Could a 20-digit LEI number help banks cut their KYC and compliance costs while narrowing the SME trade finance gap? Yes – but not until regulators get behind it.
The Ripple versus SWIFT PR campaign appears to have backfired. But whatever the outcome of this rather artificial headline generator, one thing looks certain – transaction banks must prepare themselves for leaner fees and more demanding corporate clients.
Brian Edmondson, global head of trade and working capital finance at Finastra, outlines how government initiatives, a drive to digitise and a new spirit of collaboration among banks, fintechs and platform providers are slowly helping trade finance reach the ‘long tail’ of SMEs.
Amid the hype around blockchain, is the market losing sight of what the technology can really do for trade finance – and what it can’t?
Trade finance funds looking to attract capital from big-ticket institutional investors must provide more clarity about their strategies and where they sit within the broad world of private credit, according to panellists at a recent event hosted by Kimura Capital.
As corporate demands for faster, more seamless services put banks under pressure to digitise, traditional trade financiers face an uphill struggle caused by their own legacy technology and the growing competition from fintechs.
The shift to open account trade continues to raise question marks over the future and relevance of traditional letters of credit (LCs).
Rebecca and Jack Harding, authors of upcoming book ‘The Weaponization of Trade’, outline how trade is fast becoming a tool of foreign policy aggression, why a rise in the trade of dual-use and military goods is playing into this trend, and what this means for trade finance.
Robert Kowit, senior vice-president and product specialist at Federated Investors, is finding investor appetite for trade finance assets from some unexpected quarters.
While their contribution to trade finance remains tiny compared with that of traditional banks, trade finance funds are an increasingly critical provider of liquidity, especially for the smaller producers and traders that are essential to global supply chains but which big banks no longer have appetite for.
A free ‘social network’ that HSBC launched this month to help connect international buyers and suppliers could help the bank win more trade finance business once a broad enough pool of corporates is signed up.
The first open-source blockchain-powered platform for trade finance – TradeIX’s founders claim it is a unique network-of-networks solution
Andrew Taylor, CEO of BeCyberSure, explains why investing in people, processes and governance offers treasurers a better defence against cyber-attacks than technology, and offers tips for helping corporates and banks strip out the risk that arises from within.
Cheam Hing Lee, CEO and founder of Singapore-based Rhodium Resources, was not a fan of supply chain finance (SCF) until he started his own commodity trading company five years ago. Since then, SCF has helped Rhodium compete with bigger rivals as it builds towards a Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO).
Supply chain finance pure-play providers' use of traditional fee models is causing revenue to be far smaller than increases in new business volumes would suggest. Should they take a punt on new fee models, explore other products to generate fresh revenue streams, or simply beg patience from their investors?
At a tumultuous time for the world, both politically and economically, corporate treasurers find themselves tasked with identifying and managing an increasingly complex and fast-evolving web of risk. So is it time to up the tech spend?
To keep their lead on fintechs, trade finance banks need to offer corporates a data-driven, holistic relationship and customer-centric technology – so says a new report by Aite Group and Misys.
Vista Equity Partners’ $3.57 billion deal to acquire Canadian software vendor DH Corp (D+H) and combine it with UK rival Misys will create a global fintech giant with a projected $2.2 billion revenue that will make it the world’s third biggest core banking software provider, behind only FIS and Fiserv.
Forget speed-dating, says Sander van Loosbroek, director of distributed ledger technology at Cegeka. For banks to make blockchain work in trade finance, they need to commit to an open relationship.
With fierce competition at home forcing European and US supply chain finance (SCF) providers to hunt fresh revenue opportunities, Latin America could be the next big opportunity, believes Oliver Belin, consultant and director of supply chain finance at Sovos.
In a slowing global trade finance market, Michael Vrontamitis, global head of trade products, Transaction Banking at Standard Chartered, sees a potential upside to protectionism.
Jonathan Bell, TXF’s editor-in-chief, picks his favourite commodity finance stories of 2016.
Ollie Gordon, TXF's news & features editor, picks his favourite export & agency finance stories of 2016.
Blockchain technology’s potential to transform trade finance is the focus of a new Trade Innovation Lab launched by IT and business process services leader CGI. Kitt Carswell, CGI’s vice president, senior offering manager, talks to Helen Castell about why it’s needed, what CGI is already doing in the distributed ledger or shared database space and some of the challenges this new technology looks set to unleash.
With their huge capacity and state backing, ECAs for many years dominated the market for absorbing risk on longer-dated export credits. That’s changed, say private insurers, who argue the ECA mantra of only providing coverage that the private market can’t handle no longer holds true. Helen Castell reports.
Helen Castell asks brokers and insurers what’s next for the industry and whether developing unconventional new products is essential for insurers’ survival or a dangerous leap into the unknown.
Despite India’s massive size and forecasts that it could challenge China as the world’s growth engine within a decade, uptake of export credit in the country continues to disappoint. Helen Castell reports.
Jonathan Bell, TXF’s Editor in Chief, picks his favourite commodity financing stories from 2015.
In part three of our interview series, TXF’s Helen Castell talks to INOKS Capital chief executive Nabil Marc Abdul-Massih about the importance of regulation and his concern that some trade finance investors don’t understand the risks.
In part two of our interview series, TXF’s Helen Castell talks to Scipion Capital vice president Ben Storrs about how trade finance funds and specialist commodity investors are offering an alternative to global traders’ supply chain finance and plugging a gap that local African banks can no longer fill.
