Happy Anniversary!

The first auction of invoices on The Receivables Exchange closed on November 24, 2008.

The Exchange has gotten its share of “bashing” in the industry and, to be fair, it has earned some of that bashing.

But it has also earned, and not always received, clear and unambiguous recognition of the daring, and I think ultimately disruptive, innovation it has created in the receivables-finance industry.

The people who conceived of TRE didn’t come from the factoring industry. Maybe that’s why they COULD conceive of it: they didn’t know the sixteen reasons it could never work!

The Exchange has not yet proven itself to be a survivor. Adoption has been slower among both Sellers and Buyers than I am sure the founders had hoped. Quite a few early-stage assumptions and decisions have had to be jettisoned or modified. And that process is not yet over.

From my point of view, the Exchange has tilted significantly toward the Seller community as it has attempted to bring on sufficient product to meet its volume targets. And I’m not even close to being finished with the points that I’ve been addressing in my last two blogs on the subject of risks to the Buyers. Nor am I finished with offering my own views on structural and procedural changes I think TRE should pursue.

But I think we all should take just a day off from fault-finding and congratulate all of those who have worked so hard to turn a tremendous idea into a functioning reality.

All beginnings are hard.

Happy anniversary to all at TRE!