American Express has entered the Australian trade finance market, offering small and medium businesses a payment service for local and international suppliers.Amex introduced the trade finance product, AccessLine, last year and is now stepping up its marketing effort after testing the local response.Also in operation in the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Singapore, AccessLine is available to Amex corporate cardholders and is based on a credit card account.It has been designed to overcome situations where suppliers will not accept credit card payments. Amex deposits funds into the supplier's account directly, with only the account holder knowing that a card account was involved in the transaction.Amex charges a transaction fee of 2.4 per cent. The account holder has up to 51 days to pay and can earn reward points on the transaction.American Express vice president of foreign exchange international payments, Barry Fletcher, said in a media release that companies had been using AccessLine to negotiate early payment discounts with their suppliers.One of Amex's AccessLine customers is Smac Imports, an office furniture importer. The company's chief executive Lachlan McDonald said: "Cash flow management is king in this industry. It can be a tricky balancing act when you need to make significant payments upfront and can't predict when you might get anything in return."