The move highlights how America's biggest companies continue to build on the aggressive cash management practices they adopted in the wake of the credit crisis.

WSJ: P&G, Big Companies Pinch Suppliers on Payments

Discover managed to stay ahead of the market trend through prudent risk management and reported a 7% decline in average credit loans outstanding during the post financial crisis period.

FORBES: Quick Take

"Past experience has taught us that a bad loan crisis usually came three years after a period of abnormal credit surge, " Wei Guoxiong, chief risk management official with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China was quoted as saying by the Xinhua news agency.

BBC: Workers at a factory in China