Wal-Mart Offers Vendors a Way to Faster Payment

With the bankruptcy of CIT, the factor for many suppliers, this offer will look good to a lot of companies. Wal-Mart is offering to allow their suppliers to get payment from banks for Wal-Mart invoices at 10-15 days instead of the usual 60-90. Wal-Mart then pays the bank. Currently the offer is good only to Wal-Mart’s clothing suppliers (about 1000 companies), but one assumes it will spread if successful. What isn’t known is what the suppliers have to give Wal-Mart in return for the use of Wal-Mart’s credit rating.