1. The meaning of supply chain finance.
Supply chain finance is to provide comprehensive financial services for a single enterprise or multiple upstream and downstream enterprises in an industrial supply chain, so as to promote the stable and smooth circulation of the "production, supply and marketing" chain between the core enterprises of the supply chain and the upstream and downstream supporting enterprises. Through the cooperation of financial capital and industrial economy, an industrial ecology of mutual benefit, win-win, sustainable development and benign interaction among banks, enterprises and commodity supply chains is constructed.
Supply chain finance is not a single business or product. It has changed the credit model of banks and other financial institutions to a single enterprise in the past. But around a "1" core enterprise, from the procurement of raw materials to the production of intermediate products and final products, and finally the products are delivered to consumers by the sales network, connecting suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, retailers and end users into a whole, providing all-round services for "n" enterprises in the chain. So it is also called "1 N" mode.
2. The characteristics of supply chain finance.
(1) supply chain finance studies the whole supply chain from the core enterprises. On the one hand, it effectively injects funds into the relatively weak upstream and downstream supporting small and medium-sized enterprises to solve the problem of supply chain imbalance; On the other hand, integrating bank credit into the trading behavior of upstream and downstream enterprises can enhance their commercial credit, improve their negotiating position, make supply chain members negotiate more equally, gradually establish long-term strategic coordination, enhance the competitiveness of the supply chain and promote the sustained and stable development of the whole supply chain.
(2) Supply chain finance evaluates the credit risk of SMEs from a new perspective. Based on the idea of supply chain finance, banks and other financial institutions have changed from focusing on the evaluation of credit risk of small and medium-sized enterprises to the evaluation of the whole supply chain and its transactions, which not only truly evaluates the real risk of business, but also makes more small and medium-sized enterprises enter the service scope of banks.
Analysis on financing mode of supply chain finance
1. Accounts receivable financing mode.
The act of financing financial institutions with unexpired accounts receivable is called accounts receivable financing. The following focuses on the upstream and downstream enterprises in the supply chain and financial institutions involved in accounts receivable financing to design accounts receivable financing mode, as shown in figure 1:
Accounts receivable financing based on supply chain finance is generally aimed at creditor enterprises in the upstream of supply chain. Creditor enterprises, debtor enterprises (downstream enterprises) and banks should all participate in it, and debtor enterprises play the role of counter-guarantee in the whole operation. Once the financing enterprise has problems, the debtor enterprise will bear the responsibility of making up for the losses of the bank, so that the bank can further effectively transfer and reduce the risks it bears. In addition, before commercial banks agree to provide credit loans to financing enterprises, commercial banks still need to evaluate the risks of enterprises, but they pay more attention to the repayment ability, transaction risks and the operation of the whole supply chain of downstream enterprises, rather than only evaluating SMEs themselves.
Accounts receivable financing enables financing enterprises to obtain short-term credit loans provided by commercial banks in time, which is not only conducive to solving the short-term capital needs of financing enterprises and accelerating the healthy and stable development of small and medium-sized enterprises, but also conducive to the sustained and efficient operation of the entire supply chain.
2. Confirmed warehouse financing mode.
In order to obtain the raw materials and finished products needed by enterprises for sustainable production and operation, enterprises in the downstream of the supply chain often need to prepay the upstream suppliers. For enterprises with short-term cash flow difficulties, they can use the confirmed warehouse business to finance a special advance payment, thus obtaining short-term credit support from banks. Confirmed warehouse business is a financing business in which a financing enterprise (hereinafter referred to as the buyer) applies to the bank for a loan line with the warehouse receipt pledged by the seller at the warehouse designated by the bank, and the bank controls its right to take delivery. Warehouse-keeping business is applicable to the purchase under the condition of seller's repurchase. The basic business process design is shown in Figure 2 below:
Confirmed warehouse business needs not only the participation of upstream suppliers, downstream manufacturers (financing enterprises) and banks in the supply chain, but also the participation of warehouse managers, who are mainly responsible for the evaluation and supervision of collateral; Confirmed warehouse business requires upstream enterprises to commit to repurchase, thus reducing the credit risk of banks; What the financing enterprise obtains through the confirmed warehouse business is the right to pay the goods in batches and take delivery in batches, without paying the full amount at one time, which effectively relieves the short-term financial pressure of the enterprise.
Confirmed warehouse business realizes leveraged purchase of financing enterprises and batch sales of suppliers, and also brings benefits to banks, achieving a win-win goal. Provide financing convenience for small and medium-sized enterprises in supply chain nodes, and effectively solve the financial dilemma of their full purchase. In addition, from the bank's point of view, the warehouse-keeping business not only further excavates the customer resources for the bank, but also provides the joint liability guarantee and property right of the supplier as the guarantee, which further reduces the risk.
