The SCF market is expected to continue to expand strongly to the end of the decade, although the pace of growth will moderate to 20 percent to 30 percent per annum by 2015, and 10 percent per annum by 2020. Demica's research, conducted amongst global banks and a qualitative sample of international corporates, illustrates the climbing demand for this supplier finance facility and its increasingly significant role in banks' trade finance portfolio.

Financiers surveyed in this research exercise believe that the highest growth of SCF currently originates from the U.S. and Western Europe, in particular the UK and Germany. Eastern Europe, India and China are considered the top three regions with future SCF market potential. The driving forces behind the rapid growth of SCF are: the provision of liquidity to suppliers, working capital optimisation as well as enabling payment discounts and/or lower financing costs for suppliers. Technology will also contribute to the advancement of SCF; in particular the growth of e-invoicing systems is seen as a significant market accelerator by the majority of the banking community.

Almost 90 percent of the bank respondents regard SCF as a need-to-have financial product for corporate buyers, with more than three quarters of them considering it an added-value product. In the medium term, bank financiers expect domestic SCF programmes to become an absolute "must have" for corporates, while intensified competition will standardise and commoditise the domestic SCF service offering. Bank respondents also see cross-border SCF programmes further establishing themselves as an increasingly crucial facility, but indicate that their "added-value" status will be retained by virtue of such schemes' greater complexity.

Phillip Kerle, chief executive officer of Demica, says, "The upward growth trajectory of SCF witnessed by global banks demonstrates the growing importance of this facility in the trade finance armoury. In addition to the working capital benefits, nowadays businesses are also placing greater emphasis on operational efficiencies and cost reduction. The increased transparency and visibility in payment processes facilitated by SCF will therefore prove to be a particularly valuable asset for suppliers and corporates alike."

Source: Demica