244 respondents

December 2023

The survey reflects a 2023 trade downturn, recovery in regional exports during 2024—supported by stronger semiconductor and goods demand—and the more cautious but still resilient 2025 environment of supply-chain reconfiguration, tariff uncertainty, FX volatility and stronger interest in digital trade and working-capital tools. ASEAN FDI rose nearly 10% year on year to US$225 billion in 2024; Singapore remained the largest recipient, while inflows rose strongly in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.

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 (57%)
Reducing the cost of trade and working-capital finance (49%)
Improving access to pre-shipment or post-shipment export finance (43%)
Improving trade-document processing and reducing paper (39%)
Managing FX exposure associated with imports, exports or overseas suppliers (35%)
Improving supply-chain resilience and supplier liquidity (31%)
Improving access to import finance, inventory finance or supplier-payment finance
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
Diversifying export markets, suppliers or trade corridors
Strengthening sanctions, compliance and counterparty-risk management
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 (24%)
High interest margins, fees or collateral requirements (19%)
Slow bank approvals, onboarding or documentation processes (17%)
Excessive paper documentation or inconsistent trade-document requirements (14%)
FX volatility or difficulty hedging trade-related currency exposure (10%)
Delayed payment by overseas buyers or domestic customers (9%)
Other (7%)
Difficulty obtaining supplier credit or managing supplier-payment terms
Limited access to receivables finance or invoice discounting
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

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.

US$1 million to less than US$5 million (22%)
US$5 million to less than US$25 million (27%)
US$25 million to less than US$100 million (21%)
Less than US$1 million (12%)
US$100 million to less than US$250 million (10%)
US$250 million to less than US$500 million (5%)
US$500 million to less than US$1 billion (3%)
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 (34%)
Predominantly importer (27%)
Broadly balanced importer and exporter (21%)
Domestic supplier to local and multinational buyers (11%)
Domestic anchor buyer with a substantial supplier base (4%)
Logistics, freight-forwarding or trade-service provider
Cross-border e-commerce or marketplace seller
Other

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

Select up to two.

Open-account trade (45%)
Documentary letter of credit (35%)
Advance payment (27%)
Supplier credit (24%)
Documentary collection (13%)
Bank guarantee or standby letter of credit
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 (42%); Plan to use/expand (18%)
Export letter of credit confirmation or discounting	–
Import loan or trust receipt	–
Pre-shipment finance	Currently use (31%); Plan to use/expand (27%)
Post-shipment finance	Currently use (31%); Plan to use/expand (27%)
Bank guarantee, performance bond or standby letter of credit	Currently use (24%); Plan to use/expand (18%)
Receivables finance, factoring or invoice discounting	Currently use (16%); Plan to use/expand (28%)
Supplier finance/payables finance	Currently use (11%); Plan to use/expand (23%)
Distributor finance	–
Inventory finance	–
Purchase-order finance	–
Trade-credit insurance-backed finance	–
Export-credit agency-backed finance	–
Digital trade-document platform	Currently use (9%); Plan to use/expand (31%)
Trade-related FX hedging	Currently use (29%); Plan to use/expand (26%)

6. Banking relationship model and selection criteria: Which statement best describes your current trade-finance and supply-chain-finance banking model?

Select one.

We use a lead bank supported by several specialist, local or correspondent banks (39%)
We use multiple banks, with no dominant trade-finance provider (28%)
Trade-finance banking is selected separately by country, subsidiary or business unit (17%)
One primary bank provides most of our trade-finance and supply-chain-finance facilities (11%)
We are actively reviewing, consolidating or re-tendering our trade-finance banks (5%)
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 (64%)
Competitive pricing, margins, fees and collateral terms (52%)
Documentary-trade expertise and handling of discrepancies (38%)
Cross-border network, local-market reach and correspondent-bank capability (36%)
Speed and quality of implementation, onboarding and client service (33%)
Expertise in our industry, products and trade corridors
Digital trade platform, APIs and ERP integration
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	(47%)	(37%)	(13%)	(3%)
Presentation and handling of letters of credit, collections or guarantees	○	○	○	○
Connectivity between ERP/procurement systems and banks	(43%)	(34%)	(18%)	(5%)
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.

Purchase-order or pre-shipment funding (48%)
Financing suppliers earlier against approved invoices (41%)
Receivables finance against domestic or export invoices (39%)
Faster onboarding of suppliers into finance programmes (27%)
Trade-credit insurance, guarantees or risk-sharing structures (25%)
We have no current need for supply-chain finance (12%)
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
Inventory or warehouse finance
Dynamic discounting or early-payment programmes
Better visibility of supplier financial health and supply-chain risk
Financing linked to sustainability, decarbonisation or responsible sourcing
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.