The Factoring "Lock Box"

As the eyes and ears for a Factoring/Financing company, it is interesting to be involved and surrounded by new terminology, as it is in any industry.

My quandary today was, when involved in a conference call, describing a factoring "lock box" through the financing bank.

Here was the dilemma:
This certain company is working on a contract with us involving buying their accounts receivable. The clients were worried that their customers would know they would be going through a secondary finance company, that is fronting them money.

Here is where I would like to interject. Factoring happens to be one of the oldest and most basic forms of getting financing outside of a bank. It has been used for centuries, if it were not for factoring, there would not be clothing on your back, because that is how the garment industries were started. It is a widely known, and widely used option to small and large business owners. Try to find an industry that is retail or sells a good that does not use some sort of commercial financing or factoring. So in summation to my soap box rant, there should not be any worries about someone knowing that you have a factor buying your receivables.

Back to the story...

As we were in the midst of this conference call, my superior was trying to explain this fraud deterring system called a "lock box." If you are in the industry, you would know that one of the 4 most common forms of fraud that is committed is when a client does not submit, or notify the factoring company of an invoice that the creditor had already purchased.

My superior did an excellent job to avoiding the "F" word, (keep your mind out of the gutter, I mean fraud,) and told them how that it is merely a process to show verification to us and the bank that your checks are coming through and that the money you had promised is not being lost in translation.

To put it shortly, a "lock box," is a system that all checks are placed into, a photo is taken, and so that all parties involved can see what and where money is being handled, and sent to, as a safety precaution for the money that is being loaned.

I would advise doing a google search and finding websites such as:

http://www.investopedia.com/

or

http://money.cnn.com/services/glossary/a.html

to learn some new vocabulary, and find a new word of the day.



Factor ya later!

http://www.lenderscf.com
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