TXF’s ‘in viro veritas’ series looks at the effects of the Coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic on trade and export finance. The first in the series was an early stage call to action, the second showed ECAs picking up their activities and this, the third, looks at more a coordinated response from institutions.
Adolfo Dindo Abueg, co-head of project finance, Asia Pacific at Korea Development Bank discusses life when your development bank is a development bank only in Korea, and elsewhere it’s a full blood commercial bank. Abueg shares how the bank operates, and his optimism in spite of Coronavirus.
Overall volumes of global commodity finance fell by 16% in 2019 compared to 2018, according to the full-year TXF 2019 Commodity Finance Report, while structured commodity finance plummeted to nearly half the volume of the previous year. Max Thompson reviews the drivers behind these low figures, as well as the most active regions and sectors across the commodity finance space.
There’s been a lot of activity behind the scenes at ECAs amid the abrupt systemic shock of Coronavirus. Some have been faster, and some more transparent communicators, than others. Is it a judge of character? TXF looks at the degrees of action in the market and applauds those taking steps to help SMEs and smaller businesses. After all, it’s the sector many profess to want to support in times of need, and now is a great opportunity.
Linde’s head of export and project finance, Gernot Bruch says international banks are no longer seeing his transactions as a ‘necessary evil’. There are other necessary evils (and benign things) to discuss with TXF – the return of US Exim, the inexorable rise of sustainability issues, the OECD Consensus, Russia business amid sanctions, and, of course his thoughts about Coronavirus.
EKN had a banner year in 2019. EKN’s director general, Anna-Karin Jatko tells TXF about the rise of supplier credits for larger contracts, and how as part of ‘Team Sweden’ she has put sustainability, digitisation and the simplification of export finance at the top of the Swedish ECA’s mission statement.
The new coronavirus, Covid-19, is shining a light on just how connected global trade is to the world’s second largest economy. TXF takes a look at how China will officially support its trade and we ask whether global ECAs need to be taking note. ‘Think Global, Act Local’ may be apt for world trade and the response to the disease.
Finnvera’s CEO Pauli Heikkila talks to TXF about how the Finnish ECA’s increased exposure to the cruise ship sector drove much of its stellar growth in 2019. Should managing concentration risk be a concern going forward, not least amid the current coronavirus outbreak? Is Heikkila worried that the ECA, which won TXF’s ECA of the year award in 2018, will find diversification a challenge?
It may have been a so-so year for many ECAs, but not Euler Hermes. CEO Edna Schoene was in a buoyant mood when she spoke to TXF. Financing ships has boosted business, claims have been benign and short term business has been stable, but the need to change the OECD Consensus radically is still top of mind,
It was unseasonably warm for Stockholm in February at EKN’s annual seminar. TXF was in Sweden to hear about the opportunities to finance the transition to carbon zero. Apparently, no more Nobel prizes need be awarded for some of the technology to make it happen. The financing is a different question.
Louis Taylor, CEO of UK Export Finance (UKEF), tells TXF he is all geared up for a busy life after Brexit. How is he facing media concerns about the UK’s export credit agency’s approach to sustainability? What about the world post US Exim reauthorisation? How is direct lending to SMEs going to progress?
What does being a modern ECA mean? Peter Gisler, CEO of SERV has strong views on the Swiss ECA’s ability to be proactive, flexible and to think outside the proverbial box of options available. Nonetheless, it isn’t always an easy path. Gisler shares his thoughts with TXF.
Werner Schmidt, Deutsche Bank’s new head of structured trade and export finance discusses how he sees his role morphing given the increasing complexity and longer lead times of many large deals. Is it still fun?
Andreas Back, senior manager, financial services at Wartsila goes in depth with TXF to discuss financing sustainable power in a market that still needs backups when the sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing, his competition, his dealings with ECAs and DFIs and also the changes in marine finance. How does it work when your niche is being niche?
The US SEC is on a drive to get companies to disclose supplier finance more explicitly. Companies would do well to tell their stories. The US accounting regulator has been asked to provide guidance. Some players are concerned that there is a risk to SCF as a whole if that guidance goes one way. Why should they be worried, and why is more transparency needed?
TXF finds Mairead Lavery full of vigour about her first year as president and CEO of EDC in advance of her first performance review with the chair of the board. Her energies are devoted to promoting Canadian exporting companies on a path to sustainability, inclusion and diversity. Is she concerned about EDC’s perception as being more a bank than a traditional ECA? Not a bit of it. What about local content requirements? Competition with other ECAs? It’s a question of philosophy.
