StanChart and ADB team up on Malaysian SCF

The agreement will make available around USD 19.34mn to SMEs in the country. Initially, the finance will be available to businesses in the pharmaceutical sector.

More than that, the agreement took shape on an existing agreement the pair signed in China which was worth over USD 100mn and which supported more than 200 SME transactions in the country. There are expectations that the new agreement to have a similar effect in Malaysia.

The main challenges for supply chain finance programmes are compliance costs and workforce needed to on-board and maintain relationships.

The ADB’s supply chain finance programme enables the development bank to fund suppliers upon the receipt and acceptance of goods, at which point the partner bank (Standard Chartered in this case) disburses funds to the supplier and receives the payment at invoice due date.

Additionally, the supply chain finance deal is the latest in Standard Chartered’s increased participation with development finance institutions. In August, it accessed a USD 500mn trade finance facility from the IFC which will allow it to continue to bank emerging market trade.

The trend is part of the bank’s efforts to maintain financing trade in emerging markets, where it has 90% of its business, at a time when regulatory costs are forcing banks to cut lines to developing countries.