On May 11 and 12, the Spanish Factoring Association held its XLI Assembly at the Westin hotel in Valencia. An important meeting of the commercial financing sector in our country, once again sponsored by Alvantia.
The event was opened by Alma María Abad, president of the AEF, and Arcadi España García, Minister of Finance and Economic Model of the Generalitat Valenciana. Abad presented the latest data for the sector: the volume of managed credits exceeded 63,000 million euros in the first three months of the year, which represents an increase of more than 10% compared to the same period of the previous year. She also recalled that one in every five euros of GDP is already financed through one of the modalities that complete the range of Factoring and Confirming solutions. The expert thanked the attendees for their presence and highlighted the incorporation of two new associates to the AEF (Banco Cooperativo and Ibercaja).
Next, Aida Rodríguez Moral, Sustainable Finance & Non-Financial Risk Lead of Accenture Iberia and Raquel Fernández Sánchez, General and Commercial Director of Santander Factoring and Confirming, spoke about the importance of promoting the green economy through supply chain financing. “Sustainable development involves greening supply chains and sustainable finance is essential to permeate the SMEs of our industry with real incentives. The lack of information, standards and resources and the feared risk of greenwashing complicate the industrialization of these products, but despite this, we already see very interesting examples in the market and in Spain”, pointed out Rodríguez.
During the second day of the event, Alberto Redondo, Director of Marketing and Mass Market at SERES Iberia & LATAM, spoke about the importance of the electronic “super invoice”. Redondo indicated that this is “only a first step for the digitization of the relationship between companies and the media to gain efficiency.” Among its main objectives, he highlighted the following: fight against commercial delinquency, guarantee traceability and control of payments, reduce the average payment period and increase the liquidity of companies.
Alvantia had the opportunity to expose an original presentation made by José Antonio Garrote, the company’s Business Manager. Garrote exposed some curiosities of the city of Valencia and linked each of them with the main products and services of Alvantia:
–Advice in any phase of the business process: definition of the commercial strategy and business plan, commercialization of new modalities and products, team building, improvement of risk control and prevention systems, digitization of internal processes and with clients , etc.
–Global products and modular solutions: own Factoring and Confirming applications, complementary modules (prompt payment, delivery, delay, client portal, etc.) and solutions adapted to the needs of each client.
–Development of new solutions and business models: syndication, dynamic discount, etc.
Lastly, Javier Fernández Caldito, Head of Business Development for Treasury Products at BBVA and Enrique Fernández Albarracín, Director of Financial Regulation at EY, presented the current situation of the INBLOCK Project and the next steps necessary to start it up. INBLOCK is a system promoted by the AEF, with the support of EY and the collaboration of the Tax Agency, which is scheduled to be launched in the last quarter of the year and which will use Blockchain technology to simplify processes and reduce the documentary burden required currently to SMEs. Thanks to this project, a greater number of companies will be able to take advantage of Factoring and Confirming services in a more optimal way.
