• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.33
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• pp.29-62
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• 2007

The object of this paper is to increase in domestic use of export factoring for small and medium trading companies. Factoring involves a process where a specialized firm assumes the responsibility for the administration and collection of account receivable for its clients. It can be considered a form of short term commercial financing based on selling of trade credit at a discount, or for a prescribed fee plus interest. The youngest and smallest businesses cannot receive working capital for account receivable for export from financial companies, while larger businesses tend to have less need for factoring services. Using export factoring provide a valuable improvement to cash flow and working capital position and can possibly contribute to small business growth and development. There are several suggestions for export factoring to activate in Korea. First, the number of factoring companies need to be enlarge to activate export factoring in trade and financial policies. Second, factoring companies have to perform public relations for trading companies to inform the export factoring system and its advantages. Third, government need to support the system of export factoring with legislation and financial instruments. Forth, trading companies need to be reformed credit inquiry system in terms of expenses and methods by government This paper has attempted to emphasize on export factoring for small and medium size exporting companies and deserves more research by academics, practitioners and trade policy makers.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.60
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• pp.177-194
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• 2013

According to the 2013 statistics, the small/medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) accounted for 99.9% of the Korean economy with 87.8% of employment. This simple figures also indicate SMEs export extension is a key task for the national economy stimulation and job creation. The SMEs export plunge has been affected by the European financial turbulence, US financial instability, developing countries like China entering foreign markets, a weak yen, etc. EXIM Bank, in this context, will need to take a more proactive attitude to provide trade finance by, for example, reviewing the business feasibility for SMEs with a lower credit rank or investigating importers' credit status, etc. Moreover EXIM Bank provides factoring service mostly to large companies and should lower its threshold for service provision to SMEs. Finally EXIM Bank should play more than a primary forfeiting market entity. It also needs to facilitate the secondary forfeiting market.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.345-366
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• 2012

The country using factoring actively today is England. The history of factoring could throw back to the Middle Ages, but modern factoring was developed in colonial age of the United States and it was known throughout England in 1960s. At the beginning, it performed mercantile agent who works in local area in order to get rid of uncertainty and inconvenience of a distant trade, but it was getting developed into a today's factoring system which focusing more on financial function. The factoring is called 'account receivable financing' in the United States and it is started out as sales agent and getting developed to 'del credere agent' who guarantee the payment. The activities of factors have been expanded to not only consignment sale and payment guarantees but also advance financing service. However, at the end of the 19th century, the direct sales(direct marketing) was expanded by the development of telecommunication and transportation technology, and then the marketing service by factor was degraded, but the collection of payment and advance finance had been maintained until now and developed into today's factoring system. Especially, the establishment of Uniform Commercial Code in 1931 had formed the basis for activating factoring in the United States through preparing a legal basis of factoring. Due to changes of international trade environment, most of commercial bank in Korea have to deal with export factoring as a trade finance service and it is desirable to specialize as a financing for small and medium company.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.39
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• pp.143-175
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• 2008

The documentary letter of credit is the most preferred and frequently used method in International Payment System in Korea, as it has less possibility of occurring credit risks in export than any other payment system. That's because the exporter can get payment from the issuing bank(confirming bank) by delivering the goods and presenting documents following the required procedure under the letter of credit, as the payment is affirmed by the issuing bank(including the confirming bank in case of the confirmed letter of credit) regardless of the buyer's payment. However, the pattern of payment methods used in international trade of Korea is changing dramatically like the importance of the credit is decreasing continuously among the payment methods while the remittance is increasing. The increase of remittance has a positive aspect that International Payment System are changing into those of advanced countries, but the decrease of the credit also has a negative aspect that the exporter might have a greater credit risks. Therefore, we need a systematic device to deal with this. Exporters in Korea usually have used the export credit insurance to deal with the credit risks However, the export credit insurance also have a limitation as the policy finance due to the limitation based on the credit status of the business and the limitation of acceptance from the lack of financial resources of the government, etc. Korea, which is the 11th export power in the world, has a basic limitation to deal with the credit risks by depending on the export credit insurance only. So, in this thesis, I have studied on the international factoring, forfaiting, which are advanced export finances and widely used in advanced countries, as substitutes to deal with the credit risks. the international factoring is an trade financing in which a factor offers full services such as credit cover, offering prepayment, collection, account receivables, management, etc, instead of the exporter on the account receivables occurred by the exporter's delivering goods to the importer. This international factoring has a high possibility of using as a means to deal with the credit risks, because it offers prepayment without recourse. the forfaiting is another export financing in which a forfaiter purchases the draft, the promissory note and other negotiable instruments issued from the international trade, with fixed interest rate without recourse from the exporter or previous holder. By using this method, they can avoid foreign exchange risks, contingency risks as well as credit risks, as the conveyances like the promissory note, etc are issued with the note warranty so-called 'per aval' in business practice. These trade financing are good substitutes to deal with the credit risks in export, but they are not widely used in Korea. Though it can be explained with various reasons, the common reasons are the lack of understanding on the use of advanced export finance, the lack of experts to manage the advanced trade finance, the conservative way of thinking of domestic organizations related to trade financing, the lack of organizations supporting the trade financing, etc.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.44
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• pp.85-107
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• 2009

