European Supply Chain Finance: Essential Sources

Corporations Improving Financial Supply Chain Transparency (CFO Innovation Asia, 8 Nov 2011)
Corporations are finding better ways to work with their bank and trading partners by improving transparency to the financial supply chain and streamlining messaging and communications.

Roundtable: Collaboration Grows (Global Finance, Nov 2011)
Companies and their banks are working together to develop finance solutions encompassing the entire supply chain.

Cost of Control: ‘Fuzzy Finance’ (Basware, Nov 2011)
The 2011 Cost of Control research highlights key trends shaping financial decision making across Europe, America and Australia.

Supply Chain Finance Solutions Help Firms Manage Working Capital (CFO Innovation Asia, 27 Oct 2011)
Companies that increasingly operate their supply chains on a global basis feel heightened pressure to revise their strategies for managing working capital, finds a report from Aite Group.

The Top 25 Supply Chains: Leadership in Action (Supply Chain Management Review, 10 Oct 2011)
A ranking of the world’s leading supply chains, published by Gartner in its 7th annual Supply Chain Top 25. The six specific tactics embraced by the winners seem to point the way toward supply chain excellence.  

E-invoicing Beneficial to Supply Chain Finance (FinanceAsia, 4 Oct 2011)
Banks and corporations are increasingly interested in tapping opportunities linked to supply chain transactions as credit availability continues to remain tight after the financial crisis of 2008.

Supply Chain Finance – a Strategic View (Supply Chain Yearbook 2011/2012, Oct 2011)
A strategic view on supply chain finance from four aspects - risk, route to market, impact on the supply chain structure and systems/process.

Trade & Supply Chain Finance 2011: Forfaiting (Global Finance, Oct 2011)
Thanks to new technology that improves information flow, traditional trade finance tools such as forfaiting are now being used more frequently as part of a broader supply chain finance program.

Trade & Supply Chain Finance 2011: Sustainable Supply Chains (Global Finance, Oct 2011)
Companies have long been working on creating sustainable internal operations. With growing recognition of the symbiotic buyer-supplier relationship, they are now moving those efforts into their supply chains—and reducing costs in the process.

Treasurers Vs. Banks: Can the Relationship Work? (CFO Innovation Asia, 24 Aug 2011)
A roundtable with six transaction bankers and one corporate treasurer uncovers points of contention -- but also progress in many areas of cooperation.

Supply Chain and Finance Share the Same Vision (Supply Chain Movement, 1 Jul 2011)
A study in the Netherlands found out that while the supply chain and finance departments consult regularly on the matter of optimum stock levels within most companies, only forty percent of them have formalised this in a Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) process.

E-invoicing: From Evolution to Revolution (Finance Director Europe, 10 Jun 2011)
The article looks at the implementation of e-invoicing and e-billing in Europe and abroad, and the challenges ahead for large multinationals and SMEs in the face of a paper-free future.

Linking Supply Chain Performance to a Firm’s Financial Performance (Supply Chain Management Review, 25 May 2011)
Supply chain managers make decisions and use organizational resources that eventually impact the financial outcomes of the firm. To do so effectively, they need to link the results of supply chain decisions to the financial goals and related metrics of the company.

Forward Thinking Finance: The Growth Challenge (HSBC/PwC joint Report, 20 May 2011)
This report examines the key financial challenges confronting European companies and the different ways they are adapting to the particular demands they face.

The Cash Conundrum Troubling CFOs (CFO World, 13 May 2011)
Finance chiefs are struggling to persuade managers to retain robust cash management in the recovery.

Beating Heart of the Supply Chain (Finance Director Europe, 12 May 2011)
Finance's role in a truly global supply chain has to be about a lot more than streamlining and savings. British American Tobacco's Robert Allen and Unilever's Robert Etman talk to Phin Foster about the value of business partnering, the importance of transparency and why the finance function must be embedded at the very heart of operations.

UK Firms Believe 95 Percent of Recession Cost Cutting Is Unsustainable (CFO World, 4 May 2011)
Rebuilding workforce and increased salaries as economy improves are key factors.

Chinese Firms Turn to Supply Chain Finance (FinanceAsia, 3 May 2011)
China’s efforts to rein in lending and tackle inflation are not dampening banks’ positive outlook for supply chain finance.

European Corporates Could Release €475 Billion by Better Managing Their Working Capital (PwC, 2 March 2011)
PwC's annual European Working Capital Study scrutinised working capital management by 1,200 listed companies in 12 countries and 10 different sectors throughout Europe. According to the study, the 1,200 European firms could collectively release more than €475 billion that is needlessly sitting in the working capital cycle at present.

The Market Speaks (Supply China Finance Insider, 16 February 2011)
Why are corporates, consultants and bankers moving to open, bank independent Supply Chain Finance platforms nowadays?

