• A global system of countertrade and debt settlement designed to help companies facing financial distress to avoid insolvency and continue operating
  
  
• Aimed at mitigating the impact of the financial crisis on the real economy by reducing manufacturer's and consumer's overdependence on credit recourses
  
  
• Created in October 2008, amid the credit crunch, by Russian businessman German Sterligov
  
  
• Operates in more than 17 countries in Europe and Asia, including Russia, countries of the former Soviet Union such as Kazakhstan and Ukraine, China and the United Kingdom
  
  
• Offices in the UK, Russia, Hong Kong, Mainland China, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and other countries
  
  
• Committed to highest standards of transparency and accountability

ASCC offers an alternative to the vicious circle of credit-dependence. It is a global system of countertrade and debt settlement designed to help companies facing financial distress to avoid insolvency and continue operations.

For a company on the verge of bankruptcy, perhaps because of a drop in sales and diminishing cash-flow, it is crucial to remain a "going concern" with a secure supply of raw materials and the means to service debt and pay salaries. By using ASCC such a company can exchange excess inventories of its finished products (at a price below a national market value but above an estimated liquidation price) for raw materials and the minimum amount of cash needed to pay interest expenses, make due principal repayments and cover labour costs. They can also use ASCC to offset operational liabilities and settle interest-bearing debt by a discounted value of excess inventories.

Although it has similarities to systems of countertrade or barter - where goods and services are exchanged for those of equivalent value - money plays an important role. Each chain of transactions is terminated by a payment, made to the first participant in the chain [Please refer to How the ASCC System Works]. This ensures there is sufficient cash in the system to maintain fluidity and encourages ASCC participants to use cash more sparingly and efficiently.