Category: News

Business Finance – Problems & Solutions

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BUSINESS FINANCE PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS.
Greetings!

You may have gotten the impression by now that we deal with Letters of Credit in all shapes and sizes. It’s true.  One particular type of LC we do a lot of work in is a niche product but very useful in some industries.  We’re referring to a documentary letter of credit which can be issued without collateral. Issuers of such letters of credit structure the LC in a way to manage their own capital risk and hold the shipment as collateral pending payment by the client needing the LC.This type of LC is useful to importers who may not want to draw down their bank lines for the month or two it takes for the supplier to get ready to ship the goods, but who are able to pay for the shipment when it is on the water.

It’s commonly used in the garment industry and is easily accepted in many spots in Southeast Asia, and often for CONSUMER PRODUCTS.

Our Indian clients may recognize this by another name, as it is sometimes called an accommodation letter of credit.

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An LC Problem Solved

 

Greetings!   westcap_0001_Layer 6                                                              We perform a number of tasks related to letters of credit. Last month we assisted a client in getting paid immediately against a Documentary Letter of Credit that was due to have funds released four months after the necessary documents were presented. In the industry that’s called a usance LC. (When dictated into the phone, it came up “useless Elsie”. There are still a few bugs in voice recognition).The issuing bank was in a non-European country with Mediterranean beaches and the client was here in the US. To complicate things further our client was providing services, not goods, to his Middle East customer and the letter of credit was to pay for those services.We and our partners made certain the correct documents were required in the letter of credit to satisfy LC requirements so that the bank could advance the money.  This is trickier than you might think; banks are a lot more comfortable with LC’s related to goods rather than services.After that part, the last bit was much easier: getting the client paid immediately (at sight, in LC parlance), even though the LC specified payment in four months from date of document submission.  As it happens, the interbank rates in such cases are usually much less than normal bank interest charges to customers, so the customer saved money here too when those lower charges were passed through by the bank.

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20% of the people who receive our regular letter are from the United States or Canada

Greetings!

If the country profile of our website traffic is an indicator, about 20% of the people who receive our regular letter are from the United States or Canada, and 40% are from the United Kingdom and Europe. The rest of our readers are from everywhere else in the world.  We do attempt to be global as well as local.   Fortunately, human character and motivation tend to be similar no matter the country or language.  And to the best of our knowledge, our readers are all members of the same species.

Your Company’s Success!!

What Is the Difference Between “Discreet” and “Discrete”?
NUANCE!!

What’s the difference between our dedicated Trade Finance Team and everyone else?

Your Company’s Success!

Don’t Use YOUR import credit line to import goods.

Use OURS instead!

Talk to Us

It’s a Pretty Active World That We live in. New needs, New Products developing all the time.
Talk to Us about your financing needs. Contact Us Today

NEWSLETTER – MAKE YOUR DEAL FIT THE FINANCE

Greetings!

We begin 2013 with our continuing update on points of interest in our world, which happens to be largely your world too. During the last year we were starting work on the platform for a business component that works hand in glove with the trade finance business. We refer to the ability to combine finance with providing products for which there is continuing demand in many parts of the world.

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Alternative Finance: Using Your Available Capital Most Efficiently

Greetings!

It’s a new year.  One month gone!! But it may seem surprisingly like the old year when you deal with your banker trying to handle Letters of Credit or any form of Finance.

We begin 2015 with our continuing update on points of interest in our world, which happens to be largely your world too.

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NEWSLETTER – The most successful businesses understand risk management.

Import businesses are particularly susceptible to liquidity and QA/QC risk.

A very common scenario:

1) An importer works hard over the years to build rapport and eventually suppliers are willing to extend open terms.

2) The supplier encounters financial hardship and is forced to ask the importer for a deposit.

3) The importer must now come up with a deposit (damaging liquidity), and their money is now at risk in the event goods arrive in poor condition (as cost cutting can affect QA/QC standards).

What can an importer do to mitigate liquidity and QA/QC risk?

The Answer: offer their supplier a letter of credit from WESTCAP instead of sending a deposit. Our LCs are backed by OUR cash, NOT YOURS! Your cash is your livelihood–don’t sent it overseas until your goods arrive and you are sure you’re getting exactly what you want. We help hundreds of businesses grow by mitigating liquidity and QA/QC risk,  and we can do it for you.

FINANCE STRUCTURES

Greetings!

Last month we told you about “last mile financing” in the mining arena.  This is, you will recall, bridging the gap between when miners normally need to be paid, and when the trader can cash the letter of credit once the cargo has been loaded.  We had a number of responses to this message, and have found there is particular interest in shipping, for example,  iron ore or manganese ore from Mexico and other spots in Latin America.   We have already closed one such relationship, and expect to complete several other fundings over the next few weeks.  This particular finance structure is suitable for the industrial ores, but you should not think of it as being usable for precious metals like gold or silver.

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