Make our money blog

Trade finance is the method importers and exporters of commodities and goods use to finance their business. Basically, trade finance has been in existence for many thousands of years – and one can trace the roots of trade finance and structured trade finance right back to the early days of China and the silk route, Mesopotamia and Europe. Trade Finance was around long before Europeans settled in America and long before the world’s stock markets were born!

Today, trade finance is a massive, multi-billion dollar business. As the world trades more and more goods and commodities are bought and sold, so more and more banks and financiers are needed to lend money to finance the purchase and sale of these goods and commodities – right across the global supply chain.

How is trade finance and structured trade finance useful?

Take an example: imagine you are a trader in cocoa beans in Cote d’Ivoire, buying beans locally and selling them to foreign buyers. To make your purchases, you will need to have money to buy the cocoa up-country in Africa, prior to their export. Where will you find money to make these purchases? And supposing you are the international buyer; the shipper, purchasing from cocoa traders all over West Africa – how will you finance your transactions, which at any one time may exceed your cash reserves? What might be supported by your bank who, if they are traditional lenders, will only lend against your balance sheet?

This is where trade finance and structured trade finance is useful – your business can grow and develop if you use the services of a specialist trade finance department who will structure trade finance structures can be tailored to your needs, using the collateral of the goods you are trading, rather than your own balance sheet or other assets.

What is the basis of trade finance and structured trade finance?

Goods and commodities have an underlying value of their own. For example, if cocoa beans are worth many hundreds or even thousands of dollars per tonne, then once a big pile of beans is accumulated in one place; in a warehouse or on a ship, it is worth a lot of money. A bank may lend money against the total value of the beans, minus some amount to take account of price and other risks

.

It is the same for every commodity or trade good which is resalable. A bank will make a loan as long as the collateral “adds up” and as long as the bank is comfortable with the way the deal is structured between both the buyer and the seller. Of key importance is that if something goes wrong the bank is able to take possession of the commodities or goods and sell them to realise monies to repay any loan amounts outstanding.

Basically, when we talk of structured trade finance we are talking of deals whereby complex arrangements are put in place to ensure a bank can take possession and sell the underlying capital used for the loan; in this example, the goods and commodities themselves.

Is trade finance complicated?

No. It is a simple business although the structures used in trade finance in more complex deals require a lot of work for all of the parties involved. This is why the total loan amount of a structured trade finance loans must be high enough to warrant the involvement of highly-paid bankers, lawyers and other advisers.

Where can I find out more about trade finance and structured trade finance?

Day Robinson Group has offices in London and New Delhi and is one of the world’s foremost providers of training in the trade finance sector. For more information, you can visit our site at: http:///www.dayrobinson.com or you can contact the author of this article, Dan Day-Robinson at Day Robinson International in the UK (ddr@dayrobinson.com).

Popularity: -7% [?]

Buying a car is a dream come true for any person if he has been striving hard for it and trying to spare out money for it. With new car finance, the borrower will not have any problems relating to the finances required for his new car. New car finance is available to borrowers who want to purchase a new car and are looking for a loan option that suits their needs. Any brand, make or model that the borrower wishes to buy can be financed with help of new car finance.

New car finance can be obtained as secured or unsecured. With the secured new car finance, an asset has to be placed as collateral for the finance. This collateral can be anything from a house to the same car that is being bought by the borrower. Pledging collateral helps in providing a low rate of interest. With unsecured new car finance however, no collateral is required to be pledged for the loan. The repayment term of the new car finance is 5-7 years.

Before taking up new car finance, the borrower is suggested to take up a few measures to ensure that he is making the best choices. They are:

• The borrower should decide about the car model and brand before applying for new car finance. This is suggested so that the borrower himself has a clear idea what amount he wants to borrow.

• The borrower should get the new car finance approved before he approaches the car dealer so that he does not change his decision under the influence of the car salesman.

• The borrower should avail the new car finance from a reputed finance company or lender.

• Before availing new car finance, the borrower is suggested to conduct a research online so that he can compare quotes from numerous lenders and choose the most suitable deal.

New car finance helps the borrowers in availing finance for a long-dreamed of car which they cannot buy on their own. It helps them in fulfilling their desires without any burden.

Popularity: unranked [?]

Nowadays, your lower or imperfect credit score won’t stop you from buying a van of your choice as loan market is flooded away with the options of bad credit van finance. Bad credit van finance caters to the needs of buying vans for persons who is engaged with bad credit history.

