FCI Council rolls out FCIreverse, selects Demica as global supply chain finance platform partner
FCI announced today that its new supply chain initiative FCIreverse will be based on the Demica platform. FCIreverse will enable FCI’s network of 400 banks and independent factoring firms to easily partner and fund their clients’ suppliers anywhere in the world. Demica, a rapidly growing London based fintech and specialist provider of working capital solutions to major corporates and banks, will open its multi-funder platform to FCI members on a pay-as-you go basis to remove any barriers to adoption of FCIreverse. Demica already enables the funding of over $60bn of trade receivables a year for over 3,000 large corporates and SMEs in Europe, North America and Asia.
With over $100bn of funds in use and growing at a rate of over 20%, reverse factoring, also referred to as confirming or approved payables finance is one the fastest growing segments of trade finance. Used extensively in retail, manufacturing and service sectors, the product allows buyers to enable their suppliers to access low cost working capital and mitigate the trend in longer payment terms.
Commenting on the selection, Peter Mulroy, secretary general of FCI, said:
“We have been planning the launch of FCIreverse for over two years. The key step was to identify a proven platform provider with a strong background and experience in buyer-led payables programs, that was able to meet our members’ technology, security & compliance policies needs but also ensured a sound user experience for the anchor buyers and their domestic and international suppliers. Demica has already been adopted by a number of global banks within the FCI network, and with its recent release of new interfaces and supplier onboarding tools it stood out as our partner of choice.”
Supply chains increasingly operate on a global basis with suppliers in many countries, but domestic banking regulations, local currency payments and the need to onboard suppliers in many languages makes it challenging for any financial institution other than the largest banks to provide a global service to their clients.
FCIreverse will enable member banks and factoring companies to seamlessly finance their clients’ suppliers anywhere in the world by partnering in the background with other FCI members that have the necessary licences & operational capabilities to onboard suppliers in countries where they themselves are unable to operate. This will help to open up the reverse factoring market beyond the large corporates with revenue greater than $1bn that are to date the primary market using this product. FCI’s pay-as-you go model with Demica will allow smaller FCI members that focus on companies with less than $1bn in revenue to be able to economically offer reverse factoring in this underserved market, substantially increasing the amount of working capital available to the world’s SMEs.
Matt Wreford, the CEO of Demica, comments:
“We are proud to have been selected as the platform provider for FCIreverse. The partnership with FCI will add a large number of new users and funders to our platform: this will not only accelerate the number of working capital programmes managed by Demica but will also help us achieve our goal to have the most comprehensive global funding network in the world.”
Josep Selles, the Chairman of FCI’s SCF committee which managed the selection process with the external support of Dutch consultancy firm Capital Chains, added:
“The three finalists all scored highly on many levels but Demica proved to have the best strategic match. We are excited about moving forward with them to launch the first pilot programmes with our members in Q3 2017.”
The selection of Demica was made after an extensive RFI process in 2016 and an even greater RFP process in 2017, that evaluated the potential solution providers against a number of different factors including:
• Quality of the underlying platform technology, including functionality, resilience, connectivity and scalability.
• User experience and simplicity to onboard buyers and suppliers.
• Flexibility to support a range of reporting and operational processes.
• Ability to operate globally with all FCI members.
• Practicality of the proposed implementation plan and support.
• Initial investment costs to FCI members.
• Company information, financial stability and customer references.