Plastic fantastic and just for forwarders

The privately-held Australian firm embarked this month on a US expansion with privately-held New York asset-based lending firm Rosenthal & Rosenthal to bring the Australian concept to the US.
Originally started to help link importers from China to Australian buyers and ease their documentation and payment issues through a secure portal, the firm decided the US expansion was a natural next step, given the amount of business done between the US and China – even considering the current recession.
Last month the company has moved to allow freight forwarding costs to be incorporated into its overall payment cycle, thereby allowing importers to consolidate another element of their import transaction process through the company’s electronic facility.
“This provides Octet member importers with an additional 10% of their approved credit limit to allow payment to freight forwarders through their Octet trading card,” the firm said.
“This buffer payment will be welcomed by freight forwarders who will be entitled to have their costs paid up-front through the Octet system and therefore avoid the credit and collection risks associated with open account trading.”
Octet claimed an Australian first recently when unveiling its business-to-business credit card aimed at providing both unsecured and accelerated working capital finance during both their purchasing and sales cycles.
“The major benefit of such a card is that it enables Australian private business to fund growth without putting up personal or business assets as collateral,” chief executive Willy Bagg said.
“Similar to a consumer credit card but with much higher dollar limit, it will allow businesses to reduce the critical timing gap between their cash outflow from purchases and cash inflow from sales.
“This enables private business – small, medium and large – to both rapidly collect money that is owed to them by their customers or buyers and provides them more time to pay their suppliers or sellers.”
Octet was founded in February last year by managing director Clive Isenberg, a long-standing cash-flow financier for small-to-medium enterprises, as a facility to assist Australian importers importing from China when use of letters of credit was often difficult.
“To use Octet, you have to be enrolled in the community. You then participate through the trading card that is encrypted using VeriSign technology. Placement and approval of orders, negotiations, uploading documents, approving payments requires both parties to be able to use the portal – it is all done online,” Mr Bagg said.
He insisted that Octet, which gained its income from a transaction fee, had been designed as an alternative source of finance, so was not in competition with the banks.