Question

If the payment term is planned to be 20% payment made at least 10days before shipping by T/T. 80% payment made by a credit be available with any bank by negotiation at sight. How can a seller apply for trade financing

Question 6: The seller want to apply for forfuaiting as the buyer wish to make payment within 720 days after shipment. Please have an analysis on the similarities and differences between Discounting&Forfaiting.

Answer 1

5. Here only 20% payment is likely to be made by importer before 10th days of shipment of goods. Therefore, the exporter or seller should apply for trade finance from an exporter bank. Usually there are different forms of trade finance available to both buyers and sellers. Both buyers and sellers can apply for trade finance to mitigate their trade risk. Factoring is a type of trade finance in which the seller will receive up to 80-90% finance immediately from sale of trade receivables to a buyer or importer. Trade receivables are usually amount that a company or buyer receive from the credit sales to importers. The factoring is an loan agreement between seller and a bank under which the bank provide at least 80-90% amount of bills of receivables to buyer as per the export contract. This type of finance mitigates the payment risk of seller and the factor finance received from trade receivables on ordinary goods are depicted as assets on the accounting book of seller. However, the cost of factor finance which is a type of debt is to be borne directly by seller.

6. Forfaiting is the legal right of an exporter to withhold exports if importer does not release payment for exported items after specific duration of trade. Here in this case, the buyer wants to release payment to seller within 720 days of shipment that may be beyond the deadline period for shipment as per the trade agreement.

Discounting or Factoring is cash received by an exporter to buyer also known as factor from sale of trade receivables at discounted prices.The factoring can be with or without any purpose. Forfaiting is an unilateral decision of the seller to relinquish trade contract and demand monetary compensation or payment from the buyer. It is always done without any purpose and the money received under Forfaiting is equivalent to the 100% of the total valuation of exportable items and it is usually paid by export Bank called Forfaiter. The factoring is financing for short term trade receivables whereas the forfaiting is financing for medium and long term trade receivables. The factoring is applicable only for trade receivables on ordinary goods but forfaiting applies to the trade receivables of capital goods such as heavy duty engineering goods, designer jeans etc. The cost of factoring is to be borne directly by seller or exporter whereas the cost of forfaiting is to be borne by importer or buyer. Forfaiting is mentioned in the trade negotiation or agreement but factoring is not included in trade agreement. However in spite of all differences, forfaiting is type of trade finance available to exporters that mitigates the payment risks and uncertainty of a trade deal for exporters. Also, both factoring and forfaiting are offered by export bank or financial institution.