By Tian Hui, Research Institute of Finance, Development Research Center of the State Council (DRC)

Report No 140, 2014 (Total 4639)

Abstract:

Since 2011, China has grown into the world's largest factoring country for three major reasons -- wide use of credit sales in trade, greater participation of banks, and improved legal and regulatory environment. As a still emerging factoring market, China is unique in several ways. For example, the number of commercial factoring companies is growing rapidly even though bank factoring dominates, but with a relatively low level of specialized operations. The factoring structure is simple, with recourse business much more common than non-recourse. In addition, there is too much emphasis on financing. Therefore, we need to focus on new factoring trends, including new regulatory measures for bank factoring and greater pilot efforts. The study shows that although China has become the world's largest factoring market, its factoring industry is still in its infancy, indicating a gross underdevelopment of China's finance market.