With the deepening of China's economic system reform and the implementation of the strategy of "retreating from the country to enter the people", small and medium-sized enterprises are playing an increasingly important role in the national economy. More and more small and medium-sized enterprises have obtained the right to operate foreign trade since the state lifted the restrictions on the non-public economy to engage in foreign trade. According to customs statistics, in 2005, the total import and export volume of small and medium-sized enterprises in China reached US$ 224.37 billion, an increase of 57% over the previous year, accounting for 15.78% of the total import and export volume in that year. Small and medium-sized enterprises have become an important force in China's foreign trade. However, due to the late start of small and medium-sized enterprises and less accumulation of their own funds, the shortage of funds has become a bottleneck restricting the further development of small and medium-sized enterprises. Although China's small and medium-sized enterprises are more flexible and active than large enterprises in terms of management mode and market development, the financing difficulty is much higher than that of large enterprises. The main reasons for this situation are:

1. There is a serious information asymmetry between banks and small and medium-sized enterprises, and the relationship between them is not harmonious. There are a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises in China, and the quality is mixed. In order to avoid adverse selection and moral hazard, banks implement "credit rationing" for small and medium-sized enterprises, that is, they demand higher interest rates or other harsh conditions than large enterprises and even refuse to provide loans.

2. At present, the credit demand of most small and medium-sized enterprises in China is small, and the opportunity cost of loans is higher than that of large enterprises. According to statistics, the average management cost of small and medium-sized enterprises' loans is about five times that of large enterprises. On the premise of maximizing profits and minimizing risks, commercial banks are not enthusiastic about lending to SMEs.

3. Domestic banks generally lack financial products, credit evaluation system and guarantee system suitable for SME financing. China's financial policy and financing system are mainly designed and implemented for state-owned enterprises, especially large state-owned enterprises. The credit evaluation system of banks also lacks evaluation modules suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises, but refers to the standards of large enterprises and considers the financial indicators of enterprises too much, which leads to many enterprises with financing needs unable to obtain loans. Therefore, in order to solve the financing problem of small and medium-sized enterprises in China, we must develop a more effective financing model according to the characteristics of small and medium-sized enterprises.

Second, the advantages of small and medium-sized enterprises in developing trade financing

According to the definition of Basel Accord (June 2004 edition), trade financing refers to the use of structured short-term financing tools based on the financing of assets (such as crude oil, metals, grains, etc.) in commodity trading. Trade financing has the characteristics of high liquidity, short-term and repeatability. Emphasizing operational control, ignoring financial analysis and access control, and adapting to small and medium-sized enterprises with low qualifications are conducive to the formation of long-term and stable cooperative relations between banks and enterprises. Trade financing can also control capital flow and logistics, which is conducive to dynamically grasping risks and avoiding the weakness of unstable business operations. The financing of small and medium-sized enterprises often has the characteristics of small amount, many times and fast turnover, and trade financing can just meet these requirements.

Relatively speaking, trade financing has more advantages than ordinary working capital loans in terms of risks, bank access threshold and approval speed:

1, the entry threshold for trade financing is low, which effectively solves the problem that small and medium-sized enterprises cannot raise funds because their financial indicators cannot meet the bank standards. In the process of traditional bank liquidity loan, it is necessary to examine the scale, net assets, debt ratio, profitability and guarantee methods of the enterprise. Many small and medium-sized enterprises can't get financing from banks because they can't meet the requirements of bank rating and credit. However, the entry threshold for trade financing is low, and the focus of banks is on each specific business transaction. In the process of trade financing, banks focus on the real single trade background of loan enterprises and the historical reputation of import and export enterprises, instead of applying the traditional evaluation system. In this process, the guarantee principle is weakened, and banks control risks through closed operation of funds to ensure the return of funds after each real business. For some small and medium-sized enterprises, it is difficult to obtain financing loans because the financial indicators can not meet the bank standards. The introduction of trade financing means that they can get loans through the single business of real transactions and get the funds needed for enterprise development through continuous rolling circulation, and the financing problem is naturally alleviated to a certain extent.

