While trade finance has an essential role to play in supporting the global economy through the post-COVID recovery, many firms are still unable to access the finance they need. Fortunately, technology can help banks meet their customers’ trade finance needs – and with cloud-based solutions, the cost of a specialist system is no longer prohibitive for small and mid-sized banks, as Surecomp’s Enno-Burghard Weitzel and Andrew Coles explain.

Departures from parts of the trade credit and CPRI market – in particular by Zurich and QBE – have raised eyebrows as reduced capacity could make it harder for banks to secure a programme with a single insurer. What will be the impact, and can improved harmonisation of Basel-compliant documentation help bolster capacity?

Why are there still so few bridges between digital islands? And no ‘cars’ on the bridges that have been built? Michael Vrontamitis, advisor at Kountable and Subra Shankar, founder and principal at TOTTA look at why digital islands persist, and how they can be bridged. Do not ignore smaller businesses.

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.

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.