The Canadian Factoring Association was brought into being to lobby the government and the Export Development Corporation (EDC). In the last five years, the government-owned EDC was granted the ability to offer domestic credit insurance as an enhancement to their export insurance programmes. There was a clause, which enabled them to handle a client's domestic business if more than 10% of that client's foreign receivables were covered by the EDC.
Canadian non-recourse factors, in conjunction with the EDC, have developed an export service, which combines the EDC's credit granting abilities with the factor's ability to collect and administer export receivables. This hybrid product has to a certain extent redressed the balance in terms of the EDC poaching factors' clients, but the long-term impact of the EDC on non-recourse volume figures remains to be seen. From the factor's perspective, therefore, lobbying has had some success, but not as much as they would have liked....