From Efficiency to Resilience: SCF Community Comes Together in Munich

On March 26, 2026, the SCF Community gathered at the Smartvillage Schwantalerhöhe in Munich.
The mission? To tackle a single, urgent question: How do we move supply chain finance beyond
just cheap funding?
The answer, as the day unfolded, was less about technology and more about a fundamental shift in
mindset—from efficiency to resilience, and from liquidity to data.

On the Digital Twin, Sustainability-Linked Programs, and the Architecture of SSCF
Michael Henke kicked things off with a provocative vision. He argued that the old pillars of supply
chain management are crumbling. In their place, he planted three new ones: efficiency, resilience,
and sustainability. The crucial enabler: digitalization, powered by AI. Henke introduced the idea of a
“financial digital twin” for supply chains; a real-time mirror that enables transparency and protective
management. His message was clear: rethinking our supply chains for the modern era is
impossible without AI.
But how does a program like that actually work? Michiel Deurwaarder from Vattenfall provided a
practical blueprint. He walked the session through the intricacies of setting up a sustainabilitylinked finance program, detailing the necessary cooperation between internal actors (procurement,
legal, communications) and external partners (banks like Helaba and SEB). A clear pathway to
making the abstract concept of “sustainability” have a tangible price and process.
Then came Luca Gelsomino’s turn, who laid out the general outline of Sustainable Supply Chain
Finance (SSCF) with its configuration of actors, the setup process, and the common struggles that
trip up even seasoned teams: criteria negotiation, strategic triggers, financial structuring, and
supplier assessment. More importantly, he broke down the three governance types for SSCF
programs: buyer-led, shared governance between buyer and bank, and the buyer-platform provider
variant. It served as a practical roadmap for anyone wondering where to begin with SSCF.

The Great Data Divide
Then came the interactive session led by Thomas Krings and Luca Gelsomino, a live pulse-check
on the industry. The results were telling.
The audience unanimously rejected the idea that working capital and SCF will shrink in relevance.
However, they were split 50/50 on whether SCF has already shifted from a liquidity tool to a
resilience tool. The consensus is that we are in the messy middle of that transition. The most
striking result was unanimous: supply chain data is now more valuable to buyers than cheaper
funding. This single point reframed the entire day’s discussion. It’s no longer just about the cost of
capital; it’s about the intelligence embedded in the supply chain.
For the following question, an interesting paradox emerged. When asked if ESG requirements will
ever outweigh the cost of capital for suppliers, the answer was a resounding “yes.” But flip the
question to buyers, and the answer flipped too. This split reveals a core tension in sustainable
finance: the motivation is not shared equally across the chain.

The Real Barrier is Not Tech
The afternoon panel, featuring Gelsomino, Krings, Michiel Steeman, and Markus Schiffers,
crystallized the day’s key insights into a clear picture of where SCF stands today. The panel
unanimously agreed that supply chain data has overtaken cheaper funding as a strategic asset, a
verdict that echoed the morning polling. But when the conversation turned to what is actually
holding the industry back, a different kind of consensus emerged. The main barrier to SCF
adoption is not technology. Instead, it is the lack of alignment across procurement, treasury,
suppliers, and banks, as well as the regulatory environment. As Schiffers put it bluntly: “Technology
isn’t the problem, regulation is. Banks don’t want to be slow. If we could open up our regulations
more, I think we could onboard almost every supplier.” Over-regulation in Europe, the panel
agreed, slows innovation more than technology can accelerate it.
On ESG, the panel confirmed the split seen earlier: suppliers still answer to the cost of capital
above all else, while buyers increasingly bend to sustainability pressures. And on AI, the group
remained deeply uncertain: split 50/50 on whether it will fundamentally reshape SCF within five
years. Steeman offered a pragmatic view, calling Agentic AI “RPA 2.0″—useful for prediction and
unstructured data, but no magic wand. He then left the room with a sobering prediction: “We will
end up with three different financial systems, seeing as the world is caught up in various political
spheres.”

The New Mandate
As the day closed at Smartvillage, the path forward was no longer about finding a single, perfect
financial product. Reverse factoring will remain, but it will be just one item in a strategic toolbox.
The new mandate is clear: prioritise data, break down internal silos, and prepare for a multipolar,
resilient, and AI-augmented future