(21 April 2025 – Global) Tap into East & Partners global analyst team, sharing detailed insights into key thematics influencing decision making among CFOs, treasurers and financial services providers.
Supply Chain Finance Back in Vogue?
Supply chain finance (SCF) continues to regain popularity following the collapse of Greensill. Large corporates are attracted to the flexibility of extending payment terms to suppliers to settle invoices with suppliers that provide them with goods and services, enabling them to dictate greater control over invoicing and liquidity at a time of heightened uncertainty stemming from escalating the US-China trade war.
East’s core Trade & Supply Chain Finance service reveals 42 percent of Corporates, 36 percent of Commercials and 29 percent of SMEs actively utilise SCF, split across Receivables (AR) financing, Inventory financing, Invoice Finance, Distributor/Buyer Finance, Pre-shipment/PO Finance, Payables (AP) Financing and Supplier Financing.
This round East & Partners asked Commercial and Corporate enterprises if they are using SCF, who are they partnering with? And what is their current and forecast value of SCF facilities?
East also queried SMEs on their experience as part of a supply chain financing arrangement with a large corporate buyer to gauge sentiment on their participation in these arrangements. Contact East for detailed breakdowns of these fascinating results.
Cross Border Payment Network Innovation Challenges Incumbents
Are corporates prepared to engage with rival international payments networks springing up to challenge incumbent cross border payments rails operated by Visa, Mastercard and Swift? Circle is collaborating with major global banks including Standard Chartered, Deutsche Bank, Société Générale, and Santander to develop a new international payment network aimed at transforming cross-border transactions.
The World Bank estimates that cross-border payments still cost over six percent on average and can take longer than a business day to settle. This is largely due to layers of intermediaries, compliance checks, and fragmented cut-off times across various jurisdictions. The Circle Payments Network is set to roll out in a limited release this May, positioning itself as a serious competitor to legacy messaging networks such as Swift.
East research reveals cross border payments are the fastest growing area of product usage within cash & payments, yet wallet share is trending sharply lower as competition intensifies among existing providers.
“Standard Chartered is continuously looking for opportunities to make cross-border payments more efficient, secure, and compliant to various regulatory requirements, globally. Circle’s compliance-first approach to building products like CPN is a game changer for how money moves across borders, and we are pleased to build on our partnership and offer them our global expertise to support the success of CPN” commented Michael Spiegel, Global Head of Transaction Banking at Standard Chartered Bank.
Private Credit Pulse
Where are large corporates sourcing private credit borrowings from currently? Where do they expect to source private credit from in the future?
What percentage of total corporate funding is sourced through private credit markets? How quickly is this changing?
What applications is private credit being sourced for specifically? And what does sentiment towards private credit look like? Do corporates see the expansion of private credit borrowings in debt markets as a positive or negative development as regulators heighten their level of surveillance?
Stay tuned for new East & Partners analysis exploring these powerful emerging trends and more.
March Analyst Meeting Insights
The previous March 2025 analyst meeting insights highlighted the balance between technology adoption and “human touch”, ISO20022 adoption, Evolving Challenges in Taiwan and understanding what makes treasurers tick.
East & Partners’ Outlook 2024/25 uncovers how corporates, middle market enterprises and small businesses are responding to changes in the global economy, from new technology to emerging trends for business banking. Download now.