The innovation brought by fintech solutions to factoring operations, especially in the context of financing the distribution chain, positively integrates the offer of services to support the working capital of companies. Speaking today in Milan at the conference "Supply Chain Finance: supply chain credit towards new perspectives” organized by the Supply Chain Finance Observatory of the School of Management of the Milan Polytechnic, Rony Hamaui, member of the executive committee as Past President of Assifact, the association that brings together the main operators of a business which in Italy is worth around 13 % of GDP, defined the relationship between factoring and fintech as a "win-win" relationship, advantageous and successful for both. “Factoring – underlined Hamaui – offers a more complex, rich and personalized service, focused on the management of commercial credit. The factoring company, which presents itself as a strategic partner of the company, establishes a deep relationship with the customer. Fintech increases the efficiency of the system and reduces operating costs, maximizes economies of scale and makes it possible to cover segments of customers currently not served".
In the distribution chain, the so-called "reverse factoring" is increasingly establishing itself as a financial instrument through which a large company, leader of its supply chain, can facilitate, thanks to a framework agreement with a factoring company, access to credit from part of its selected suppliers who will be able to enjoy preferential conditions precisely because their credits, recognized by the large client company, are less risky.
In 2017, out of a total factoring turnover of 222 billion euros, reverse factoring reached 16 billion euros, with an increase of 13% compared to the previous year. According to Assifact, which is carrying out joint research on the subject with the Supply Chain Finance Observatory, growth can be further accelerated thanks to the innovation brought by fintech platforms and solutions. Provided, Rony Hamaui underlined in his speech, that competitive disparities are not created. For this Hamaui hoped that future European regulation, which is increasingly moving towards a sort of legal statute of fintech, be based on the principles of proportionality ("rules proportional to the activity performed and the risks assumed"), a level playing field (“same activity, same regulation”) and technology neutrality (“fostering the development of new technologies without generating competitive imbalances”).
