of hard currency. Countertrade is classified into three major categories – barter, counter-purchase, and offset.
· Barter is the oldest countertrade process. It involves the direct receipt and offer of goods and services having an equivalent value.
· In a counter-purchase, the foreign seller contractually accepts to buy the goods or services obtained from the buyer's nation for a defined amount.
· In an offset arrangement, the seller assists in marketing the products manufactured in the buying country. It may also allow a portion of the assembly of the exported products for the manufacturers to carry out in the buying country. This is often practiced in the aerospace and defense industries.
