Trade Finance Poll: Philippines 2023

217 respondents

December 2023

Philippine results are characterised by a larger SME and importer component, relatively strong domestic demand, growing participation in regional trade and a greater sensitivity to financing cost, payments risk and working-capital availability. FDI inflows increased 39% to US$9 billion in 2024, though corporate respondents in 2025 would reasonably remain cautious about international demand and trade-policy uncertainty.

1. Top trade and working-capital priorities

What are your organisation’s three most important trade-finance, supply-chain-finance or cross-border working-capital priorities over the next 12 months?

Select up to three.

Securing adequate trade-finance limits or facilities (58%)
Reducing the cost of trade and working-capital finance (46%)
Improving access to pre-shipment or post-shipment export finance
Improving access to import finance, inventory finance or supplier-payment finance (48%)
Reducing days sales outstanding and accelerating receivables collection
Extending supplier-payment terms without weakening supplier relationships
Accessing supplier finance, payable finance or dynamic discounting
Obtaining receivables finance, invoice discounting or factoring (36%)
Improving trade-document processing and reducing paper
Managing FX exposure associated with imports, exports or overseas suppliers (32%)
Diversifying export markets, suppliers or trade corridors
Improving supply-chain resilience and supplier liquidity
Strengthening sanctions, compliance and counterparty-risk management (39%)
Improving visibility of purchase orders, shipments, invoices and payments
Other

2. Greatest obstacle

Which single issue creates the greatest difficulty for your organisation’s cross-border trade, trade finance or supply-chain finance today?

Select one.

Insufficient bank credit limits or restricted access to trade-finance facilities (21%)
High interest margins, fees or collateral requirements (23%)
Slow bank approvals, onboarding or documentation processes (15%)
Excessive paper documentation or inconsistent trade-document requirements (15%)
Delayed payment by overseas buyers or domestic customers (17%)
Difficulty obtaining supplier credit or managing supplier-payment terms
Limited access to receivables finance or invoice discounting (8%)
FX volatility or difficulty hedging trade-related currency exposure (10%)
Counterparty, country, sanctions or compliance risk
Supply-chain disruption, shipment delays or uncertain delivery schedules
Limited digital integration between our systems, banks and trade partners
Lack of internal expertise in trade finance, documentation or compliance
Other (6%)

3. Cross-border trade scale

Approximately what was your organisation’s total annual cross-border trade turnover—imports plus exports—over the most recent 12 months?

Please select a range. Responses will be reported only in aggregate and never attributed to an individual company.

Less than US$1 million (16%)
US$1 million to less than US$5 million (26%)
US$5 million to less than US$25 million (28%)
US$25 million to less than US$100 million (18%)
US$100 million to less than US$250 million (8%)
US$250 million to less than US$500 million (3%)
US$500 million to less than US$1 billion (1%)
US$1 billion to less than US$5 billion
US$5 billion or more
Prefer not to say

Note: “Cross-border trade turnover” means the aggregate value of the organisation’s imports and exports of goods and relevant trade-related services. It should exclude purely domestic sales.

4. Trade profile and payment terms

Which statement best describes your organisation’s main trade profile?

Select one.

Predominantly exporter (27%)
Predominantly importer (35%)
Broadly balanced importer and exporter (20%)
Domestic anchor buyer with a substantial supplier base (4%)
Domestic supplier to local and multinational buyers (11%)
Logistics, freight-forwarding or trade-service provider
Cross-border e-commerce or marketplace seller
Other (3%)

What are the most common settlement terms in your cross-border trade?

Select up to two.

Advance payment (30%)
Open-account trade (42%)
Documentary letter of credit (34%)
Documentary collection (11%)
Bank guarantee or standby letter of credit
Supplier credit (23%)
Buyer credit or export credit
Not sure

This question is particularly valuable because traditional trade instruments remain important, but trade-bank revenue and client demand are shifting toward open-account and supply-chain-finance structures. A 2025 CGI/BAFT survey found respondents expected traditional trade products to fall below half of expected trade-finance revenue over the next five years, while open account and SCF continued to expand

5. Trade-finance access and use

Which trade-finance and supply-chain-finance solutions does your organisation currently use, and which are you likely to seek or expand over the next 24 months?

For each item, select: “Currently use”, “Plan to use/expand”, “Aware but no current plan”, or “Not familiar”.