Barak founder Jean Craven talks to TXF’s Helen Castell about opportunities in African agri, how trade finance funds complement bank finance and about Barak’s plans to move into longer-dated lending.
Helen Castell at TXF talks to Bob Kowit, a member of the trade finance team at Federated Investors, about the challenges involved in creating a pool of trade finance assets that appeal to financial investors, how export credit agencies (ECAs) could help overcome some of these obstacles, and why trade assets are starting to enter the radar of cash-rich corporates.
Helen Castell at TXF talks to some of the world’s largest borrowers about what ECA finance means to them, and why things like fixed-rate financing, long-term framework arrangements and looser eligible content requirements are top of their wish list.
In the third interview of our commodity trader series, Mercuria Energy Trading CFO, Guillaume Vermersch, tells Helen Castell how its deal to buy JPMorgan’s physical commodity books has transformed its business, why the repo structure will survive Qingdao, and how more transparency from traders would help them shape regulations.
As the second part of the unique TXF Commodity Traders Interview Series, we speak with specialist trading company Ocean Partners’ managing director Siva Pillay about the rise of their base metals trading operations.
In the second of our series of exclusive interviews with the world’s top commodity traders, Helen Castell talks to Siva Pillay, managing director at Ocean Partners. Find out why the Qingdao scandal should have been foreseen, how boutiques are rivalling traditional trade banks and what overcrowding is doing to the concentrates market.
As undisputed drivers of trade, the world’s commodity traders are a hugely influential group but also oddly misunderstood. They are the lynchpins of global trade, not only driving flows with their involvement in everything from production to logistics, but increasingly financing them too. Few players have such a broad perspective of global trade or as intimate an understanding of its every stage. It is a pity then that we know so little about what makes them tick.
Helen Castell discusses, with some of the world’s biggest exporters and borrowers, the changing role of export credit agencies (ECAs), the impact of political wrangles in the US and how ECAs might better harmonise and fine-tune their rules to help corporates compete.
Export credit has always been a vital lifeline for exporters and their customers, especially in times of crisis. Although the worst days of the global economic downturn seem long gone, corporates discuss how ECAs are upping their game and why they need their support even more than before. Helen Castell talks with exporters and borrowers.
First and foremost, apologies that I missed compiling the Weekly last week – it has been a hectic past couple of weeks (to say the least) with some of us zipping around Europe and then some big trade events to deal with en Paris et Londres.
One of the biggest challenges with warehouse receipt finance is that it needs to reach a certain scale before the perceived benefits to farmers and traders justify the high costs associated with warehousing and collateral management.
A new study into warehouse receipts and collateral management was unveiled at the Fin4Ag conference in Nairobi.
Agriculture is thinking beyond the challenges it often faces with bank finance by stepping boldly into new frontiers. While farmers tap next-generation financing sources like crowdfunding, specialist funds are lining up to invest in the sector and tools like factoring are being adapted to fit agribusiness needs.
One of the liveliest debates at the Fin4Ag conference in Nairobi centred on the responsibilities that farmers have in facilitating agrifinance. Although heated criticisms of banks’ lack of understanding of agriculture came thick and fast, farmer groups also pledged to help bridge the gap by improving their record keeping and business skills.
Kenya’s Kyanzavi Farmers Cooperative is one example of how clubbing together into a single commercial estate can help individual farmers improve their yield, attract finance and pay it back.
African agriculture stands at a crossroads and it alone is responsible for taking the right path. The sector has the potential to become a world beater within two decades, but only with a shift in mindset, the right technology and better corporate governance, delegates heard at a closing session for the Fin4Ag conference in Nairobi.
Crowdfunding has the potential to turn smallholder farmers into the bank customers of tomorrow, helping them grow to the stage at which they are able to tap traditional finance, delegates to the Fin4Ag conference in Nairobi heard Thursday (July 17).
A new study into warehouse receipts and collateral management was unveiled this week at the Fin4Ag conference in Nairobi. The 200-page report dissects the experiences of nine countries examining lessons learned and highlighting potential ways forward in one of the most exciting fields of agricultural finance.
Most weather-index insurance pilot projects in Africa fail within three years because of inadequate budgets that don’t allow for scale, weather-station maintenance or training, according to Bernard Pacher, CEO of ADCON Telemetry.
Equity Group Foundation is targeting Kenya’s under-served mid-sized farmers with a new training programme that seeks to provide them with key business skills. The programme aims to unlock unused agricultural land to improve not only farmers’ livelihoods but the country’s food security, the Fin4Ag conference heard Tuesday (July 15).
We’re taking the global export roadshow to Lisbon! Join us on the 7th & 8th June 2022 for another unmissable hybrid event. Deal makers from across the globe are attending in force. Don't miss out...
The destination for African commodity finance! A unique opportunity to come together with deal makers across this exciting region for virtual networking opportunities second to none!
Returning in-person to London! Calling all changemakers in trade & export finance - Join us for another thought-provoking edition to plot your ideas about diversity, sustainability and inclusion.
Return of the hugely popular virtual event which addresses the challenges of sustainable commodity finance head on. Bringing you an atmosphere that is inspiring & ideas led! The time is now...
TXF Asia is back, in-person, in Singapore! After three fabulous virtual editions, nothing can compare to face-to-face meetings and getting back in the room with the finest export finance minds.
Three virtual editions later, TXF APAC makes its first in-person return, in Singapore! Join us for an intimate, local language event curated specially for the trade and commodity finance market.
The climax to Geneva commodities week, TXF Geneva brings together the European commodity finance market for an unparalleled two days of thought leadership, networking and education.