One of the critical needs of corporates as the lagging supply chain effects of the pandemic continue to impact global movement of goods and services, as well as the payments associated with these transactions, is the ability to access working capital.
This is especially true of the SME space and various industry verticals as well. This article from Finextra announces a new capability from HSBC in collaboration with Trade Ledger, a 2016 startup out of London, that has a corporate lending platform that supports many lending categories including invoice funding, supply chain financing and debtor financing.
In member research we have covered the need for innovative solutions in working capital and many other spaces.
As stated in the piece, HSBC now indicates that the approval process for potential receivables finance clients has been reduced to two days versus a previous wait time of up to two months. They call the solution Digital RF and applicants can utilize APIs to communicate from their ERP to the platform during the online process. Using a rules-based decisioning engine, Digital RF sends a survey and report to underwriters within hours, with follow-on status available to the applicants to keep them apprised of loan progress. This all concludes within two days as stated in the piece. Digitization moves on across the cash cycle.
Overview by Steve Murphy, Director, Commercial and Enterprise Payments Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group.
