Supplier program · Vietnamese exporters · Pilot program
Rhofin finances your US buyer. You simply get paid.
You keep your customer, your commercial relationship and control of buyer communication. Once the eligible goods ship, Rhofin pays the approved balance on your buyer's behalf, in US dollars, directly to your company's account at your bank in Vietnam, and you are credited the full amount. Your buyer repays Rhofin before the cargo is released in the US. No Rhofin financing fee is deducted from your payment. Once Rhofin has paid you, you do not retain the buyer's repayment risk.*
Start with one buyer today. Named, indicative view within 48 hours.
Available on ocean shipments from Vietnam to qualifying US business buyers, where the shipment moves on a bill of lading issued by a logistics provider with a release procedure agreed with Rhofin. Financing availability varies by state. Each transaction is subject to buyer eligibility, your bank's written confirmation that it will credit a third-party payment, routing eligibility, verification, credit approval and applicable law.
A US$50,000 order, illustrated
Initial transactions are generally between US$25,000 and US$50,000.
US$15,000
Your buyer pays upfront, direct to you, at order. Typically around 30% for initial transactions.
US$35,000
Rhofin pays you the remaining balance, direct, at shipment.
US$50,000
100% of invoice value, received within one business day of shipment confirmation, credited in full.
Rhofin financing cost to you: 0 ₫
Your buyer repays Rhofin at arrival, before the cargo is released in the US.
Illustrative example, not an offer. The upfront contribution is agreed between you and your buyer and may be subject to Rhofin's transaction requirements. Rhofin finances the approved remaining supplier balance. Payment is made gross: Rhofin bears all correspondent bank charges, so you are credited the full amount. Payment is final once made, except for established fraud or material breach of specified supplier warranties; a refund is required only in the limited circumstances in the terms. Payments are made in US dollars.
Launching in Vietnam with participating logistics providers
One shipment, start to finish
Tell us your buyer. Ship. The money arrives.
Before the first payment, once
Authorisation in your export contract
Vietnam is different from other lanes: the clause authorising Rhofin to pay on your buyer's behalf goes into your export contract itself, or an appendix to it, in English and Vietnamese, signed by you and your buyer. It is what makes your VAT refund evidence hold together, because Vietnamese rules recognise a third-party payment only where the contract provides for it.
Your bank's written go-ahead
Rhofin is the payer, not your buyer. Before the first payment we ask your authorised bank to confirm, in writing, that it will credit and process a receipt where Rhofin is the sender and your buyer stays the contractual buyer. Silence is not confirmation. We do not pay until your bank has said yes.
One bank, one account
Your buyer's deposit, Rhofin's payment and any balance all arrive through the same authorised bank and the same foreign-currency account, each quoting the same export contract and invoice, so the receipts reconcile to one export.
Order
Your buyer pays the upfront contribution direct to you. Typically around 30%.
Shipment confirmed
You clear customs and ship. The logistics provider confirms your shipment.
You are paid
Rhofin pays your remaining balance, in US dollars, on your buyer's behalf, to your account at your bank in Vietnam, within one business day. You are credited the full amount.
Arrival in the US
Your buyer repays Rhofin. Only then is the cargo released.
Ho Chi Minh City / Hải Phòng / Đà Nẵng · participating logistics provider
Ocean transit · typically 16 to 30 days to the US West Coast; longer on standard LCL and East Coast routings
US CFS · release only against Rhofin's instruction
Illustrative flow. Payment is subject to the conditions in clause 4 below. Transit times vary by route.
The alternatives
What Vietnamese exporters do when a smaller US buyer asks for terms.
Lose the order
Insist on T/T in advance or an L/C at sight.
Smaller US buyers rarely pay in full before shipment, and many will not open a letter of credit for a US$40,000 order: their bank charges more than the deal is worth and it ties up their own line. Insisting on it means the order goes to a competitor in Vietnam, or to China, who will take the risk.
Wait for payment
Ship on D/P or open account.
Your money is at sea and then on the buyer's books. If the buyer does not take up the documents, your container sits at a US port accruing demurrage, 13,000 kilometres from your desk, with a distress sale as the exit.
On your balance sheet
Borrow against the export contract.
Vietnamese banks do lend pre- and post-shipment against export contracts, but it is your borrowing. It consumes your credit limit, it is usually secured on the director's property, and it does nothing about the buyer's risk: you still carry it.
No buyer limit
Ask a credit insurer or factor.
Non-recourse export factoring needs a credit-insurance limit on your buyer. Smaller or less-established US buyers often do not qualify for enough cover, and Vietnam has no state export credit insurance scheme that closes the gap. Without cover, the factor cannot take the risk.
