June 24: Siddhartha Bank Limited has signed an agreement with the fintech company F1Soft International for the execution of invoice discounting service through ‘QuikBhuktani’ platform.

‘QuikBhuktani’ is Nepal’s first online invoice discounting platform, developed by F1Soft with support from UKaid Sakchyam Access to Finance Programme.  “Through this platform, Siddhartha Bank shall provide the facility of invoice discounting to its business clients by using the reverse factoring model.  F1Soft shall take the responsibility of platform management and technical support,” F1Soft said in a press statement.

According to the statement, QuikBhuktani brings together buyers, suppliers and the bank in a secured web-based platform. Using this platform, a supplier digitally issues invoice to buyer and the buyer approves it for payment with a fixed timeline. “If the supplier needs that payment before the due date, the supplier can forward that bill to the buyer’s bank through the same platform and request for instant payment from the bank,” reads the statement. The bank makes discounted payment to supplier and later collects the full invoice amount from buyer at the end of the payment timeline.

“Siddhartha Bank and F1Soft believe QuikBhuktani can be very relevant and beneficial, especially in context of Nepal where majority of business transactions are done in credit,” the statement said. According to the fintech company, it helps to improve the cash flow between businesses, which is particularly important in present situation when the whole economy is slowing down due to COVID 19 pandemic.