Solution	Result
Import letter of credit	Currently use (45%); Plan to use/expand (19%)
Export letter of credit confirmation or discounting	—
Import loan or trust receipt	Currently use (31%); Plan to use/expand (24%)
Pre-shipment finance	Currently use (24%); Plan to use/expand (22%)
Post-shipment finance	Currently use (24%); Plan to use/expand (22%)
Bank guarantee, performance bond or standby letter of credit	Currently use (20%); Plan to use/expand (16%)
Receivables finance, factoring or invoice discounting	Currently use (14%); Plan to use/expand (29%)
Supplier finance/payables finance	Currently use (10%); Plan to use/expand (20%)
Distributor finance	—
Inventory finance	—
Purchase-order finance	—
Trade-credit insurance-backed finance	—
Export-credit agency-backed finance	—
Digital trade-document platform	Currently use (8%); Plan to use/expand (25%)
Trade-related FX hedging	Currently use (23%); Plan to use/expand (22%)

6. Banking relationship model and selection criteria

Which statement best describes your current trade-finance and supply-chain-finance banking model?

Select one.

One primary bank provides most of our trade-finance and supply-chain-finance facilities (15%)
We use a lead bank supported by several specialist, local or correspondent banks (30%)
We use multiple banks, with no dominant trade-finance provider (30%)
Trade-finance banking is selected separately by country, subsidiary or business unit (19%)
We are actively reviewing, consolidating or re-tendering our trade-finance banks (6%)
We expect to add banks, fintechs, insurers or specialist finance providers in the next 12 months

What would most influence a decision to appoint, retain or expand a trade-finance or SCF bank relationship?

Select up to three.

Credit appetite, facility size and speed of limit approval (55%)
Competitive pricing, margins, fees and collateral terms (59%)
Cross-border network, local-market reach and correspondent-bank capability
Expertise in our industry, products and trade corridors
Digital trade platform, APIs and ERP integration
Speed and quality of implementation, onboarding and client service (42%)
Documentary-trade expertise and handling of discrepancies (32%)
Supply-chain-finance programme design and supplier onboarding
FX capability, pricing and hedging support
Risk, sanctions, compliance and regulatory expertise
Receivables finance, credit insurance or export-credit capability
Sustainability-linked trade, supply-chain or working-capital solutions
Data, reporting and visibility of transactions and supply-chain flows

7. Trade digitisation maturity

How would you assess your organisation’s current capability in trade-document management and digital connectivity?

Capability	Largely paper/manual	Partly digitised	Mostly digitised	Fully integrated/digital
Preparation and exchange of invoices, purchase orders and shipping documents	(52%)	(34%)	(11%)	(3%)
Presentation and handling of letters of credit, collections or guarantees	○	○	○	○
Connectivity between ERP/procurement systems and banks	(48%)	(32%)	(16%)	(4%)
Visibility of purchase orders, shipments, invoices and payment status	○	○	○	○
Onboarding and administration of suppliers or distributors into finance programmes	○	○	○	○

Digitalisation should be measured directly, rather than assumed. Trade-bank research has consistently identified digitisation, platform modernisation and intelligent process automation as major priorities, while corporate clients often remain constrained by paper, fragmented data and onboarding complexity.

8. Supply-chain finance and supplier resilience

Which working-capital or supply-chain-finance needs would you most like a bank or finance provider to address?

Select up to three.

Financing suppliers earlier against approved invoices (27%)
Extending buyer payment terms while protecting supplier liquidity
Financing suppliers that are too small or too remote to access conventional bank credit
Financing distributors, dealers or downstream customers
Receivables finance against domestic or export invoices (42%)
Inventory or warehouse finance (43%)
Purchase-order or pre-shipment funding (30%)
Dynamic discounting or early-payment programmes
Better visibility of supplier financial health and supply-chain risk
Faster onboarding of suppliers into finance programmes
Financing linked to sustainability, decarbonisation or responsible sourcing
Trade-credit insurance, guarantees or risk-sharing structures (25%)
We have no current need for supply-chain finance (14%)
Not sure

This question lets banks identify demand for supplier finance beyond large anchor programmes. The ADB specifically highlights the potential of deeper-tier SCF to use anchor-buyer creditworthiness to reach smaller suppliers, while noting that SME access to trade finance remains a material issue.

9. Planned actions and provider-switching intent

Over the next 12–24 months, what actions is your organisation most likely to take in trade finance, supply-chain finance or cross-border working capital?

Select all that apply.