Trade Services
At Rabobank Trade Services, we help customers to understand and manage the risks associated with doing business abroad.
Doing business internationally often involves complex import and export transactions – and it is not always clear which payment instructions are the most suitable, what the terms of delivery should be, and how one can minimise credit risk and ensure payment? At Rabobank Trade Services, we help customers to understand and manage the risks associated with doing business abroad. We offer documentary collections and letters of credit that ensure foreign customers pay for goods before they receive them. We provide a range of bank guarantees that provide insurance against a customer’s failure to pay, and we offer an e-advisory service (currently only available in Dutch). As of now it is also possible to handle your documentary transactions online through Rabo Trade Access.
Trade Services
Rabo Trade Acces (RTA) is part of the Rabo Financial Logistics Portal (RFLP), an online web portal which brings together Trade, Cash Management and Treasury in one central environment. RTA gives the opportunity to submit Import LC’s and Export Collections online, accept and/or pay Import Collections and consult Export LC’s online.
RTA is a user friendly tool through which the customer can submit documentary transactions electronically. In RTA customers can create templates, which means much more efficiency compared to paper submission. Apart from that, the necessary validations and checkups have been built in which decreases the chance of making mistakes and makes it impossible to skip mandatory fields. By the actual status information in RTA, customers are kept up to date continuously of the status of their documentary transactions.
In 2008 RTA will be extended with an e-mail notification function and a bank guarantee module will be added.
A bank guarantee, also known as a bond, obligates the bank to pay a sum of money if applicants fail to fulfill their obligations. The beneficiary may claim the guarantee by presenting copies of unpaid invoices and or other documents relating to the transaction. There are many different kinds of guarantees such as; advance payment guarantees, performance bonds, maintenance bonds, etc.
Would you like to make sure that your foreign customers pay for the goods before they are entitled to them? Or are you an importer unwilling to tie up your liquid assets? Then documentary collection is your solution. Here’s how it works: the exporter, upon shipment, presents the relevant documents to their bank. That bank then sends the documents to the importer's bank which in turn contacts the importer. In order to receive the documents that represent the goods, the importer must initiate payment. In this way, both parties are assured that a transaction will be completed satisfactorily.
How do you export goods to a distant country and ensure payment by the purchaser? What do you do if you are about to import goods and your supplier requires a form of security. In such cases a letter of credit is your solution. The exporter will be paid for goods shipped/services rendered only upon presentation of documents that have been pre-described in a letter of credit. Once it has issued a letter of credit, the importer's bank then acts as guarantor for payment. Payment that rests on a letter of credit depends on the documents presented at the bank and not on the quality of the goods delivered or the services rendered.