Here we need to clarify several key elements to grasp the essence of supply chain finance and combine it with financial technology:
The first element is the goal: as a subdivision of finance, its goal is "controllable risk"-to control the risk to the lowest (or lower, the expansion of the first paragraph of the descriptive definition) level. In other words, its core values and main tasks are the same as those of finance, but new goals have been added.
The second element is the object: what are the undertakers of the main financial tasks and the implementers of the objectives? The main task bearers of finance have formed different financial branches, while supply chain finance focuses on the whole supply chain enterprise, that is, the production cluster formed by the supply chain. Financial or other enterprises (not only banks, but also the expansion of the first descriptive definition) realize the unique goal of supply chain finance through measures management optimization.
The third element is implied in the description, which is the essence of supply chain finance, that is, supply chain finance is essentially relational finance, supply chain is the relationship formed by production, and supply chain finance is the financial service formed on this relationship. The biggest difference between relational finance and traditional finance is to expand the bearing of financial core elements from objects (such as enterprise loans, the core element is credit, and the bearing object is enterprise/future cash flow) to the relationship between objects. This expansion makes the core elements re-expressed, quantified and predicted, in which expression and quantification constitute a major task of financial "pricing".
The third element of supply chain finance leads to relationship finance, which also makes supply chain finance easy with financial technology from the beginning. The reason is that the main work of traditional financial analysis is to calculate on ordinary real numbers. By defining metrics, probability theory, mathematical statistics and stochastic processes can fully support the task of financial analysis. If you consider the scene of big data (high-frequency data is a kind of big data), machine learning artificial intelligence makes this analysis more "accurate" and "generalized"; But relational finance needs financial analysis to expand from real number to "graphic data"-so-called graphic data, that is,
The finance (analysis) defined on graphic data is relational finance (analysis). There are many specific practice scenarios of relationship finance, most of which can even be summarized as relationship finance, such as international finance, but the most typical relationship finance is supply chain finance, mainly because it contains the above three main elements and has two characteristics that support practical application:
First, it has a clear and stable basic relationship, which makes the definition of financial elements such as credit clear;
Second, the service providers (financial institutions) are limited, which makes the core characteristics of finance consistent, and the conclusions are compliant and operable.
From the essence of finance, supply chain finance is actually a comprehensive embodiment of the three-dimensional characteristics of finance. The coordination and optimization of logistics, information flow and capital flow involves three characteristic dimensions of finance (insurance involves two). Its basic model structure is actually that logistics, information flow and capital flow are controlled by financial "factor flow" and are subject to the objectives, regulatory restrictions and coordination resources of financial institutions. This process is actually an "operation" on a multi-scale graph. Of course, we can consider a certain perspective of different themes, such as optimizing capital flow with graphic data analysis, building information flow efficiency with big data 5G, and tracking and processing capital flow with financial automation process. These are all mature models of supply chain finance, and can also be regarded as the commercial embodiment of supply chain finance technology. But in fact, supply chain finance also needs to involve the characteristics and trends of this "relationship" change. For example, the "inventory financing" business, the embryonic form of supply chain finance initiated by many banks, enables this relationship change to extend to the secondary mortgage and transfer of credit, and new financial institutions and financial service institutions of supply chain manufacturers can join in. When we transfer credit many times, it also means the formation of a sharing mechanism. This is also the reason why supply chain finance has a "risk sharing mechanism". Among them, the role that financial technology can play is more certain, so the reasonable mechanism of risk sharing is more reasonable, that is to say, it can play the role of credit dispersion (so-called blockchain-supported supply chain finance), relationship credit replication (so-called professional industry supply chain finance built by platform enterprises in specific fields) and rich risk-taking mechanism (so-called active introduction of compliance financial model). The specific application has been reflected in many cases of studying the application of financial technology in supply chain finance, so I won't repeat it here.
The above is a more in-depth analysis of supply chain finance from a technical point of view. Next, this paper considers supply chain finance from the origin of finance and the transition from technology to value. From the research point of view, we can consider the infinite possibilities of technology and the myriad changes of supply chain finance, but all definitions of supply chain finance ignore one point, that is, as an applied financial field, the vitality of supply chain finance lies in "value" and the value of financial existence is clear. Of course, supply chain finance also has the same value, but it also has its own unique value, that is, reducing and eliminating uncertainty (three key characteristics of finance) by means of relationship construction. Therefore, its value core is the credit optimization of the current rational multiple cash flows in the future supply chain. Although it is simple, with this height, we can better grasp the structure, adjustment and value creation of supply chain finance as a whole, and then optimize the whole supply chain with the help of supply chain finance, and finally serve the real economy.
Based on the above value models, supply chain finance can generally be divided into single value model, oligopoly value model and multi-value model, but it should be noted that this does not mean that multi-value model is more advanced, which is related to the real economy industry and regulatory environment in which the supply chain is located; At the same time, based on the dimensional characteristics and relationships of finance, supply chain finance can also be divided into nine modes: 3*3 * * *.
The author published a monograph on industrial clusters, investigated the Supply Chain Finance Model of Thirteen Industries in China, and some of the models also formed graduate teaching guidance cases. The key to the success of these models lies in the sharing of value, which is often misunderstood as cash flow (money). In fact, the previous introduction of supply chain finance has shown that the value of its elements is reflected in stages, and it makes a wrong judgment when it does not reach the "cash flow". Therefore, this paper is divided into three elements, one is lithium battery (new energy) in a city in Shandong, and the other is "auto parts industry chain finance" promoted in a province in southwest China. Just two contrasting examples. We believe that the supply chain finance models suitable for most industries are: single-valued model (geographical dimension aggregation) and multi-valued model (non-geographical latitude aggregation); Among the nine models, more is to build relationship credit replication and enrich risk taking; From the perspective of value creation, choose the strategy to expand financial value.
(Author Zhang Ning, Ph.D., professor, doctoral supervisor, director of China Financial Technology Research Center of Central University of Finance and Economics, president of Quality of Life Research Association, chairman and chief economist of the Council of Family Business Development Cooperation Organization)