While purchasing the van, you must be clear with choice, model, price and kind of van that you want to finance. This will help the borrower to know about the amount that he needed at the time of purchasing so that he can make effective use of bad credit van finance option.

With bad credit van finance borrower can finance new or used van depending upon his needs and financial circumstances. Though, borrower can avail bad credit van finance in two forms i.e. secured and unsecured. If the borrower is looking forward for benefits like low interest rate, long repayment term and larger amount then he must opt for the secured bad credit van finance. To avail these features borrower has to place some valuable collateral that fetches him good amount.

In contrary to secured, bad credit unsecured van finance offers options to avail van finance without pledging any valuable collateral against the loan amount. Therefore, borrowers who don’t have or don’t want to place their collateral as security against the bad credit van finance can opt for unsecured.

Therefore, calculative moves and search by borrower might stop him at the point where bad credit van finance requires borrower to pay slightly higher interest rate for the purchase of van. But the interest rate charged on bad credit van finance can be made feasible only if the borrower carries a proper search this has been made possible because of the high competition in the market.

High street banks, financial institutions, leading lenders or online loan market is the places where borrower can search for bad credit van finance. While searching through online, borrower comes across numerous lenders with a single click of button. Today, online mode is considered as the best mode for availing the feasible features against your bad credit.

Bad credit van finance option helps the borrower to avail the van without much bothering about the finance.

Popularity: -7% [?]

Many homeowners make the mistake of thinking re-financing is always a viable option. However, this is not true and homeowners can actually make a significant financial mistake by re-financing at an inopportune time. There a couple of classic example of when re-financing is a mistake. This occurs when the homeowner does not stay in the property long enough to recoup the cost of re-financing and when the homeowner has had a credit score which has dropped since the original mortgage loan. Other examples are when the interest rate has not dropped enough to offset the closing costs associated with re-financing.

Recouping the Closing Costs

In determining whether or not re-financing is worthwhile the homeowner should determine how long they would have to retain the property to recoup the closing costs. This is significant especially in the case where the homeowner intends to sell the property in the near future. There are re-financing calculators readily available which will provide homeowners with the amount of time they will have to retain the property to make re-financing worthwhile. These calculators require the user to enter input such as the balance of the existing mortgage, the existing interest rate and the new interest rate and the calculator return results comparing the monthly payments on the old mortgage and the new mortgage and also supplies information about the amount of time required for the homeowner to recoup the closing costs.

When Credit Scores Drop

Most homeowners believe a drop in interest rates should immediately signal that it is time to re-finance the home. However, when these interest rates are combined with a drop in the credit score for the homeowner, the resulting re-financed mortgage may not be favorable to the homeowner. Therefore homeowners should carefully consider their credit score at the present time in comparison to the credit score at the time of the original mortgage. Depending on the amount interest rates have dropped, the homeowner may still benefit from re-financing even with a lower credit score but it is not likely. Homeowners may take advantage of free re-financing quotes to get an approximate understanding of whether or not they will benefit from re-financing.

Have the Interest Rates Dropped Enough?

Another common mistake homeowners often make in regard to re-financing is re-financing whenever there is a significant drop in interest rates. This can be a mistake because the homeowner must first carefully evaluate whether or not the interest rate has dropped enough to result in an overall cost savings for the homeowners. Homeowners often make this mistake because they neglect to consider the closing costs associated with re-financing the home. These costs may include application fees, origination fees, appraisal fees and a variety of other closing costs. These costs can add up quite quickly and may eat into the savings generated by the lower interest rate. In some cases the closing costs may even exceed the savings resulting from lower interest rates.

Re-Financing Can Be Beneficial Even When It is a “Mistake”

In reality re-financing is not always the ideal solution, but some homeowners may still opt for re-financing even when it is technically a mistake to do so. This classic example of this type of situation is when a homeowner re-finances to gain the benefit of lower interest rates even though the homeowner winds up paying more in the long run for this re-financing option. This may occur when either the interest rates drop slightly but not enough to result in an overall savings or when a homeowner consolidates a considerable amount of short term debt into a long term mortgage re-finance. Although most financial advisors may warn against this type of financial approach to re-financing, homeowners sometimes go against conventional wisdom to make a change which may increase their monthly cash flow by reducing their mortgage payments. In this situation the homeowner is making the best possible decision for his personal needs.

Popularity: -7% [?]