Factoring Volume Continues to Grow

Accounts receivable funding, also known as factoring, continued an upward trend in 2005 with volume exceeding $112 billion. This represented a 9.3% increase over the prior year, which is the strongest year to year growth rate since 2000. In fact, only 2001 was the only year in the past 20 that factoring volume did not rise. A/R funding continues to be an accepted part of financing, but according to the Commercial Finance Association’s Annual Asset Based Lending and Factoring 2005 Survey, two thirds of the volume came from the northeast and southeast parts of the country. The northeast is the major region for factoring volume with 42% of the total.

The survey indicated that only 5% of factoring volume came from the Midwest, which includes some highly populated states with a plethora of companies that typically use A/R funding. States in the Midwest included in the survey were Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Missouri. Why are the totals so low for these states? One reason could be that Midwest firms typically become utilize more traditional means of financing, and are hesitant to look for alternatives when bank loans aren’t available. Another factor is that 59% of all ’05 volume was represented by the textile and apparel industries. Most of firms of this nature are located in the east.

Most factoring volume (72%) involved clients selling goods to retailers. Only 9% were service provider clients with the remainder (20%) being clients selling goods to anyone other than retailers. Clearly, even though factoring volume is increasing each year, there are still several industries that could benefit from using factoring as a financing tool.

Factoring is a largely a non-recourse, notification business. 80% of factoring was on a non-recourse basis. This means that if a customer doesn’t’ pay, the factor can’t come back to the client for payment (unless the non payment is the result of product disputes and liability or fraud). The majority (85%) of factoring was performed on a notification business. This arrangement requires clients to notify their customers that their accounts receivables have been assigned to a company and that payments should be remitted to the factor.

Kent Harlan, a CPA since 1984, has served as Financial Advisor and Consultant to several companies and author of numerous articles in the alternative finance arena. He is the owner of Ozarks Capital Funding, LLC, a company that focuses on providing a number of financial services, including factoring, equipment leasing, and healthcare financing. Website: www.ocflink.com email: kenth@ocflink.com