Rules need further reforms for steady global trade finance

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The main modes of international trade are export and import plus they involve four common ways of payment: profit advance, open account or supplier credit, documentary collection, and documentary credit or letter of credit (LC).

The guidelines of Bangladesh Bank (BB) and the import policy order of the federal government allowed all modes of payments for export. But also for import, the money in advance is not allowed aside from small transaction including the purchase of books.

Eventually, the BB allowed the advance payment against the commercial import, that was limited by $5,000 for an importer and only in 2019 the total amount was risen to $19,000 yearly.

There is another option of prior permission for the bigger amount of transactions.

The restriction was relaxed for a restricted period through the pandemic for up to $500,000 or equivalent other forex for importing coronavirus-related life-saving drugs, medical kits or equipment and various other essential medical items.

The rule of the BB and the import policy order of the federal government restricted the import transactions through LC. It is expensive and time-consuming.

The LC is becoming obsolete because it has involvements of numerous parties, namely the nominating bank, the reimbursing bank, and the confirming bank.

Some of them are participating and then ensure the creditworthiness of the issuing lender against a certain percentage of commission.

On January 14, the BB issued a guideline on advance payments against imports under buyer's credit to open up the purchase of import, if the amount of money is directly paid by the exterior financiers and/or offshore banking operations of scheduled banks.

The excess condition of repayment guarantees irrespective of amount acceptable to ADs comes from banks abroad.

Cash in advance is a favorite approach to a transaction while this is actually the cheapest method. There is absolutely no universally approved regulation on profit advance. It really is guided by the order or sale arrangement. In this method, the interest of exporter is fully protected, and the fascination of importer isn't protected.

Banks get excited about the process of transferring payment. Files and shipments are directly dealt with by the exporters and importers.

The import policy order of the federal government allows import against LCs having at sight or at deferred payment basis. Import against LC authorisation is also permissible under certain conditions. These international transactions usually involve finance as well. Trade finance has another reason for reducing risks involved with cross-border trade transactions, which would in any other case be borne by the importers and exporters.

Trade finance mechanism includes a range of financing strategies and equipment to facilitate the repayment for things to exporters, who require repayment for the products and services beforehand.

Import financing is a specialised segment of trade financing that exclusively provides funding for imports. Import financing carries a variety of financial products and financial services that contain in common the similar purpose or objective of featuring the overseas financing and ways of repayment that are needed to acquire and import things from another country.

Factoring, among the equipment of international trade finance, is a global financial merchandise for trade funding for both household and international trade. It really is an effective imply of short-term financing for quick access to operating capital. The domestic factoring can revolutionise the funding of working capital of the development of goods and services.

Factoring is called invoice factoring, or invoice trading or perhaps invoice discounting in the event of export. Exporters by selling their account receivables will get quick access to income while they await their abroad importers to cover the goods they received. They are able to reinvest that funds or make use of it to cover other expenses and day-to-day operations. The original bank finances depend on the secureness of the mortgage, however the factoring will not require such home loan of fixed resources and others.

Bangladesh has introduced something of trade financing near to factoring for export transactions. The BB circular issued on June 30 under the subject of "Export under wide open account credit conditions against payment undertaking/repayment risk insurance coverage with the choice of early payment set up on the non-recourse basis" is usually mooted as credit rating guarantee. That is a guideline of factoring mostly concentrating on recovering export proceeds however, not full factoring providers such as for example export trade financing. There are some shortcomings of the rule.

The just lately issued rule on advance payment to the exporter for advance payment for import appears to become a tool of import financing rather than truly factoring. It really is conditional and includes a provision of advance authorization of progress remittance for imports of goods and providers into Bangladesh and against acceptable repayment warranty from a bank overseas.

The supplier furnishes repayment guarantee acceptable to the authorised supplier from a bank abroad, to be invoked for a refund of the amount paid in advance in case of the supplier's default in delivering the products or services according to contract.

The procedure has various compliance obligations of reporting to the BB and presentation of proof the release of consignments on time. The importer must submit within four weeks from the dates of remittances the relevant authenticated duplicate of the customs expenses of entry.  

With this guideline, the BB has extended the upfront import payment regime, allowing offshore banks and external financiers such as for example bank and trade finance company to pay beneath the buyer's credit.

To any extent further, the exterior foreign financiers, and also the representatives of local banking institutions like the offshore organization units, will be able to meet such advance obligations required beneath the condition of come back of moneyguaranteed by the funding mechanism.

The recent checking of payment options for two-way international trade by the BB rules - "Advance payments against imports under buyer's credit" for import trade and "Export under open account credit terms against payment undertaking/payment risk coverage with the choice of early payment arrangement on the non-recourse basis" for export trade -- are mainly focused on the security of forex and recovery of export proceeds. It ought to be used as a credit rating facility for international trade.

Present day global trade funding and different trade finance tools provide the platform and personal infrastructure to minimise risk for importers and exporters. Finance institutions in Bangladesh happen to be yet to expose the software-supported platform and create the relevant infrastructure for overseas transactions. Instead, they make use of old-fashioned transactions.

The beauty of contemporary trade finance is extending financing with out a mortgage or third-party guarantee as those possess in-built ways of security. BB's both-way payment method reforms certainly are a major modification in the foreign exchange policy. These conservative plans aren't in conformity of trade finance of globally accepted criteria. Both rules need additional reform to allow smooth trade finance of other countries.

International trade involves traders and banks of numerous countries and requires a uniform policy.
Source: https://www.thedailystar.net

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