TRADE FINANCE SOLUTIONS
TRADE FINANCE FOR IMPORTS, EXPORTS, AND COMMODITIES
The global shortage of trade finance is crushing small businesses worldwide and, with 60% of SMBs unable to get financing, trade finance is vital and we deliver. Even if you’ve been turned down elsewhere, we can provide the trade financing you need.
Trade Finance Solutions For Imports, Exports And Commodities
Trade Finance is important to every business involved in cross-border trade. With a worldwide shortage of trade finance impacting small businesses and capital markets around the world, finding trade finance to fund your deals and provide the advisory services you need is more important than ever. Virtual Financial LLC provides the kind of innovative trade finance solutions your business needs, each structured to limit your risk and make your businesses more profitable and we can do it today. We are committed to seeing our clients through this shortage of financing by ensuring they always have the trade funding they need.
We bring decades of international trade finance expertise to bear on every transaction, providing real-world trade finance solutions with an array of funding options to individuals, companies, governments, and NGOs throughout the world. We arrange trade financing through our strategic partners and a network of individual, corporate, private and institutional lenders, including investment banks, merchant banks, private banks, trusts, and other lending institutions. Our team of experienced professionals works seamlessly to make doing business globally easier and more profitable by providing the trade finance solutions you need.
Import Financing
Unless you’re prepared to pay cash in advance for goods you are importing, Import Financing provides benefits beyond just financing. Import Financing services include deal structuring and due diligence advisory to ensure the deal is structured for your protection. With a range of trade finance options from bank guarantees and letters of credit to factoring, we deliver lower-risk Import Financing solutions that will improve your profits.
Export Financing
As an exporter, you can’t afford to wait until your buyer receives the goods you’ve shipped to receive payment and you certainly can’t wait until the goods are re-sold. But, if you could offer terms to your buyers you would rack up more sales. We can bridge that gap by structuring Export Financing that will protect you throughout the deal, provide needed cash flow before shipment, and extend favorable terms to your buyer.
Commodity Financing
Commodity Financing is a specialized area of trade finance used for funding the production, transportation, and sale of commodities. Commodity Financing provides primarily short-term financing facilities to a range of principals in the commodities business, including producers, commodity traders and major international trading operations, commodity importers and commodity exporters.
Trade Finance Research
Funding trade is broader than simply financing export businesses. While we provide export financing for trade funding clients every day, we commit more to finance international trade than the simple offering of export finance. Virtual Financial LLC clients benefit from worldwide financing research on emerging market finance and trade. Top Markets Reports research conducted by the International Trade Administration details global export trade opportunities by comparing markets and sectors across borders, including emerging markets finance and trade.
Using sector-specific methodology the research ranks future export expectations within industries. The reports provide detailed assessments of competition within sectors, and opportunities for exporters in key markets, including emerging markets finance and trade. Prepared by the best industry, trade, and economic experts, the reports can be downloaded in full or as individual summaries and case studies within the larger export finance reports.
Trade Finance Learning Center
With more than 80% of the world’s trade depending on trade finance it is an essential segment of the financial services sector. It is also one of the least understood of the financial services. One of the things that undermine people’s understanding of trade finance is the absence of a single vocabulary. Do a search for the definition of import financing, for instance, and the top 20 results will provide 20 different definitions. Our trade finance learning centre publishes content that we hope will improve understanding of trade finance and its various component segments. Each of the below tabs provides the factual information you need to make good business decisions, beginning with important trade finance definitions.
Trade Finance Definition
The definition of Trade finance is the financing of international trade for the primary purpose of reducing risks involved in cross-border trade transactions which would otherwise be born by importers and exporters. Trade finance professionals use a range of financing methods and tools to facilitate the payment for goods to exporters, who require payment for the goods and services they sell from importers, who insist on receiving the right merchandise and is in good condition. Virtual Financial LLC and other trade finance professionals provide the platform and financial infrastructure to minimize risk for importers and exporters and keep the pump primed on $18 trillion per year in global trade.
Import Finance Definition
Import financing is a specialized segment of trade finance that exclusively provides financing for imports. Import financing includes a variety of financial products and financial services that have in common the similar purpose or objective of providing the international financing and methods of payment that are needed to purchase and import goods from another country. Examples of import financing include import letters of credit, import bank guarantees, bank instrument monetization, open accounts and consignment purchases, all of which are offered by Virtual Financial LLC.
Export Finance Definition
Export financing is a specialized segment of trade finance that exclusively provides financing for exports. Export financing includes a variety of financial products and financial services that have in common the similar purpose or objective of providing the international financing and methods of payment that are needed to produce and ship export transactions. Examples of export financing include invoice factoring, forfaiting, accounts receivable factoring, open accounts, consignment purchases and export letters of credit, all of which are offered by Virtual Financial LLC.
