Forfeiting - an innovative form of export financing

The paper is devoted to one of the external forms of financing export operations of enterprises. The so-called forfeiting is hardly known as a service in Poland and it is rarely offered by Polish banks. Exporters, who it is meant for, usually know little about it. Using forfeiting, an enterprise may grant a trade loan to its commercial partner, thus increasing its competitiveness and then the loan may be transformed into cash. The article discusses the aetiology, definition, function and basic types of forfeiting, as well as legal regulations concerning this service, stressing especially that the provisions of the Polish law actually do not regulate forfeiting. In practice, application of tax law leads to disputes and doubts, especially that there are no sufficient explanations provided by the Ministry of Finance.