Trade financing funds a specific shipment rather than the business as a whole, from the moment you pay the supplier to the moment your customer pays you. We work out which instruments fit your trade cycle and prepare the submission.
Your supplier wants paying before the container leaves Guangzhou. Your customer here settles sixty days after it arrives and clears. Between those dates sits a hole that has nothing to do with whether your business is profitable, and everything to do with how long goods take to move and sell.
The bank is financing a transaction, not a company. The goods, the supplier, the buyer and the shipping documents all form part of the assessment, and the sale of those goods repays the facility. It is why trade lines are open to businesses that would not get an unsecured overdraft.
These are the banks’ requirements, not ours. They vary by institution and change over time.
Trade financing is not a single product. It is a set of instruments, normally granted as sub-limits under one trade line, and which you draw on depends on where in the cycle the money is needed.
It fits when there is an identifiable transaction to point at: a purchase order, a supplier invoice, a shipment, a named buyer. A letter of credit is most useful early in a supplier relationship, because it protects both sides. Your supplier ships knowing a bank has undertaken to pay, and you pay only against documents proving the goods went.
It does not fit where there is no transaction. Overheads, salaries and rent cannot be put on a trust receipt, and trade desks are alert to attempts to do so: one rolled over repeatedly rather than retired from sale proceeds is the clearest warning sign they watch for. It is a poor fit where you buy on open account from a factory you have used for years, because a letter of credit adds cost and paperwork to a relationship that does not need protecting. It is difficult where the goods are perishable, custom built or have no second market, because the bank’s fallback disappears. And if the pressure is on the selling side, with stock long gone and customers slow to settle, invoice financing addresses that and a trade line does not.
| What | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| The counterparty | Who you buy from or sell to, and whether your bank has a correspondent there. A buyer in a market it treats as high risk can stop the application alone. |
| The goods themselves | Commodity grade goods with an open market are straightforward. Custom items and short shelf life products are harder, because the bank’s fallback is weak. |
| The length of the trade cycle | The tenor should match the time from shipment to settlement. Where it is shorter, the difference comes out of your own cash every time round. |
| Documentary discipline | Letters of credit settle on documents, not on goods. Discrepancies and repeated amendments suggest operational weakness and add a charge each time. |
| Conduct on existing trade lines | Trust receipts extended rather than settled from sale proceeds read as evidence the goods are not moving, and that is watched closely. |
| Currency exposure | Buying in US dollars and selling in ringgit, a movement between shipment and settlement can remove the margin entirely. Banks ask how you manage it. |
Enter the rate a bank has quoted you, or one you want to test. SMEBox does not lend and does not set rates, so there is nothing pre-filled here.
Name, company and a phone number is enough to start. We call you back, ask what the money is for, and tell you whether this is worth taking further before you send us anything sensitive.
We read the accounts and the bank conduct, and tell you where you stand against what banks are currently accepting. If this is the wrong facility, we say so. If we think no bank will approve you at present, we say that too, and what would need to change.
This stage usually takes three to five working days from receiving a complete set of documents.
We assemble the submission, present the financials consistently, set out the purpose of funds, and answer the questions a credit officer will ask before they ask them. You see it and approve it in writing before anything goes anywhere.
We lodge the application and handle the back-and-forth until the bank issues its decision. The decision on approval, amount and pricing is entirely the bank’s, and we cannot guarantee any outcome.
Banks typically take three to six weeks from a complete submission to a decision on this facility type.
SMEBox does not lend and does not set pricing. Rates, fees and terms are set by the bank and vary by facility, security, tenure and the bank’s own assessment of your business.
SMEBox does not lend, does not issue any instrument and does not set pricing. Trade financing is priced per instrument rather than as one rate, which makes comparison harder than it looks. A letter of credit attracts an issuing commission on its value; a trust receipt attracts interest for its tenor; a bankers’ acceptance carries an acceptance commission plus the discount on the bill. As a guide only, issuing commissions have run at 0.1% per month on the LC value, subject to a minimum, with trust receipt interest of 5% to 9% per annum. Sourced from published bank trade tariffs, reviewed September 2026. The cost that catches most importers is not on the tariff at all. It is the spread applied when your ringgit are converted, which is negotiable and often is not.
Where none of those apply, we will tell you so on the first call rather than take you through a process you did not need.
An undertaking by your bank to pay your supplier a stated amount, provided they present documents proving they shipped what was agreed. Your supplier gets certainty without having to trust you; you pay only against proof of shipment. The bank deals in documents, not in goods.
When the bank pays your supplier under a letter of credit, it has in effect bought your goods. A trust receipt releases them to you to sell, on the understanding that the proceeds retire the borrowing. An overdue one means the goods have not sold.
It is more accessible than most facilities, though never automatic. Because the goods and documents carry much of the security, a bank can take a view on a shorter record than an unsecured line needs. A cash margin, commonly 10% to 30% of the credit value, is often required instead.
Often not, and paying for one you do not need is waste. It earns its cost on a first order, a new supplier, or a market where enforcing a contract would be hard. After years of open account trading, a trust receipt line funds the goods more cheaply.
You do, unless you arrange otherwise. If you open a credit in US dollars and the ringgit weakens before settlement, the shipment costs more in ringgit and the margin you priced on disappears. Hedging is available from the same banks, and whether it suits you depends on how predictable your prices are.
Yes. Pre-shipment export credit funds materials and production against a confirmed order, and post-shipment facilities advance against the export documents once the goods have gone. There are government backed export arrangements too, and the BNM funds and schemes are worth checking first.
If the goods are long gone and the difficulty is customers paying slowly, invoice financing attacks that directly. If you are importing a machine rather than stock, that is an asset, and equipment and asset financing gives a far longer tenure than any trade instrument. If there is no identifiable shipment and the gap is simply your trading cycle, working capital financing or an overdraft is the right shape. Most established importers hold a trade line alongside one of these rather than instead of it.
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