ABSTRACT
The business of trade finance, including the traditional mechanisms such as documentary collections or documentary credits, have been in use for at least several hundred years. Supply chain finance is still a relatively new proposition in the business of financing international commerce, at least to the extent that it is being developed, marketed and deployed as a solution based upon complex international networks and global supply chains. The physical and financial supply chains are supported and enabled by a critical flow of information related to the business, relationships and dynamics of these supply chains a flow that has been dubbed the information supply chain. Supply Chain Finance (SCF) is poised to become the next big thing in trade-related financing. Supply chain finance looks at international trade as more than a bilateral activity between buyer and seller seeing instead an ecosystem of relationships that support and enable trade across borders.