Accounts Receivable
Accounts Receivable is money owed to a company by a customer for products and /or services sold. Accounts receivable is considered a current asset on a balance sheet once an invoice has been sent to the customer.
Accounts Receivable Factoring
Accounts Receivable Factoring is a method of Trade Financing where a company sells their accounts receivable in exchange for working capital. The purchaser of the receivables relies on the creditworthiness of the customers who owe the invoices, not the subject company.
Service For details go to Accounts Receivable Factoring »
Advance Against Documents
Advances Against Documents are loans made solely based on the security of the documents covering the shipment.
Asset Based Lending
Asset Based Lending is a method of Trade Financing that allows a business to leverage company assets as collateral for a loan. Asset-based loans are an alternative to more traditional lending which is generally characterized as a higher risk that requires higher interest rates.
Cash Against Documents
Cash Against Documents is the payment for goods in which a commission house or other intermediary transfers title documents to the buyer upon payment in cash.
Cash in Advance
Payment for goods in which the price is paid in full before shipment is made. This method is usually used only for small purchases or when the goods are built to order.
Cash with Order
Cash with Order is the payment for goods whereby the buyer pays when ordering and in which the transaction is binding on both parties.
Commercial Finance
Commercial Finance is defined as the offering of loans to businesses by a bank or other lender. Commercial loans are either secured by business assets, accounts receivable, etc., or unsecured, in which case the lender relies on the borrower’s cash flow to repay the loan.
Confirmed Letter of Credit
A Confirmed Letter of Credit is a Letter of Credit issued by a foreign bank, which has been confirmed as valid by a domestic bank. An exporter whose form of payment is a Confirmed Letter of Credit is assured of payment by the domestic bank who confirmed the Letter of Credit even if the foreign buyer or the foreign bank defaults.
Consignment
Consignment is delivery of merchandise from an exporter (the consignor) to an agent (the consignee) subject to an agreement by the agent that the agent will sell the merchandise for the benefit of the exporter, subject to certain limitations, like a minimum price. The exporter (consignor) retains ownership of and title to the goods until the agent (consignee) has sold them. Upon the sale of the goods, the agent typically retains a commission and remits the remaining net proceeds to the exporter.
Service For details go to Consignment Purchase »
Cross-Border Sale
A Cross-Border Sale refers to any sale that is made between a firm in one country and a firm located in a different country.
Factoring
Factoring is the selling of a company’s invoices and accounts receivable at a discount. The lender assumes the credit risk of the debtor and receives the cash when the debtor settles the account.
Service For details go to Accounts Receivable Factoring »
Invoice Discounting
Invoice Discounting is a type of loan that is drawn against a company’s outstanding invoices but does not require that the company give up administrative control of those invoices.
factoring invoices
factoring invoices is one of the most common methods of trade financing. Your company sells their invoices to a factor in exchange for immediate liquidity. The factor who purchases the invoices relies on the creditworthiness of the customers who owe the invoices, not the subject company.
Service For details go to factoring invoices »
Irrevocable Letter of Credit
An irrevocable Letter of Credit is a Letter of Credit in which the specified payment is guaranteed by the bank if all terms and conditions are met by the drawee.
Letter of Credit
Letter of Credit or LC is the most common trade finance solution in the world. A Letter of Credit is a document issued by a bank for the benefit of a seller or exporter, which authorizes the seller to draw a specified amount of money, under specified terms, usually the receipt by the issuing bank of certain documents within a given time.
Service For details go to Letters of Credit For Imports »
Open Account
Open Account is a trade arrangement in which goods are shipped to a foreign buyer without a guarantee of payment. The obvious risk this method poses to the supplier makes it essential that the buyer’s integrity be unquestionable.
Service For details go to Open Accounts »
Pro forma Invoice
Pro forma Invoice is an invoice provided by a supplier prior to the shipment of merchandise, which informs the buyer of the kinds, nature, and quantities of goods to be shipped along with their value, and other important specifications such as weight and size.
Receivable Management
Receivable Management involves processing activities related to managing a company’s accounts receivable including collections, credit policies, and minimizing any risk that threatens a firm from collecting receivables.
Revocable Letter of Credit
A Revocable Letter of Credit is a Letter of Credit that can be canceled or altered by a buyer after it has been issued by the buyer’s bank.
Structured Trade Finance
Structured Trade Finance is cross-border trade finance in emerging markets where the intention is that the loan gets repaid by the liquidation of a flow of commodities.
Trade Credit Insurance
Trade Credit Insurance is a risk management product offered to business entities wishing to protect their balance sheet assets from loss due to credit risks such as protracted default, insolvency, and bankruptcy. Trade Credit Insurance often includes a component of political risk insurance, which ensures the risk of non-payment by foreign buyers due to currency issues, political unrest, expropriation, etc.