2. The approval process of trade financing is relatively simple, and enterprises can obtain the required funds relatively quickly. Due to the limitation of capital scale, the capital chain of small and medium-sized enterprises is always in a relatively tight state, and the financing is more timely. Traditional working capital loans require banks to conduct strict investigations on the basic situation, financial indicators, development prospects, financing situation, credit records, collateral or guarantor of the loan enterprise, and the approval process is complicated and lengthy, which often happens when the enterprise does not need financing after the approval of the bank. In recent years, domestic banks have begun to attach importance to trade financing, and re-integrate and simplify the trade financing process. As long as the single trade background of the enterprise is investigated clearly and the historical credit records of the enterprise are combined, the relevant requirements can be implemented and the timeliness requirements of financing for small and medium-sized enterprises can be met.

3. The risk of trade financing is lower than that of ordinary loans, which can effectively reduce the risk of banks. The working capital loan for small and medium-sized enterprises has the characteristics of high risk, high cost and low income, which is easy to cause the risk of misappropriation of funds. Trade financing business pays attention to the authenticity of trade background and the continuity of trade. By reviewing the credit records of enterprises, counterparties, customers' default costs, the combination and application of financial instruments, and the post-loan management and operation process of banks, it is determined that the sales income generated by enterprises in the trade process constitutes the first repayment source of trade financing, and the financing amount is determined by the proportion of self-owned funds deducted from the trade volume, and the term matches the trade cycle, so the funds will not be misappropriated and the risk is relatively small.

4. Trade financing business can expand the source of bank income and adjust the income structure. The intermediary business of China's banking industry is still in its infancy, and there is a lot of room for future development. In terms of banks, international settlement, as a pillar product of intermediary business, is conducive to expanding the income of intermediary business. On the one hand, banks can get a lot of intermediary business income from direct trade financing, such as opening letters of credit, import bills, export bills, export discounts, factoring business, opening bank acceptance bills and other fees; On the other hand, small and medium-sized enterprises have great demand for trade financing because it is difficult to obtain bank loans directly, and banks are almost their only suppliers, so banks have strong bargaining power in the market. Compared with banks providing free or low-cost financing products to large enterprises, banks can charge certain fees for trade financing of small and medium-sized enterprises within a reasonable range, which will effectively promote the adjustment of bank income structure.

Three, small and medium-sized enterprises to carry out international trade financing should pay attention to the problem

In recent years, with the continuous development of China's international trade, domestic banks have continuously increased the innovation of international trade financing in order to seize more markets. At present, the measures taken by domestic banks for international trade financing have achieved good results and promoted the development of international trade financing for small and medium-sized enterprises, but there are still many problems.

1, the entry threshold for international trade financing of SMEs is too high.

Although banks have relaxed the entry threshold of trade financing business, they have not treated the trade financing of small and medium-sized enterprises differently from that of large enterprises, resulting in the high actual entry threshold of trade financing of small and medium-sized enterprises. For example, packaged loans, in addition to requiring enterprises to have the original letter of credit opened by banks with higher credit ratings, also need to confirm the effective guarantee (guarantee or mortgage), which is completely regarded as working capital loan management. This does not reflect the advantages of packaged loans as trade financing products. If enterprises can completely meet the standards required for working capital loans, why do they need to make packaged loans?

2. There is no standard for the approval of trade financing.

At present, commercial banks equate the approval of trade financing business with the approval of general loan business, ignoring the characteristics of trade financing business and lacking a set of fast and efficient approval methods suitable for its characteristics. Due to the short time required for trade financing business, such as export sight letter of credit business, the foreign exchange collection time is generally less than 1 month. Therefore, treating the approval of trade financing business as an ordinary loan business often leads to the approval time being longer than the trade financing period, which makes enterprises delay business opportunities. At present, although commercial banks have implemented unified approval of local and foreign currency credit, the approval of trade financing is carried out in accordance with the thinking mode of RMB credit approval.

3. SMEs generally lack a complete credit management system.

At present, most export enterprises still follow the traditional trade methods formed over the years, and their understanding of export risks still stays at the level of controlling non-letter of credit business, ignoring the investigation of importers' credit standing, which intensifies the collection risk of export enterprises. According to a research report of the Ministry of Commerce, only 1 1% of enterprises engaged in import and export business in China have established their own credit supervision system, and 93% of these 1 1% enterprises are multinational enterprises with foreign investment background. Many domestic companies are unaware of the risks and costs of overseas debt. As time goes on, it will become more and more difficult to recover these debts. At present, malicious fraud in arrears outside China has accounted for 66% of all arrears cases. At the same time, few enterprises use external insurance institutions, such as export credit insurance, to avoid risks.