L/C allows the exporter to have a bank's payment undertaking against shipping documents required by L/C. This means that the exporter can take export proceeds from a L/C issuing bank regardless of importer's payments and therefore the L/C better mitigate importer's credit risk compared to remittance and collections. Recently the use of L/C has been on down trend in line with increasing use of T/T, causing a big change of payment system. This tells that the payment method change in Korea is positive as the change also happens same in developed countries. This however gives more buyer's credit risk to exporters and therefore a systematic solution to this negative effect is required. In Korea, export credit insurance has been widely used to cover the buyer's credit risk. But the export credit insurance is limited because of lack of government's financial support and strict evaluation of buyer and exporter. Now Korea is ranked 10the largest trading country and therefore the exporters shall find another source for credit risk protection elsewhere. And as such this paper suggest International Factoring as a tool for the credit risk protection. The International Factoring gives advantages to the exporter in terms of credit protection and advances by purchasing account receivables on a without recourse basis.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.43
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• pp.143-168
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• 2009

International Factoring transaction in Korea is different from that of financially advanced countries in terms of legal system and commercial and financial practices. As for the domestic factoring, Korean factors are only involved in advances often on a with recourse basis. With regard to the international factoring, Korean factors do not accommodate whole account receivables from clients (suppliers) but handle on a selective basis. Among Korean banks, KEXIM (Export and Import Bank of Korea) is sole factor for international transactions. Currently KEXIM and several foreign banks handle factoring provide factoring services with limitation to invoice discounting which is largely extended to large corporate names. Therefore this is far different from factoring in Europe and Americas designed for small exporters with non recourse advances. In respect of legal environment, receivable assignment is subject to debtor' acknowledge or approval of such assignment according to Civil Law Act. To remove the legal obstacles, Korean government have prepared new law which allows factor's own notification of assignment (and thereby reimbursement right) to debtor with some evidences.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.49
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• pp.89-109
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• 2011

Among various export financing, forfaitng and factoring give a comfort to exporters as those special financing schemes are extended to them on a without recourse basis. This is good for the exporters in terms of financing and risk cover of buyer or LC issuing banks. To enjoy this benefit, the SME exporters should, however, know the risks involved in sales contract. For example, if the export and importer set Korean law as governing law in the sales contract especially for open account exports, the exporter's receivables might be not welcome by factors according to provisions of Korean Conflict Law and it's application. Those regulations tell that the factor's position would be unstable when the sales contact limit exporter's assignment of receivables to the factor when the sales contract is subject to Korean law. Also the exporters should know related regulation of importer which might affect the assignment of receivables as well. This paper suggests the Korean exporters take internationally recognized agreement/convention such as UNI|DROIT Convention on International Factoring, UN Convention on the Assignment of Receivables in International Trade.

• The Journal of Information Technology
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.159-176
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• 2005

The Purpose of this Article is to analyze the special settlement and electronic settlement system in the international trade. First, Factoring is a fast, easy and flexible way to improve a company's cash flow and generate working capital for the company. Factoring can be short-term or part of an ongoing financing program. New companies can benefit as well, since there is no requirement for a long-term credit history. Second, Forfaiting is a method of trade financing that allows exporters to obtain cash and be free of all risks by selling their medium term receivables on a 'without recourse' basis. Forfaiting can be an alternative to export credit or insurance cover, especially for those transactions in which the export credit agency is not open to a particular country and/or bank. Third, The Bolero System is jointly financed by SWIFT(Society for World International Financial Telecommunications) which handles most of the electronic funds transfer for banks, and the Through Transport Mutual Assurance Association(the TT Club), a mutual insurance association most of whose members are drawn from the Multimodal transport industry or transport intermediaries. Fourth, TradeCard is a payment and settlement system that is an alternative to letters of crdeit. That is, TradeCard is a business-to-business e-commerce infrastructure that enables buyers and sellers to conduct and settle international trade transactions securely over the Internet.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.199-215
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• 2016

International factoring is necessary for small & medium export companies because using documentary credit has been declined and credit transaction has increased. In Korea, however, only EXIM bank supports the factoring service, apart from foreign banks. Even though the amount of international factoring has increased in Korea, factoring service is at a standstill, compared to its trade volume. Perhaps there are a few reasons but the biggest reason for the indifference to the factoring service is a lack of understanding and inadequate legal system in Korea. This paper aims to compare factoring service in Korea with that of China and Japan. And it also suggests the improvement of problems to the factoring service by analysing the examples of business practice.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.59-81
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• 2020

Purpose - This study analyzes the scope of due diligence and risks of banks and K-Sure in trade finance covered by EFF focusing on Moneual case, one of the latest and biggest trade finance fraud cases in Korea. Also, we suggest anti-fraud measures in trade finance on the part of banks and K-Sure in order to give them a desirable way of due diligence and reasonable risk management of export insurance. Design/methodology - Based on Moneual case of trade finance fraud, this study employs the methodology of an extended literature review and analysis of court decisions. Findings - Seoul High Court of Korea failed to decide whether K-Sure was wholly obliged to pay the insurance against the banks' EFF claims, but issued a compulsory mediation order, judging that both the banks and K-Sure were responsible by 50:50. The court may have judged that both the parties had lacked their due diligence in the trade finance. It is quite difficult for trade finance providers to manually investigate whether the transaction is suspected of trade finance fraud, so digitalization of trade finance which can facilitate the prevention and detection of trade fraud needs to be realized quickly. Since there has been no international rule available for open account trade finance up till now, clearly stipulated EFF terms on the exporter's genuine export obligation might have protected K-Sure from the disaster. Originality/value - This study investigates the due diligence of the banks and K-Sure in Moneual case which few researchers have considered, to the best of our knowledge. This study also suggests several practical methods (including block chain) to prevent complicating trade finance fraud amid increasing use of an open account, and further offers reasonable risk management of EFF employing international factoring rule which is also related to problematic open account trade finance.