With Rhofin
You get paid at shipment. Rhofin finances your US buyer.
Rhofin extends the financing to your US buyer, secured on the financed cargo and its proceeds. You are the payee, not the borrower. There is no facility, no limit application, no property collateral and no financing cost: nothing appears on your balance sheet and nothing touches your bank line. Rhofin pays the balance on your buyer's behalf, gross, and bears all bank charges, so you are credited the full amount. Once Rhofin has paid you, you do not retain the buyer's repayment risk. Payment is final once made, except for established fraud or material breach of specified supplier warranties. An ordinary commercial dispute with your buyer is not, by itself, grounds to reclaim it. Your buyer's own rate and total cost are shown to them before they commit; see Rhofin's buyer pricing.
Getting started
Getting started takes three steps.
Rhofin never contacts a buyer you nominate before you introduce us. The introduction is yours to make, when the indicative view is in your hands.
- 1
Tell us which US buyers you supply
Start with one buyer or list several for an initial fit check. Company name and city are enough; no invoices, no volumes, no contact persons at this stage. We match names against US customs records.
Free · No obligation · Confidential
- 2
Get an indicative view
Within 48 hours we tell you whether the buyer appears eligible and the indicative transaction size we may be able to support. If we cannot proceed, we tell you in writing and explain why.
Indicative only · Not a commitment
- 3
Make the introduction
Forward the one-page buyer invitation. Your buyer signs one agreement online and completes onboarding once. Your pricing and your purchase order stay between you and your buyer; Rhofin's terms to your buyer are shown to them up front.
Your relationship · Your timing
Trust and control
Built for Vietnamese exporters.
Built into the logistics network
ECU Worldwide
An Allcargo Group company
One of the world's largest LCL consolidation networks · 160+ countries
ECU Worldwide has operated in Vietnam for over a decade, with offices in Ho Chi Minh City, Hà Nội, Hải Phòng and Đà Nẵng · LCL and FCL, ocean only · Approved lanes and approved suppliers only
Network figures as reported by Allcargo/ECU, 2026.
You ship as usual. We handle the financing.
Use the familiar ECU Worldwide shipping process. Once the eligible shipment is confirmed, Rhofin pays your approved balance directly. Your buyer then repays Rhofin before the goods are released in the US.
Logistics controlled
Financing runs on shipments moving through participating logistics providers. In Vietnam that begins with ECU Worldwide, part of the Allcargo Global group. The documentary controls behind the financing, above all the bill of lading issued to Rhofin's order, are what let Rhofin pay against your export order.
Your VAT refund stays intact
Rhofin pays you as a third party on your buyer's behalf. Under Vietnamese rules a third-party payment is acceptable evidence of non-cash payment only when the arrangement is set out in the export contract in writing and the third party is a lawfully operating entity. So the authorisation goes into your export contract, not just an invoice legend; we provide it, a payment instruction referencing your contract, invoice and customs declaration, and your bank's written confirmation, before your first payment.
You stay in control of your buyer relationship
You manage your commercial relationship and day-to-day buyer communication. Rhofin never contacts a nominated buyer before you introduce us; after that, we communicate with your buyer only about the financing, repayment and cargo-release requirements.
US financing
Rhofin Inc. is a Delaware-incorporated nonbank commercial finance company. Financing is extended in the United States to eligible US commercial buyers under US law. Availability varies by state. You are paid from the United States. Rhofin does not lend, take deposits or hold any banking or factoring licence in Vietnam.
How payment to Vietnam works
Vietnamese law requires payments for exported goods to be made by account transfer through a licensed credit institution. Rhofin pays the approved balance in US dollars from the United States directly to your company's account at your bank in Vietnam, on your buyer's behalf, with the payment instruction identifying Rhofin as the payer for the account of your buyer and quoting your export contract, invoice and customs declaration references. Your bank receives a payer identity that does not match the importer named on your contract, which is exactly why the authorisation goes into the export contract and why we obtain your bank's written go-ahead before the first payment. Payment is made gross, so you are credited the full amount; your buyer's deposit, Rhofin's payment and any balance all run through the same bank and account, each quoting the same contract and invoice.
Request sample payment documentation →
Nothing on this page is advice on Vietnamese foreign-exchange, tax or customs law. Your compliance remains your responsibility; Rhofin provides transaction documentation to support it. See clause 6 below.
What happens to my VAT refund?
