For a second year running, letters of credit (L/Cs) rank second in the list of financial products and services most used by US-based chief financial officers (CFOs) in US manufacturing firms, according to a recent survey.

Moreover, it appears that L/Cs are in greater demand from a larger percentage of CFOs than last year.

Survey results

This year cash management tops the list of financial products and services used by CFOs, with 63 per cent of them including it on the lists they submitted for the survey.

L/Cs ranked second in the survey for Bank of America and were included in 59 per cent of the lists.

More L/C demand

In 2007 cash management also topped the list of financial products and services.

It was included in 59 per cent of lists submitted by the CFOs surveyed while L/Cs were included in 54 per cent of the CFOs' lists. (DC World News 17 December 2007)

Credit concerns

Apparently in a reflection of difficult global financial markets, the CFOs surveyed are clearly more concerned about credit availability than they were last year.

In this year's survey, about a third of CFOs said their lender has restricted credit availability. Last year, only 10 per cent said they were expecting credit to become harder to obtain.

This article represents the views of the author and not necessarily those of the ICC or any of the other partners in DC-PRO.