Franklin Capital Launches Export Finance Unit

With an eye on companies looking to grow internationally, SME financing company Franklin Capital Network announced news that it has launched an export financing operation.

The firm said Thursday (Aug. 3) that it has rolled out Franklin Export Funding and announced that it has joined the bank and commercial lender consortium Factor Chain International, whose members will help facilitate Franklin Export Funding’s ability to finance businesses looking to expand across borders.

The unit will provide exporting SMEs with financing, accounts receivable management and collection services, reports said.

“Often, smaller and mid-sized businesses are constrained in financing foreign sales simply because most lenders do no consider foreign accounts receivable to be eligible collateral for financing,” explained Franklin Export Funding Assistant Vice President in International Trade Finance, A.J. Krzyzanowski, in a statement. “This division is specifically focused on helping those companies grow their international business through expansion into new markets.”

Franklin Capital Network, along with bank and commercial lender consortium Factor Chain International, are providing underwriting, research, finance and administration capabilities to its new export finance unit, the company added.

“Our objective is to make international sales opportunities as easy to do as domestic sales for these growing U.S. businesses,” Krzyzanowski added. “We provide credit qualification, administration and collection of accounts receivable of international customers so our clients can focus on new sales and growth opportunities.”

Small businesses often struggle to expand internationally because they can’t access the right financing and are reluctant to work with unfamiliar markets and corporate customers. Research recently released by HSBC found that U.K. SMEs, for example, are hesitant to trade internationally because they feel they lack “international business experience and knowledge.” But HSBC also found that nearly half of SMEs surveyed said they don’t necessarily feel that cross-border exports will be important for their overall business to grow.