Ahead of TXF Global in Madrid next week, Max Thompson takes a look at the increased innovation and flexibility ECAs are showing around the structure of export credits in Africa, particularly covering the 15% down payment financing traditionally needed for ECA-backed deals. And there is room for further development of the ECA product offering.

With a promise to make a significant contribution towards UN Sustainable Development Goal 6 and climate resilience, the $1.1 billion Angolan water infrastructure project breaks records and paves the way for big-ticket blended finance deals in sub-Saharan Africa water.

APIs deliver critical functionality for banks driving towards full end-to-end digitisation in trade. Patrick DeVilbiss, offering Manager, trade and supply chain solutions and Colin Zeglen, product manager for Trade and Supply Chain Solutions at CGI explain the evolution and the importance to trade banks.

“At the moment, there's still a traditional bias related to a lot of jobs in the commodities industry, and we need to break this, in terms of gender as well as diversity in general”. In this fortnight’s Stages for Change instalment, TXF’s Aife Howse speaks to Gunvor’s Elsa Pernot on what more could be done to even out industry inequality within the commodity trading sector.

The TXF Global Commodity Trade Finance Industry Report 2021, which offers an independent, comprehensive, and unique exploration of some of the key trends in the industry over the past year, is to be released next week. From concerns over secondary trader on-lending to an uptick in structured finance, here are some of the hot takes.