Ecxpert article
Autor: Svetlana Magdelinić
SCINDEX
Summary: Significant boost to the development of international trade in the past two decades came through the development of the supply chain concept which drew on the multinational companies providing the participants more reliable relationships in effecting trade transactions. Also, this concept provided a huge migration to the open account transactions causing the classical payment instruments to decline both in number and volume. The recent economic downturn and resulting credit crisis prompted the initiatives for new payment solutions that will avert the risks in payment transaction simultaneously providing the improvement of corporate liquidity through the optimization of working capital management and cash conversion cycle, as well as the reduction of costs through the rationalization of billing and invoice reconciliation processes. These initiatives are based on the new solutions provided by SWIFT in coordination with the International Chamber of Commerce, Paris - the new solutions being the Trade Services Utility (TSU) and Bank Payment Obligation (BPO).