Two developments are likely to influence the direction of trade services in the medium-term: a more risk-averse culture coming out of the credit crisis; and, despite that, a continuing trend away from traditional documentary instruments toward open account trading. Current estimates suggest that some 85% of world trade is now being conducted on open account.
The tightening of credit globally represents both a challenge and an opportunity to the banks. Although the majority of cross-border open account trade is conducted corporate-to-corporate, evidence suggests that a significant percentage will migrate to a bank-assisted model over the coming years. There is a growing demand for banks to provide greater innovation in the developing world of supply chain solutions.
In response to these changing market needs, SWIFT Trade Services Utility (TSU), a data matching and workflow engine which enables banks to establish a common view of supply chain transaction data and to monitor events from inception to completion, was enhanced with the Bank Payment Obligation (BPO) in 2009. The BPO represents an irrevocable undertaking given on the part of one bank to pay another bank provided that a number of predetermined conditions have been satisfied through the electronic matching of data within the TSU.
Legal framework
For the BPO to achieve critical mass, it must provide the same level of assurance that trading counterparties associate with traditional documentary instruments. These have well-established and accredited guidelines, with dispute resolution procedures built around the Uniform Customs & Practice (UCP) as published by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). Having introduced the BPO, SWIFT is now working with its customers to promote awareness and usage. "We have a commercialisation group with 18 banks who have committed to working with us and to enter into live BPO transactions before the end of August this year," says David Hennah, Senior Product Manager, SWIFT. "The reason we set that timeframe was to coincide with a targeted accreditation process with the International Chamber of Commerce. We wanted to back that up with a certain amount of commercial evidence of live usage."
Bank of China and Standard Bank of South Africa take the lead
Ivy Mosupi, Product Head, Supply Chain Finance, Standard Bank, confirms that the BPO is to be tested with those South African pilot participants that the bank is running. "The bank is looking to test BPO with both importers and exporters and as both an obligor and a receiving bank, obviously leveraging the methodology built from when the bank was conducting its proof of concept," she explains. "The BPO is incorporated in the Standard Bank end-to-end Supply Chain Finance service to enhance the other services offered under open account," she adds. So far the bank has received a positive welcome from the pilot participants when introducing the BPO.
"They believe it offers more flexible, faster, easier and less costly forms of trading," says Mosupi. "Furthermore, our pilot participants view the bank as a business partner in supporting them along their supply chain and meeting their risk intermediation, liquidity and settlement needs."
| BPO Commercialisation Group |
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Banco do Brasil |
A survey conducted by SWIFT among five Chinese banks in 2009 indicated that 90% of domestic letter of credit business involved intra-bank transactions while only 10% were interbank transactions. The reason for this phenomenon, to some extent, is the lack of a unified telecommunications platform to support interbank domestic letter of credit business in China. It poses an obstacle to the development of domestic letter of credit business between different banks, and is not conducive to the long-term growth of domestic trade in China. However, TSU with BPO provides a solution.
TSU provides a unified electronic platform with an advanced telecommunications framework to ensure the safety and accuracy of information exchange between different banks. With the addition of BPO to TSU, the creditworthiness of transactions is enhanced, and TSU with BPO can function similarly to a domestic letter of credit to facilitate domestic trade in China. In addition, it can be the backbone for banks to offer alternative forms of financing such as financing open account transactions. It creates opportunities for banks to provide value-added supply chain management services, such as BPO-based pre-shipment and post-shipment finance. In addition, TSU supports the input, transmission, and matching of Chinese character information, thus, greatly increasing its potential use in China.
Vendor perspectives
"We see BPO as an enabler for banks to make better risk-based decisions for trade finance," says Nigel Taylor, Business Development, Bottomline Technologies, a global provider of collaborative payment, invoice, and document automation solutions. "Large corporates need a healthy and risk-mitigated supply chain and I'm firmly convinced that bank-assisted open account is a viable service." Taylor expects the next year to be devoted to spreading awareness of the benefits of the new functionality with adoption following. "Supply chain finance is the buzz, and it is reliant on automation. The initial focus, I believe, is automating the corporate's back office, getting rid of the paper and making it electronic."
Joel Schrevens, Solutions Director, China Systems confirms: "The potential of the BPO is very clear, but having a well-defined procedural, legal and risk management context is a prerequisite for the BPO to become a key instrument in bank-assisted open-account trade." On a domestic level, such issues can be much more easily controlled and it is not a coincidence that a BPO-based solution for domestic trade services was recently introduced in China. With increased usage and ICC endorsement, we could see a domino effect in usage of the TSU and BPO in the course of 2011. Although banks are mostly not involved in open account trade exchanges today, apart from the settlement side, it is clear that the TSU with BPO provides a valid alternative to process open account transactions in a more secure way: it formalises the establishment of buyer credit and reduces the risk of supplier fraud, because a supplier bank is involved and will perform the necessary checks on their side.
While critical mass will take time to build up, Hennah at SWIFT believes that the next 12 months will see concerted efforts on the part of banks to educate customers on the potential that BPO offers for marrying the convenience of open-account trading with the risk mitigation of tradition trade finance instruments.