This is the question that matters most, so here is the full answer. Vietnamese rules make evidence of non-cash payment a condition of deducting and refunding input VAT on exported goods. Where the payment comes from someone other than the importer named in the export contract, tax authorities expect the arrangement to be written into the contract and the paying party to be a lawfully operating entity, and in practice they reconcile the wire against the export contract, the customs declaration and the invoice.
So we build the file for you before the first payment, not after a query:
- the bilingual authorisation clause in your export contract, or an appendix to it, naming Rhofin and signed by you and your buyer, because the rules recognise a third-party payment only where the contract provides for it and an invoice legend alone does not;
- Rhofin's corporate documents evidencing that it is a lawfully incorporated and operating US company;
- a SWIFT MT103 confirmation showing Rhofin as payer, your company as beneficiary, and the export contract, invoice and customs declaration references in the remittance information;
- a written statement from Rhofin confirming the payment was made for the account of your buyer under your contract, and, where your buyer paid part of it directly, a reconciliation of the two payments to the invoice total.
Your VAT refund claim remains yours to make in the normal way. We do not file it, and we cannot guarantee the outcome, which sits with your tax authority. What we can do is make sure nothing in the payment chain gives them a reason to open a file. Discuss the arrangement with your tax adviser before your first payment; we will provide the documentation pack for that conversation on request. See clause 6 below.
What do you need to know about where my goods are made?
More than a bank would ask, and for a reason that protects you as much as us. Rhofin's security is the cargo. If US Customs detains a shipment over country of origin, forced-labour concerns or an antidumping circumvention finding, the cargo stops being collateral and the transaction fails, and questions come back to the supplier. So we screen origin before we approve a lane, and you warrant that the goods are of Vietnamese origin, substantially transformed in Vietnam, and free of any input from a source subject to US forced-labour restrictions.
In practice we will ask you for your certificate of origin and the basis for it, a bill of materials with the origin of principal inputs, and purchase invoices for those inputs. If you already export to the US you almost certainly have all of this. If you cannot produce it, we cannot finance the lane, which is not a judgement about your business, it is what our own collateral position requires. See clauses 6 and 8 below.
How and when you are paid
Rhofin's payment is a third-party payment of the balance, made on your buyer's behalf under the authorisation in your export contract. Once the setup is in place and the shipment is confirmed, Rhofin pays within one business day, in US dollars, gross: Rhofin bears all sending, correspondent and beneficiary bank charges, so you are credited the full amount, and if a bank in the chain deducts anything, Rhofin makes up the shortfall within five business days. Your buyer's deposit, Rhofin's payment and any balance all arrive through the same bank and account, each quoting the same export contract and invoice. See clause 4 below.
How is the transaction secured?
The controls sit in the paperwork, not in your shipping process. Custody of the goods is confirmed by the participating logistics provider, and the negotiable ocean bill of lading is issued to Rhofin's order at your buyer's nomination, with telex and express release disabled, so the cargo is released in the United States only against Rhofin's instruction. Confirmed custody and the issued bill of lading are what trigger your payment, which follows within one business day. The conditions in full are in clause 4 below.
What if my buyer does not pay after you have paid me?
Once made, payment to you is final and is not conditional on your buyer repaying Rhofin. It may be reclaimed only for established fraud or material breach of the specified supplier warranties; an ordinary commercial dispute between you and your buyer does not, by itself, affect it. The full terms are in clause 5 below.
When can a completed payment be reversed?
Rarely, and only in the limited circumstances set out in the terms: if the export is cancelled, materially short-shipped or rejected before completion, or the payment is a duplicate or an overpayment, the affected amount is refunded in full, in the currency received, through the same bank, with no set-off against another transaction; and for established fraud or a material breach of your warranties. An ordinary commercial dispute with your buyer is not one of them. See clause 5 below.
What does my buyer pay?
The financing cost is your buyer's, and no Rhofin fee is deducted from your payment. Because transit from Vietnam to the US West Coast is relatively short, the financing period is short and your buyer's total cost is lower than on longer lanes. Your buyer's own rate and total cost are shown to them before they commit, and Rhofin's buyer pricing is published on this site. See clause 3 below.
The confidentiality undertaking in full
Rhofin never contacts a nominated buyer before you introduce us, and never solicits or markets to one independently. If you decide to proceed, you make the introduction. After that, Rhofin deals with your buyer directly, only for onboarding, documentation and the financing itself. Nominations are held under a mutual confidentiality undertaking built into the nomination form, and at the nomination stage we ask for nothing beyond the buyer's company name and location. For most ocean freight into the United States, that information is already available in public customs records. We use lawfully available US customs records and other commercial data sources for one purpose: to assess whether we can finance the buyers you name.
