Supply chain financing system and method
First Claim
1. A method for financing, through a third party, a supply of goods from a supply chain to a buyer, the supply chain consisting of a number of participants, wherein the buyer and each participant in the supply chain have a cost of financing, the method comprising the steps of:
- identifying a first participant that has a cost of financing that is the greatest above the buyer'"'"'s cost of financing;
establishing rules between the buyer and the third party including establishing, in a first rule, a manner in which the third party can identify acceptance data representing acceptance of goods by the buyer;
the third party identifying acceptance data related to goods accepted by the buyer;
calculating the financing for the goods in response to the identified acceptance data and in response to the established rules;
forwarding payment for the goods from the third party to the first participant prior to a time the payment for the goods would normally be payable; and
at maturity of the financing, settling the financing between the buyer and the third party.
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Abstract
A method for financing a supply of goods (a supply chain) from a supplier to a buyer in which the buyer has a lower cost of funds than the supplier. According to the method, the buyer generates a purchase order for the goods which is forwarded to the supplier who in turn ships the goods to the buyer. The supplier sends an invoice to the buyer which stores the invoice data in a database. The financing institution electronically accesses the database to retrieve the daily invoices. The financial institution then calculates the financing applicable to the shipped good and forwards a payment to the supplier. Upon maturity of the financing, the buyer settles with the financial institution by remitting the gross proceeds.
371 Citations
24 Claims
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1. A method for financing, through a third party, a supply of goods from a supply chain to a buyer, the supply chain consisting of a number of participants, wherein the buyer and each participant in the supply chain have a cost of financing, the method comprising the steps of:
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identifying a first participant that has a cost of financing that is the greatest above the buyer'"'"'s cost of financing; establishing rules between the buyer and the third party including establishing, in a first rule, a manner in which the third party can identify acceptance data representing acceptance of goods by the buyer; the third party identifying acceptance data related to goods accepted by the buyer; calculating the financing for the goods in response to the identified acceptance data and in response to the established rules; forwarding payment for the goods from the third party to the first participant prior to a time the payment for the goods would normally be payable; and at maturity of the financing, settling the financing between the buyer and the third party. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A method for financing, through a third party, a supply of goods from a supply chain to a buyer, the method comprising the steps of:
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establishing rules between the buyer and the third party including establishing, in a first rule, a manner in which the third party can identify acceptance data representing acceptance of goods by the buyer; the third party identifying acceptance data related to goods accepted by the buyer; evaluating the savings to be obtained by the financing, wherein the evaluating step is accomplished using the formula;
##EQU2## where V is the dollar amount of annual wholesale value of the supply chain;
n is the number of participants in the supply chain, P is the percentage of annual wholesale value of the supply chain contributed by each participant;
d is number of days each participant finances the wholesale value of the supply chain;
t is net trade cycle of the supply chain, Δ
is the LIBOR spread of each participant; and
D is the LIBOR spread of the lowest funding cost supply chain participant;calculating the financing for the goods in response to the identified acceptance data and in response to the established rules; forwarding payment for the goods from the third party to one of the participants in the supply chain prior to a time the payment for the goods would normally be payable; and at maturity of the financing, settling the financing between the buyer and the third party.
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8. A method for financing, through a third party, a supply of goods from a supply chain to a buyer, the supply chain consisting of a number of participants, the method comprising the steps of:
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generating request data representing a request for the goods; receiving the request data by at least one of the participants in the supply chain and the third party; calculating financing for the requested goods in response to the received request data; forwarding a first payment for the goods from the third party to the at least one participant; shipping the goods; generating invoice data representing the shipment of the goods; receiving invoice data by the third party representing the shipment of goods; calculating a remaining payment, if any, with respect to the shipped goods in response to the received invoice data and in response to the first payment; forwarding the remaining payment, if any, from the third party to the at least one participant; and at maturity of the financing, settling the financing between the buyer and the third party. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A method for financing, through a third party, a supply of goods from a supply chain to a buyer, the supply chain consisting of a number of participants, wherein the buyer and each participant in the supply chain has a cost of financing, the method comprising the steps of:
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generating request data representing a request for the goods; receiving the request data by at least one of the participants in the supply chain and the third party; evaluating the savings to be obtained by the financing, wherein the evaluating step is accomplished using the formula;
##EQU3## where V is the dollar amount of annual wholesale value of the supply chain;
n is the number of participants in the supply chain, P is the percentage of annual wholesale value of the supply chain contributed by each participant;
d is number of days each participant finances the wholesale value of the supply chain;
t is net trade cycle of the supply chain, Δ
is the LIBOR spread of each participant; and
D is the LIBOR spread of the lowest funding cost supply chain participants;calculating financing for the requested goods in response to the received request data; forwarding a first payment for the goods from the third party to the first participant; shipping the goods; generating invoice data representing the shipment of the goods; receiving invoice data by the third party representing the shipment of goods; calculating a remaining payment if any, with respect to the shipped goods in response to the received invoice data and in response to the first payment; forwarding the remaining payment, if any, from the third party to the first participant; and at maturity of the financing, settling the financing between the buyer and the third party.
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Specification