Acceptance credit
In banking, the acceptance credit is a loan in which a credit institute commits itself to a customer by accepting a bill of exchange .
General
In contrast to money lending , in which the borrower is granted a loan by his bank in the form of cash , means of payment or credit lines , the bank customer initially receives no money with acceptance credit.
completion
The main area of application of acceptance credit is foreign trade . Importers or exporters can arrange for their bank to conclude a loan agreement that includes an acceptance loan . Then the importer or exporter issues a bill of exchange that the bank as the drawee signs. It is thus obliged under the bill of exchange ( Art. 28 Bill of Exchange Act ) to redeem the bill on the due date . The beneficiary is a creditor, such as the exporter. The change amount corresponds to the import amount. Under the loan agreement, the borrower undertakes to purchase the bank's bill of exchange 1 day before the due date. Furthermore, it is agreed in the loan agreement that the accepting bank buys the bill of exchange as part of the discount credit and credits the borrower with the bill of exchange minus discount interest. The borrower can use the credit amount to pay for the delivery. Alternatively, there is also the possibility that the bank hands over the bill of exchange acceptance to the customer and the customer pays his delivery debts with it. An acceptance commission is required from the banks for this acceptance credit.
Acceptance credit is only granted to first-class companies whose creditworthiness there is no doubt about. In the bank acceptance you get an excellent and easily usable means of credit and payment:
- The acceptance credit is of primary importance as a return credit in connection with goods documents. Since it is difficult for foreign partners to assess the creditworthiness of their trading partner, a bank's acceptance of bills of exchange can dispel these doubts.
- As a means of payment , the bill of exchange can be transferred to a supplier to settle his liabilities (exchange of goods).
- As a loan , it is used to obtain liquid funds ( financial bills ). However, the accepting bank usually requires that the bill of exchange be discounted by it.
meaning
According to Section 1 (1) No. 2 KWG , the acceptance loan is a banking business and is a credit business. However, it is not based on a loan but on an agency agreement. With a share of just 2.6% of the short-term credit volume to non-banks, it always played an insignificant role. In Germany, the discount transactions of the Deutsche Bundesbank were until December 1998 as part of its discount policy in Section 19 (1) No. 3 BBankG a. F. regulated. Here and in its general terms and conditions, it stipulated the conditions under which the banks were granted a rediscount option . These conditions were transferred to the discount business of credit institutions with their bank customers. After monetary policy was transferred to the European Central Bank in January 1999, the main refinancing business replaced the earlier discount credit. The ECB does not rediscount bills of exchange, but instead provides the commercial banks with other liquidity. Therefore, the discount credit - and thus also the acceptance credit - has lost its attractiveness for credit institutions due to the elimination of rediscounting options for commercial bills at the Bundesbank. Commercial bills of exchange can only be refinanced as a deposit . For these reasons, acceptance credit is no longer relevant today.
Private discount
A special form of the acceptance credit represented the private discount, provided with a bank acceptance and discounted by the Privatdiskont-AG . They had to be based on export, import, merchanting or contract processing transactions. The German private discount market was established back in January 1959, and was until December 1991 trading day at the Frankfurt stock exchange on money market institutionalized. Until December 31, 1991, private discounts were rediscounted by the Bundesbank as part of its open market policy , but only through Privatdiskont-AG. The purchase of private discounts by Privatdiskont-AG was stopped on January 1, 1992.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jürgen Stiefl, Finanzmanagement , 2005, p. 64
- ↑ Gabler Bank-Lexikon, 10th edition 1988, column 83
- ↑ BGHZ 19, 282, 288 f.
- ↑ Karl Friedrich Hagenmüller, Horst Müller, Bankbetriebslehre in Programmed Form , 1972, p. 118
- ↑ Monthly Report of the Deutsche Bundesbank November 1998, p. 24
- ↑ Gabler Wirtschaftslexikon, 12th edition 1988, p. 998