Who is behind Rhofin
Rhofin is led by founder Christoph Gugelmann (ex-Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Tradeteq), CTO Nathan Driscoll (architect of Tradeteq's platform), and board member Vaishnav Shetty (Deputy MD at Allcargo Global), supported by an executive team with decades of global banking and trade-finance experience.
See the Important information below.
Approved lanes only
Check if your US buyers qualify.
Tell us who you would sell more to if payment were not the problem. Start with one buyer or list several. We return a named, indicative financing view within 48 hours. If we cannot proceed, we explain why in writing. Free, confidential, and no obligation on you or your buyer.
This is a preliminary enquiry, not an application. No credit check is run on you at this stage, and none is run on your buyer until the buyer itself applies. Three things have to work: your buyer has to be eligible, your bank has to be able to credit a payment sent by your buyer's financier, and your shipment has to be routed so Rhofin can control release in the US. We assess all three. See clause 2.
Prefer to read first, or talk it through?
Download the supplier program brochure(PDF)Slots show in your local time.
The full terms
Important information
11 clauses · Supplier program, Vietnam · Version 2026-08-26.2 · Effective 26 August 2026
01
Who we are. Rhofin Inc. is a nonbank commercial finance company incorporated in the United States. Rhofin is not a bank, does not accept deposits and does not hold customer funds. Rhofin does not extend credit to the Vietnamese exporter, accept deposits in Vietnam, provide any banking or factoring service in Vietnam, or hold any licence from the State Bank of Vietnam; it makes third-party payments from the United States, for the account of eligible US buyers, in connection with financing extended to those buyers. Vietnamese export, tax, customs and foreign-exchange requirements continue to apply to the exporter and its bank.
02
What this page is. This page describes a program under which Rhofin finances qualifying US business buyers and pays their Vietnamese suppliers direct. Nothing here is an offer or commitment to finance any buyer, to make any payment, or to purchase any receivable. A buyer nomination is a preliminary enquiry, not an application; an indicative financing view is an indication, not a commitment. Every transaction is subject to buyer eligibility, verification, credit approval, definitive documentation and applicable law, and financing availability varies by state. Once a buyer itself applies, credit decisions and their reasons are communicated to the buyer. Those documents govern; nothing on this page varies them.
03
You are the payee, not the borrower. The financing is a secured commercial loan extended to your US buyer. No facility is extended to you, no financing charge is made to you and no Rhofin fee is deducted from your payment. Each payment is made gross: Rhofin bears all sending, correspondent and beneficiary bank charges, so you are credited the full amount stated in the payment notice. If a bank in the payment chain nevertheless deducts a charge, Rhofin remits the shortfall to the same account within five business days, against the same payment notice, contract and invoice, so that what you receive matches the invoice amount. Your buyer's repayment obligation, and the collateral securing it, are matters between Rhofin and your buyer.
04
Conditions to payment. Rhofin pays your remaining balance within one business day after all of the following: your export contract, or an appendix or amendment to it, contains the bilingual clause authorising Rhofin to pay on your buyer's behalf, and your bank has confirmed in writing that it will credit and process that receipt, silence not being confirmation; custody of the goods is confirmed by the participating logistics provider; the negotiable bill of lading is issued to order as Rhofin directs, with telex and express release disabled; your commercial invoice, purchase order and packing list conform to each other and to the shipment record; your bank account is verified in your company's registered legal name; and screening under clause 6 is clear. If a condition fails, we tell you which one, in writing.
05
Finality, warranties and refunds. Once made, payment to you is final and is not conditional on your buyer repaying Rhofin. You give specified warranties that the documents are genuine, the transaction is a genuine sale of your own unencumbered goods, the goods shipped are the goods described in the documents, and the goods are of Vietnamese origin, substantially transformed in Vietnam, and not produced with any input subject to US forced-labour import restrictions. A refund is required only in limited circumstances: a cancelled, materially short-shipped or rejected-before-completion export, a duplicate payment or overpayment, established fraud, or material breach of those specified warranties; where a refund is due it is returned in full, in the currency received, through the same bank, with no set-off against another transaction. An ordinary commercial dispute between you and your buyer, including a quality or conformity claim, does not, by itself, make your payment conditional on the buyer repaying Rhofin. If your buyer defaults, Rhofin controls and may realise the cargo; you may be offered a first option to repurchase the goods before any third-party sale. That option is a right, never an obligation.