Why Are Companies So Bad at Managing Working Capital? (CFO World, 21 January 2011)
UK plcs are sitting on an eyewatering £60 billion of unproductive working capital.

Time to Get "Unproductive Working Capital" Busy Again (CFO World, 21 January 2011)
CFOs should work more visibly with supply chain directors to improve working capital management.

Where's the Weakest Link in Your Supply Chain, Or Don't You Know? (CFO World, Jan 2011)
The article takes a look at how globalisation has made the scale and risks of supply chain management more complex.

Small Businesses Lack Cash Reserves to Survive Another Downturn (CFO Innovation Asia, Dec 2010)
A study reveals that a high number of small businesses believe they do not have enough cash reserves to survive another eocnomic downturn (Full report).

As the World Turns (Finance Director Europe, Nov 2010)
The article examines how the phenomenon of globalisation and its subsequent influence on global trade have been critiqued by some of the leading names in business and economics.

CEOs Struggling With Supply Chain Sustainability (Supply Chain Movement, Nov 2010)
A study by Accenture reveals that while a high majority of CEOs consider sustainability an important factor for future success, the proportion of companies who are actually implementing sustainability throughout the entire supply chain are considerably lower.

A Source of Liquidity (Finance Director Europe, Nov 2010)
Enrico Camerinelli, FDE’s financial supply chain consultant editor, reveals the ways corporations can find liquidity within their own operational processes.

Supply Chain Finance Best Practices (Association for Financial Professionals, Oct 2010)
The article identifies the major challenges to implementing an effective SCF programme among companies. 

Supply Chain Finance: From Myth to Reality (Mckinsey, Oct 2010)
This McKinsey article examines the evolution of supply chain finance and discusses the strategic options available to banks seeking to play a role in this new model of trade and cash management services.

Breaking Up the Paper Chain (Financial Sector Technology, Sept/Oct 2010)
The article looks at the potential of technology in helping to bring global commerce into the next generation of a paperless environment.  

Study on the Function of Supply Chain Finance for SMEs Financing (Wuhan University of Technology, Feb 2010)
The paper probes into the supporting function of supply chain finance for China’s SMEs financing. It discusses the developmental situation of support chain finance and its applicability in China’s SMEs financing.

Supply Chain Finance survey findings (SME Business News, Jan 2010)
A survey conducted by Ipsos MORI shows that business leaders are concerned about supply chain fragility during the recovery.

Feature: Supply Chain Finance (Trade and Forfaiting Review, Nov 2009)
The article examines how the fallout from the financial crisis has affected banks and their clients’ approaches to supply chain finance.

Supply Chain Finance – What’s It Worth? (IMD, Oct 2009)
This worldwide survey conducted among executives who use SCF as buyers examines the benefits of SCF, both quantitatively and qualitatively, and to statistically derive the key success factors.

Fair Trade: Why Supply Chain Finance Pays Off (Global Finance, Sept 2009)
Ron Kalifa, Head of Global Products for Global Transaction Services at The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), explains why the integration of cash management and trade facilities is a logical step forward for banks and their corporate customers.

Accelerating Supply Chain Finance (Global Trade Review, Sept 2009)
The article examines how the financial crisis is pushing many corporates towards supply chain finance (SCF) solutions, in order to protect their physical supply chain and optimise their working capital.

Supply Chain Finance (World Trade, Sept 2009)
Five banking experts and one supply chain finance (SCF) expert discussed about the current status of SCF programs and how they are evolving to meet the needs of firms’ supply chain funding in the face of reduced credit facilities.

Putting a Value on Supply Chain Risk (The Manufacturer, Aug 2009)
Supply chain risk is rising but senior executives don’t know how to manage it, despite being well aware of it. Recent research by Möbius Consulting has produced a robust method to assess supply chain risk and demonstrate the effect of different risk scenarios on company earnings.

Procurement Intelligence Unit Says UK Companies Missing Billions in (BNET, Jun 2009)
The UK economy could receive a vital injection of liquidity if its large organisations adopted a Supply Chain Finance (SCF) model, according to the Procurement Intelligence Unit (PIU).

Ernst & Young Finds Companies Confronting New Worries at Both Ends of Their Supply Chains (SupplyChainBrain, Apr 2009)
A poll conducted by Ernst & Young LLP Transaction Advisory Services identifies supplier instability as a source of growing concern.

Feature: Tightening the Supply Chain (Global Finance, Feb 2009)
The article takes a look at how supply chain finance has become a determining factor for companies’ survival and their future prosperity.

Feature: Roundtable: Supply Chain Finance (Global Finance, Nov 2008)
Global Finance brought together some of the pioneers in the rapidly growing supply chain finance business to discuss the growth of their industry and the impact of the credit crunch.