3. Financing mode of financing warehouse.
Inventory financing is an enterprise's behavior of handling financing business with financial institutions with inventory as pledge. Enterprises can adopt inventory financing mode in the process of paying cash to selling inventory. The so-called financial warehouse refers to an innovative service that integrates finance and logistics provided by third-party logistics enterprises. It can not only provide customers with high-quality and high value-added logistics and processing services, but also provide customers with indirect or direct financial services to improve the overall performance of the supply chain and the efficiency of customers' operation and capital operation. Its basic business design is shown in Figure 3 below:
Based on the idea of supply chain finance, when small and medium-sized enterprises adopt financing warehouse business, banks focus on whether the enterprises have stable inventory, whether they have long-term cooperative trading partners and the comprehensive operation of the whole supply chain, and take this as an important basis for credit decision. In addition, the introduction of a third-party logistics enterprise into the financial warehouse business is responsible for the acceptance, value evaluation and supervision of the pledged goods, and accordingly issues certificates to the banks to assist them in risk assessment and control, which further reduces the risks of banks and improves the enthusiasm of bank credit. In addition, commercial banks can also give logistics enterprises a certain credit line according to the scale and operational capacity of third-party logistics enterprises, and logistics enterprises are directly responsible for the operation and risk management of financing enterprises' loans, which can not only simplify the process and improve the operational efficiency of financing enterprises' production and marketing supply chains, but also transfer the credit risk of commercial banks and reduce operating costs.
Financing warehouse business has opened up new financing channels for small and medium-sized enterprises. Under the background of supply chain, small and medium-sized enterprises can change the movable property that banks were unwilling to accept into their own movable property pledge by financing warehouse business, thus building a new bridge for bank-enterprise financing.
Comparative Analysis of Three Financing Models Based on Supply Chain Finance
1. Similarity of three financing modes.
Accounts receivable financing, confirmed warehouse financing and financing warehouse financing all embody the core concepts and characteristics of supply chain finance, providing short-term urgently needed funds for small and medium-sized enterprises. It can not only enable enterprises to maintain continuous production and operation, improve the operation efficiency of the whole supply chain, but also enable banks to make profits, jumping out of the limitations of a single enterprise. It examines small and medium-sized enterprises from the perspective of the whole supply chain, and turns from paying attention to static enterprise financial data to dynamic tracking of enterprise operation, which fundamentally changes the observation horizon, thinking thread, credit culture and development strategy of the banking industry. 2. The difference between the three financing methods.
Accounts receivable financing, confirmed warehouse financing and financing warehouse financing are different in the specific application and operation process, and are applicable to enterprise financing activities under different conditions, as shown in Table 1:
It is worth noting that in the specific operation process of enterprises in the supply chain, various production activities are intertwined and there is no strict division of labor. They may be both on the creditor's side and in urgent need of funds to buy raw materials to maintain production. Therefore, there are no absolute applicable conditions for accounts receivable financing and confirmed warehouse financing, and enterprises can choose according to specific conditions, and sometimes they can consider using them comprehensively.
In short, accounts receivable financing, confirmed warehouse business and financing warehouse business use accounts receivable, prepayments and inventory as collateral to finance SMEs respectively. Small and medium-sized enterprises at any supply chain node can choose the appropriate financing mode to solve the problem of capital shortage according to the upstream and downstream transaction relationship, transaction cycle and their own characteristics.
Potential advantages of financing for small and medium-sized enterprises based on supply chain finance
The potential financing advantages of SMEs based on supply chain finance mainly include the following aspects:
1. is conducive to weakening the bank's restrictions on SMEs themselves.
Supply chain finance is a comprehensive financial service for many other small and medium-sized enterprises around the core enterprises in an industrial chain. Therefore, the main body of banking services is no longer limited to small and medium-sized enterprises themselves, but the whole supply chain; The credit risk assessment of banks has also shifted from the static financial data of small and medium-sized enterprises to the transaction risk assessment of the whole supply chain.
2. It is conducive to alleviating the degree of bank information asymmetry.
Supply chain finance considers small and medium-sized enterprises in the whole supply chain. The information of enterprises in the supply chain is relatively smooth, and banks can easily grasp and control potential risks at any time, which reduces the adverse selection risk and moral hazard of enterprises. Enterprises have stable upstream and downstream enterprises, good business environment, clear industrial development direction, and easy to predict their credit risks; Enterprises are usually closely linked through chambers of commerce and guilds, and the information between enterprises is relatively smooth and easy for banks to obtain. Small and medium-sized enterprises in the supply chain gather together, trade with each other and exchange information with each other, which will inevitably lead to information gathering in exchange for more information on the chain and establish a good credit image. In this way, by cooperating with enterprises in the chain, banks can reduce their information collection costs, reduce their transaction costs, and stimulate the enthusiasm of banks to issue loans.
Supply chain finance can effectively alleviate the financing difficulties of small and medium-sized enterprises in China. However, in practice, in order to further reduce risks, some financial institutions require core enterprises to provide some written promises and guarantees at the same time, thus limiting some small and medium-sized enterprises to obtain credit support by using supply chain finance.
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