4. The form of international trade financing is single.

As far as the types of international trade financing are concerned, the traditional financing method is still the main way in China, that is, the combination of letter of credit settlement and financing is the main way, with fewer varieties and single function. Banks can only make shallow innovations in some business varieties, but can't make deep changes to adapt to the development trend of international economy and finance. The trade financing methods of commercial banks are basically simple trade loans, packaged loans and bill discounting. And emerging international forfaiting, warehouse receipt financing, export commercial invoice financing, etc. It is rarely started by banks and never developed on a large scale, so it is difficult to meet the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises actively participating in internationalization.

Four. Countermeasures of small and medium-sized enterprises in international trade financing

1, learn from the experience of international trade financing in developed countries.

Developed countries started early and developed rapidly in international trade financing, and many successful experiences are worth learning. (1) Support the export of domestic products. Developed countries generally insist that export financing is used to buy their own machinery, equipment and other commodities. For example, the domestic productivity of export products supported by American export credit shall not be less than 85%; (2) loan review separation. Strictly review export credit and guarantee projects and strive to ensure the repayment of loans. The United States requires loans to be reviewed one by one, and the property and credit status of foreign importers should be reviewed. In Japan, government officials carefully examine and understand the situation of participating enterprises in the project to ensure their solvency. Once the loan is approved, the bank will closely follow it to ensure continuous supervision of the lender's implementation and take timely action in case of default. (3) Diversification of financing funds. Give priority to with national budget funds, and raise other funds in many ways. The source of export financing in western countries mainly depends on the national budget, in addition to private funds and local funds. For example, Italy's export credit and guarantee mainly rely on national budget funds, and when funds are insufficient, it issues bonds in domestic and foreign markets to raise funds.

2. Make full use of new financial instruments to meet the actual needs of enterprises.

Banks should be able to introduce suitable business varieties to enterprises in time and play the role of financial consultants. Such as through forfaiting, loans under export credit insurance, export factoring credit portfolio, export letter of credit credit portfolio, export tax rebate credit portfolio, etc., to meet the trade financing needs of small and medium-sized enterprises to carry out normal import and export business. We should actively innovate financial services and create new ideas for traditional products. For example, the packaged loan business is not limited to the letter of credit business, but should be gradually extended to collection and export invoice financing. In the import business, business forms such as reopening letters of credit and standby letters of credit can be adopted to meet the financing needs of small and medium-sized enterprises in all aspects and promote their development.

3. Establish a credit evaluation system suitable for SMEs.

In view of the characteristics of small and medium-sized enterprises, such as small scale, short establishment time, strong financing demand, high credit frequency and small amount, banks should formulate credit evaluation methods suitable for the characteristics of small and medium-sized enterprises, so that the credit rating can scientifically and reasonably reflect the status and solvency of small and medium-sized enterprises. In the trade financing business, the cash flow generated by customers' normal trade is the first source of repayment, and customers' own profitability is the second source. The credit rating standard of trade financing customers should be different from that of RMB liquidity loan customers, and a special credit rating system should be formulated according to the characteristics of trade financing business. A bank shall establish business records for its customers and evaluate their credit rating according to their business capabilities, counterparty resources and credit records.

At the same time, it is necessary to establish an information base for small and medium-sized enterprises, collect products, markets, imports and exports, and credit information of small and medium-sized enterprises, and change the situation of information asymmetry. Small and medium-sized enterprises are generally unable to investigate customers' credit status, so they should be encouraged to use D/P, D/A and D/A services to resolve risks by taking out export credit insurance.

References:

1、? Sun Jianlin, Risk Management of Credit Business of Commercial Banks [M], university of international business and economics Publishing House, 2003;

2、?

3、? Shen Ruinian, International Settlement [M], Beijing: Renmin University of China Press, 2000;

4、?

5、? Zhang Yaolin, Bank Import and Export Trade Financing [M], China Finance Press, 2000.