https://www.reuters.com/article/us-g...-idUSKCN2AX14J

The supply chain finance party is coming to a messy end. Greensill Capital’s collapse has once again highlighted the hidden risks in the $1.3 trillion business of helping big companies channel payments to their suppliers.

The apparently humdrum practice of using borrowed money to pay suppliers keeps cropping up in corporate failures. The collapses of Spanish infrastructure group Abengoa in 2016, UK contractor Carillion in 2018 and United Arab Emirates hospital operator NMC Health last year all involved an overreliance on funding backed by invoices, or hidden use of it.

It secured the backing of Japanese technology investor SoftBank and hired former British Prime Minister David Cameron as an adviser.
..........and so? David Cameron texted Rishi Sunak lobbying him to grant hundreds of millions of taxpayer-funded loans to stricken financial firm Greensill before it went bust. Well, he does get paid for his services. What do these ''Eton toff's'' care ?? Self interest what do they care ''I'm alright Jack?''

( The Greensill saga has revealed how far supply-chain finance has strayed from its stodgy roots. The business of lending against invoices which have not yet been paid is as old as banking itself. More recently big companies have inverted the practice, using their borrowing clout to stretch out payments to suppliers. So, a carmaker might ask a bank or investor to pay its supply chain earlier than usual, at a slight discount to the value of the invoice. The lender then claims the full amount from the carmaker, usually at a much later date, and pockets the difference. Suppliers get early payment, while the buyer of goods conserves cash. It also gets to report the liability as a trade payable, lowering its official debt figures.)