Supply chain finance (SCF) is the practice of financing working capital and capital expenditures for businesses. It can help companies in many different industries, including manufacturing, construction and agriculture. The main objective of supply chain finance is to help businesses manage their cash flow by providing them with short-term loans or lines of credit at a lower cost than traditional bank loans.
2. Introduction
Supply chain finance (SCF) is the practice of financing working
capital and capital expenditures for businesses. It can help
companies in many different industries, including manufacturing,
construction and agriculture. The main objective of supply chain
finance is to help businesses manage their cash flow by providing
them with short-term loans or lines of credit at a lower cost than
traditional bank loans.
3. What is it?
• Supply chain finance is a financing solution for businesses. It's a way to
get cash flow and help suppliers and customers, as well as businesses,
grow.
• The supply chain finance handbook explains what it is, why you should
use it and how to set up a supply chain finance facility yourself or with
the assistance of an intermediary.
4. The Three Pillars of SCF
Supply chain finance is not just about cash flow. It is not a panacea for all the ills of
your business. However, it can be an important tool to help you achieve your
objectives as a growing business and manage risk in an uncertain environment. As
such, supply chain finance should be considered as part of any funding plan.
Types of Supply Chain Finance
Supply chain finance is a suite of financial products that allow you to tap into the
value of your existing inventory. The most common types include:
Factoring, where you sell invoices for a discount
Leasing, where you rent equipment like forklifts and trucks from a third party
Receivables management, which allows you to move your invoices from an
information system onto an accounting platform and update them as necessary
before selling them in bulk at wholesale prices
Inventory financing, which allows you to borrow against inventory when cash
flow is tight
5. How Does It Work?
Supply chain finance is a way of financing a company's supply chain. It
functions like invoice finance, but instead of financing invoices from
suppliers to retailers, it finances the movement of goods through the
supply chain.
Supply chain finance is typically used by large retailers that have complex
supply chains and need flexible funding options to keep them running
smoothly. These companies often employ thousands of suppliers across
multiple countries with varying currencies and payment terms, so they rely
on third-party services (like banks) to help manage this complexity.
6. Who are the Different Players?
It's important to understand that supply chain finance is a complex
ecosystem. There are many different players involved, and each has a
specific role to play.
You should also be aware that not all the different players are working
together in the same way, or for the same company. So it's important to
understand how these roles fit together in order to work effectively
with them.
7. Supply chain finance is about more than just
cash flow.
Supply chain finance is a tool to help companies manage their cash flow. It’s also a
tool to help companies manage working capital and inventory. The value of supply
chain finance comes from the impact it has on each of these three areas, which can
improve your ability to predict and control your business performance.
Supply chain finance is part of traditional banking, but it differs in that it uses cash-
based financing rather than credit-based financing. Supply chain finance offers
more flexibility over traditional bank lending because you don't need a loan
approval or collateral—you only need enough cash at the end of each month to pay
off your invoices from suppliers. For this reason, supply chain finance is less
expensive than traditional bank loans because there's no interest rate attached to it
(though some providers will charge an origination fee when you first open an
account).
8. Conclusion
SCF is a very dynamic market, and there are many
opportunities for providers to innovate in this space. The
industry continues to grow and develop, so it’s important
for everyone involved to stay up-to-date with the latest
developments.