06
Payments to Vietnam; tax and regulatory. Payments are remitted from the United States in US dollars by account transfer to a licensed credit institution in Vietnam, only to the verified account in your company's registered legal name, with the payment instruction identifying Rhofin as payer for the account of your buyer and referencing the underlying export contract, commercial invoice and export customs declaration. Vietnamese rules require payments for exported goods to be made by account transfer through licensed credit institutions, and make evidence of non-cash payment a condition of input VAT deduction and refund on exported goods; those rules expressly recognise payment by an overseas third party where the arrangement is provided for in the export contract in writing and the paying party is a lawfully operating entity. Rhofin's structure is built around that requirement, not an exception to it. Before the first payment, Rhofin provides a documentation pack for that purpose, including the bilingual third-party payment authorisation in your export contract, Rhofin's incorporation and good-standing documents, a gross remittance carrying your export contract and invoice references, and, where the direct buyer contribution means the remitted amount differs from the contract value, a written reconciliation; and Rhofin requires your bank's written confirmation that it will credit and process the third-party receipt before the first payment. Your buyer's deposit, Rhofin's payment and any balance are received through the same authorised bank and account, each referencing the same export contract and invoice. You remain responsible for your own compliance with Vietnamese tax, customs and foreign-exchange requirements and for your bank's own requirements, and for making your own VAT refund claim; Rhofin does not file, guarantee or indemnify that claim. Risk-based sanctions, forced-labour and trade-compliance screening runs at onboarding, at each payment and before each release, and payment may be withheld where screening is not clear.
07
Buyer confidentiality. Rhofin will not contact a nominated buyer before you introduce us, and will not solicit or market to a nominated buyer independently; once you make the introduction, Rhofin deals with the buyer directly only for onboarding, documentation and the financing. Nominations are held under a mutual confidentiality undertaking and used only to assess and document transactions under this program. Rhofin may use public US customs records and other lawful data sources in that assessment.
08
Goods in scope. Standard, identifiable goods with an established resale market, shipped by ocean. Examples: wooden and rattan furniture, home furnishings, kitchenware and housewares, hardware, plastics, luggage and bags, bicycles and parts, and packaging. Out of scope: commodities, seasonal goods and fungible bulk; goods not identifiable by container and lot marks; perishables, including seafood, coffee, rice, cashew, pepper and fresh produce; hazmat; pharma; alcohol; tobacco; weapons; goods subject to a US antidumping or countervailing duty order or an affirmative circumvention or evasion finding covering Vietnamese-origin merchandise, including hardwood plywood and wooden cabinets and vanities; solar cells and modules; goods wholly or partly of steel or aluminium subject to US Section 232 measures; textiles, apparel and footwear where the origin of yarn, fabric or component inputs cannot be documented; and any goods where substantial transformation in Vietnam cannot be evidenced. Approved lanes and approved suppliers only.
09
Origin and trade compliance. US import measures applying to Vietnamese-origin goods change frequently and are outside Rhofin's control. Rhofin does not advise on tariff classification, country of origin, duty rates or eligibility for any preference, and gives no assurance about the duties payable on any shipment. A tariff change, a customs detention, a withhold release order or a duty assessment does not create any obligation of Rhofin to you and does not entitle Rhofin to reclaim a payment already made to you, except for established fraud or material breach of the warranties in clause 5.
10
Logistics and control. Financing requires the shipment to be routed so that the party controlling release of the cargo at the United States destination, ordinarily the party issuing the delivery order, has a release procedure agreed with Rhofin in advance. The goods travel under a negotiable to-order bill of lading held to Rhofin's order, with telex and express release disabled, and are released only against Rhofin's release instruction. Rhofin has no agreement with, and gives no assurance about, any freight forwarder, consolidator, carrier or agent engaged by you or by your buyer in Vietnam or elsewhere, and Rhofin's willingness to finance a shipment is not a recommendation of any such party. Rhofin may decline to finance a shipment where the required release control cannot be established on the routing proposed. Logistics services are provided by the relevant provider under its own terms; Rhofin is not a carrier, forwarder, NVOCC or customs broker.
11
No advice; law; language. Nothing on this page is legal, tax, accounting, foreign-exchange or financial advice in any jurisdiction. The third-party payment authorisation in your export contract, and the accession you sign with Rhofin, are executed in English and Vietnamese as a single instrument, with the English version prevailing in the event of any inconsistency, to the extent permitted by applicable law. The documents you sign with Rhofin are governed by the law stated in them. Where this page is provided in Vietnamese and English, the English version governs in the event of any inconsistency.