Business owners and finance chiefs with firms that supply large exporters will want to take note of a new program of the Export-Import Bank of the United States. The Supply Chain Finance program, announced last month, provides competitively priced working capital finance to suppliers of U.S. exporters, and particularly small- and medium-size firms, according to this release.

This program falls under the White House’s National Export Initiative, which has the goal of doubling exports by 2015. While exports from U.S.-based small- and medium-sized businesses grew during 2008 and 2009, reaching 20 percent of total orders, American small businesses are less likely to operate internationally than are their counterparts based outside the U.S., according to a study released earlier this year by Shipwire, a product fulfillment firm. Three-fourths of international merchants were in markets outside their home countries, versus just 13 percent of U.S. merchants, Shipwire found. more

“The U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) was implemented while disco still ruled the airwaves,” notes ACL Services Steve Biskie in this AuditNet article that serves as a useful FCPA primer (with a perspective on how analytics can aid the compliance effort).

The act, as Biskie notes, materialized 33 years ago – yet it has been making headlines (and comic strips) with greater frequency in recent years.

FCPA compliance has emerged as an increasing risk, of course, because more companies of all sizes are doing business with trading partners in Elbonia and every other nook and cranny on our shrinking globe.

This Wall Street Journal article (subscription required) reports that the U.S. Justice Department has carried out a dozen prosecutions so far in 2010 – on the heels of conducting 19 prosecutions in 2009.

Be prepared — and compliant. ###

Ernst & Young is risk-averse when it comes to discussing possible future risks.

I came to this conclusion while (yet again) leafing through the firm’s excellent report on the top 10 risks for business (the 2010 edition, available here).

This time, I enjoyed reading about those executive concerns that just missed the top 10:

11) Inability to innovate;

12) Maintaining infrastructure;

13) Emerging technologies;

14) Taxation risk; and

15) Pricing pressures.

“Inability to innovate” is notable based on rising from the 18th slot in E&Y’s 2009 report to the 11th position this year. more