Daily Archives: May 14, 2014

The New Silk Road Might Be the Biggest Boon to Supply Chain Finance This Year

In yesterday’s post, we asked what impact will the new silk road have on global trade. Specifically, what impact will the new Russia, China, and Germany trade partnership have on global trade — besides simplifying and building Eurasian trade relationships.

One thing it will do is strengthen the resolve of these countries to not only de-couple their currency from the dollar and launch a new reserve currency backed by their union, but to trade in local currencies as well. As trading in local currencies becomes more and more common, banks will become more and more inclined, and even comfortable, to lend in foreign currency denominated debt as well as local currency. Private lending institutions will not only follow, but begin to lead the way.

This will be a great boon to foreign companies which, until now, have been limited to either borrowing from local lenders, at high interest rates, but in the local currency, or a handful of global lenders, at slightly lower interest rates, in a foreign currency, that could cause their debt to skyrocket if their currency weakens with respect to the foreign currency.

The whole point of Supply Chain Finance is to help the cash-strapped supplier. Early payment or dynamic discounting doesn’t help the supplier if the discounts are too high. Arranging for third party lenders to lend using your credit score, and not the suppliers, doesn’t help if the supplier has to take a risk in a foreign currency. And factoring isn’t a solution at all! (Since a third party will only buy your suppliers’ receivables if it can make money off of them — loan sharks at their finest.) Arranging for lending in your suppliers’ local currencies on your credit score when you can’t pay early is safest for your supplier and probably the best supply chain finance solution we’re going to see for a while.

Thoughts?