Global trade is a complex undertaking at the best of times. But extreme headwinds - from geopolitical volatility to high borrowing costs and levels of inflation not witnessed in a generation, not to mention the hangover from the Covid-19 pandemic - are putting increasing pressure on corporate balance sheets and supply chains.
At a time when stability and access to working capital are essential, there is an urgent need for more effective, robust supply chain finance (SCF) solutions.
This makes the passing of a concise but extremely powerful piece of legislation particularly pertinent. The UK's Electronic Trade Documents Act 2023 (ETDA) came into force in September.
While most businesses will likely have paid little heed to this development, its relevance is profound for companies of all sizes that trade domestically or internationally.
The legislation has an immediate global impact as between 60%-80% of all global trade is governed by English law, regardless of the domicile of the counterparties.
The ETDA reflects the essence of the 2017 UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR), that has been adopted by Singapore and the UAE amongst others, and which will form the root of similar legislation being adopted by G20 nations.
So, what is the ETDA? And importantly, what does it mean for businesses?
One small step for legislation
The processes behind funding trade and drafting their documentation largely rely upon the same laborious, manual methods. Consequently, they are insecure, inefficient, siloed, and impractical. Digitalisation is widely acknowledged as being the way forward for both physical and financial supply chains but applying digital capabilities to trade finance is not straightforward.
Unlike in other sectors of finance, where digital progress is more advanced, the rules upon which trade finance is governed date back centuries. Trade finance is therefore built on entrenched, longstanding legal specifications established for a paper-based age. The principles of "possession" and "transfer", for example - which pertain to the exchange of trade documentation and are vital to facilitating trade finance - have remained largely unchanged in most jurisdictions.
In effect, according to the wording of global trade rules, paper documents are the format by which trade finance has to be conducted. And this has been the fundamental barrier to digital trade document adoption.
What the ETDA does is give certain documents commonly used in global trade the same legal status in digital form as their paper-based equivalents.
Superficially a small change, this amendment is the breakthrough that has been needed to allow digital documents to become mainstream and come into their own.
One giant leap for businesses and their balance sheets
Specifically, the ETDA has significant implications for negotiable documents such as promissory notes and bills of exchange. It is the digitalising of these documents - and their legal recognition - that is key. Free from the inefficiency constraints of paper, digital versions of negotiable instruments (or "DNIs") are creating an avenue to transform and optimise SCF, and, in the process, discard inefficient and insecure paper-based processes.
From a corporate treasurer's perspective there is considerable value to be gained - including, fundamentally, improvements to working capital through more effective funding and cost savings, with earnings within their existing supply chains.
DNIs are a scalable, flexible and binding promise of payment by a business. Crucially, this enables today's fractured, impractical funding structures that result in lengthy payment cycles and strains on working capital to be completely inverted - from a "bottom up" approach to a "top down" one.
This means tying funding to the balance sheet of the issuer, rather than that of the generally weaker creditworthiness of businesses' SME suppliers. A business can therefore borrow from a financial institution (FI) and then cascade funding down to their suppliers by issuing DNIs.
DNIs dispense with the separate assignment agreements and irrevocable payment undertakings (IPUs) that are currently necessary for the transfer of trade documentation. And, with the DNI the basis of the lending rather than non-negotiable invoices, not only can 100% of invoice values be financed, but payments can be made immediately, thereby massively speeding up access to funding across supply chains.
This approach enables smaller suppliers to optimise their working capital through early payments which, in turn, ensures supply chain security for the business, generates opportunities for supplier discounts, and improves buyer-supplier relationships.
DNIs also allow corporates to have far greater control of how and when they use SCF, including being able to negotiate payment terms with suppliers to pay early or on time, depending on their liquidity needs. They are inherently more flexible than existing solutions, meaning treasurers can effortlessly switch between different funding methods - such as employing either their own or third-party cash - depending on which is the most effective for them at any given time, predicated, for instance, on their business cycle or cash position.
For example, if a typically cash-rich business runs into liquidity issues, instead of having to limit their dynamic discounting programmes, they can use DNIs to access external liquidity to extend payment terms as needed.
In terms of bottom-line contribution, a typical supplier early payment programme using digital documents such as this, can result in annual net benefits of between 1-7% of cost of goods. Furthermore, regardless of whether supplier early payment discounts are negotiated, businesses can also use digital instruments to avail themselves of post maturity finance and can thereby 'buy' themselves an approximate additional 50% cash in hand (i.e. a 60 day supplier invoice is settled with a bill or bill drawn for an additional 30 days) to plug financing gaps as needed.
Harnessing Digital Negotiable Instruments (DNIs)
One consideration that must be made regarding DNI adoption is the ETDA stipulation that the use of a reliable electronic trade document system and sufficient security on electronic documents is required for a DNI to be legally recognised. While clarity regarding exactly what constitutes a "reliable system" is currently being sought, there are DNI solutions readily available that, by passing key possession and reliability tests, already conform with the ETDA's definition.
These solutions, such as the TradeSecure™ platform, place quantum-secure digital seals around DNIs that require a specific cryptographic key and protect electronic signatures using quantum notary technology. Such capabilities ensure DNIs cannot be duplicated or tampered with, thereby assuring the ownership and authenticity of the instrument. Easy trackability also streamlines and automates the audit process.
ETDA: Enter The Digital Age
One can reasonably ask that, if the use of promissory notes is already possible, why don't businesses employ them? Simply put, without digitalisation, this process was heavily reliant on physical, paper documentation, the inherent administrative costs that accompany it, and the slow pace of transfer via mail. As a short-term financing process (between 90-120 days), long turnarounds have made them previously not worthwhile.
With digital documents, there is no long waiting period for paperwork to move through the supply chain, creating a far more readily available cash pool. This is because digital instruments can be exchanged in (close to) real-time, expediting processes by approximately 10-12 days, and thereby enhancing time to revenue and operational efficiency.
DNIs can easily be integrated into current SCF programmes via APIs, making them interoperable with existing global trade platforms and businesses' ERP systems. For smaller businesses that may not use ERP, invoice data can be uploaded simply using CSV files. DNI adoption is therefore non-disruptive, straightforward, and efficient.
Once onboarded, using digital trade documents rather than paper versions will bring direct cost savings, with costs linked to paper trade documents estimated to be three times more than their electronic counterparts.
There is little doubt that to the bystander that the ETDA is a dry and inconsequential piece of legalese. However, by enabling the digitisation of trade documentation, it and similar legislation being implemented across the G20 and beyond, promises to create opportunities for corporates to conduct trade financing unlike what has come before.
By issuing a digital promissory note (DNP) or bill of exchange that gets immediately financed by a financial institution and discounted by suppliers, and then being able to choose the timing and frequency of the use of these solutions is transformational for businesses - driving extensive commercial advantage. As businesses seek to seize the opportunities abound and adoption inevitably accelerates, let us enter the age of SCF 2.0.
