"Airgas could become distressed in a severe downturn because it carries no cash on its balance sheet, and has everything in receivables, " says analyst Christopher Crooks of Janney Montgomery Scott.

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Securitisation, or the practice of bundling and selling more straightforward sorts of assets, such as mortgage receivables, has in one sense made banks more inscrutable, since banks are left with assets that are relatively opaque.

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"Competition among business divisions" over which one had the "youngest" receivables "has stimulated the posting of memo entries in advance of actuals, " Folk, the revenue operations chief, wrote in a 1997 e-mail quoted in a lawsuit later filed by an MCI partner.

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Timeshares in general has been under pressure in recent years due to defaults and diminished availability of receivables financing, but that has been improving recently.

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Strictly speaking, a pure factoring arrangement has the supplier of funds acquiring the receivables, along with all the risks of nonpayment or late payment.

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Last week, the New York Stock Exchange announced it has taken an ownership stake in the Receivables Exchange and will form a joint program to offer trading in corporate accounts receivable.

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Since 1986 the company has been financing the medical equipment and, later, receivables of healthcare providers, securitizing some of the loans and leases, and selling them to investors.

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To enable its receivables to grow, and to compete in an industry where consolidation has created huge players, it made sense to tie itself to a bank with deep pockets.

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