This article has focused on Greensill, the financial technology start-up, till its untimely closure in March 2021. Greensill’s original business model was built on providing traditional supply chain finance to business, but additionally, it packaged and sold these loans as ‘safe’ investments to various institutional investors through Credit Suisse, the 165-year-old Switzerland-based private bank. In order to grow at an exponential rate to support its high valuation, Greensill adopted various high-risk, questionable business practices. But its principal partner during this journey, the veteran bank officials of Credit Suisse, was either blissfully unaware of the wrongdoings or chose to ignore it. As Greensill collapsed, the bank paid a high price for this oversight in terms of monetary and reputational damage. The case has chronicled how the bank’s top officials in order to pursue the bank’s ‘integrated bank platform strategy’ chased short-term profit and turned a blind eye to all rules of due diligence and risk management. Though the bank made superficial changes in its process and appeared retrospective after the debacle, it remains to be seen whether its measures would translate into something concrete to make the supply chain finance domain safer and sustainable.

本文重点关注金融科技初创公司 Greensill，直至 2021 年 3 月不合时宜地关闭。Greensill 最初的商业模式是建立在为企业提供传统供应链融资的基础上，但此外，它还以“安全”的方式包装和出售这些贷款通过拥有 165 年历史的瑞士私人银行瑞士信贷向各种机构投资者进行投资。为了以指数速度增长以支持其高估值，Greensill 采用了各种高风险、有问题的商业做法。但它在此过程中的主要合作伙伴，瑞士信贷的资深银行官员，要么幸福地没有意识到错误行为，要么选择忽略它。随着 Greensill 的倒闭，银行为这种疏忽在金钱和声誉方面付出了高昂的代价。该案记录了该银行的高级官员为了追求银行的“综合银行平台战略”如何追逐短期利润，对尽职调查和风险管理的所有规则视而不见。尽管该银行对其流程进行了表面上的改变，并且在崩溃后出现了追溯，但其措施是否会转化为具体的措施以使供应链金融领域更安全和可持续，还有待观察。