Like Japan, overseas have a business practice called Bank Reference (bank reference) in which the bank is referred to the contents of transactions with a correspondent bank.
The difference between Japan and overseas although is that there is no main bank system overseas. In the case of Japan, when making inquiries, it is often the case that the person in charge of the branch of the correspondent is introduced through the person in charge of the branch of the company's main bank. Even if you make a phone call to a bank that has no transactions at all and ask them to tell you the details of the transaction of the client, you will be simply rejected.
However, since there is no main bank system in overseas, there are few barriers due to differences between banks. Of course, just because it is a Japanese company, there is no discrimination. In this sense, Japanese companies should use bank reference more actively.
For that purpose, it is necessary to devise ways to obtain the name of the person in charge of the bank, the telephone number, the e-mail, etc. directly from the client by making good use of the above-mentioned Credit Application. As far the information to be inquired, it is better to ask the presence or absence of borrowing, the amount of borrowing, the presence or absence of payment delay, the term, the presence of collateral or guarantee, etc.
Obviously, the bank doesn’t expose the exact amount rather gives an idea of the amount range and number of digits, which one could guess the approximate amount.