TXF caught up with Citi’s John Ahearn to find out more about his newly-created role as chairman of trade to oversee strategic investments across the business, and what 2020 has in store for trade.
David Avram, trade and export finance director at Fives talks to TXF about his outlook on the markets in 2020, and how the company structures its export finance activities. Will ECA-driven KYC red tape, and the timing of demands for compliance hinder the industrial engineering group’s deal flow?
Ahead of TXF Americas next month, TXF caught up with Dr Jeevan Perera, a senior engineer at NASA, to find out how he teaches risk management to rocket scientists.
Correctly pricing sustainability into corporate supply chains shouldn’t just be a matter of ticking boxes (or drawing straws). Companies are going to have to use their judgement to incorporate material climate risk of their supply chains into their financial statements better. Here’s a look at what some companies are doing, and how some are building sustainability into financing programmes.
Appetite and capacity for credit and political risk insurance (CPRI) has been growing in the past 10 years but may be plateauing as the market matures. Matthew Beckett, EMEA director of insurance placement and loan capital markets at SMBC gives Katharine Morton a bank’s perspective on the future of what has been perceived as a ‘silent’ product in the run up to TXF’s CPRI conference in London on 4 December
Nicolas Langlois, Standard Chartered’s global head of trade distribution talks to Katharine Morton about the bank’s recent $1 billion risk-sharing with the IFC to boost trade finance in emerging markets and how it is to stay on track. Will the seeds be spread effectively? Langlois shares his path to being head of trade distribution, the evolution of the bank’s distribution strategy and how he sees trade distribution developing.
Is it time for supply chain finance to be rebranded? Looking 10 years out is a good way of focusing the mind. Even though there’s a big industry around SCF, will we still be looking at it in the same way in 2029? Katharine Morton looks at what may need to change.
This year's edition of TXF’s Commodity Finance Market Report comprises the insights of 173 traders, bankers, alternative financiers, lawyers, brokers, borrowers and insurers through a two-part survey and in-depth interviews. It is our most representative, expansive and detailed yet.
Boris Jaquet, EMEA Head, distribution, Deutsche Bank talks to TXF’s Katharine Morton about his views of the state of play of the Credit and Political Risk Insurance (CPRI) market and how to get the best from CPRI ahead of the TXF Conference in London on 4 December 2019
It’s not often nowadays that trade financiers get a positive survey to chew upon. Stuart Nivison digests HSBC’s latest Navigator Survey with TXF. Is the remarkable degree of positivity in global corporates’ trade outlook pure Animal Spirits or something more canny in operation?
Are corporate treasuries, fintechs and banks missing a trick on cross border working capital optimisation and what will the next five years hold? TXF's roundtable discussion of digitisation and international trade hosted in London by DBS highlights where the sweet spots will lie.
Katharine Morton looks at the relevance of the new Incoterms for the digital future of trade. Is it a step forward or a missed opportunity?
Martin Schlageter, head of treasury operations at Roche, the pharmaceutical company based in Switzerland, gives TXF his candid take on SWIFT gpi developments and the corporate experience of financing trade in challenging times.
US Exim’s full reauthorisation was expected at the end of last month as glimmers of bipartisan support returned to the US ECA. But now big ticket business is under threat once again as the agency’s latest expiry date for congressional authorisation emerges.
TXF's head of trade, treasury and risk, Katharine Morton, spoke with CGI's product manager for trade and supply chain solutions Patrick DeVilbiss about the key trends he saw emerging in Sibos 2019.
Katharine Morton looks into the sky at Sibos with a guided tour of hyper connectivity, trust, cosmology, trade and eating fairy cakes at the centre of the universe
Katharine Morton looks into the sky at Sibos with a guided tour of hyper connectivity, trust, cosmology, trade and eating fairy cakes at the centre of the universe
Introducing TXF’s vital guide to Sibos, the issues raised for the future of financing international trade for banks and corporates alike as SWIFT’s leviathan event comes to London for the first time.
Katharine Morton ponders the opacities of financing trade, and what lies beneath, revealed at ITFA’s celebration of a mysterious dance of hide and seek
The TXF half-year 2019 export finance report shows a bullish start to the year in the power sector, Japan’s JBIC coming in as top direct lender and the US and Australia being the two top destination markets. Jonathan Bell provides some teasers.
In the fourth of this series of Risky Business podcasts Coriolis Technologies CEO Rebecca Harding talks to TXF’s Katharine Morton about how the internal challenges of the EU continue to pull at the union. Is trade the way out of its problems?
The problems at the Oyu Tolgoi mining project in Mongolia mean the sponsors, Rio Tinto via its ownership of Turquoise Hill Resources, will have to raise $1 billion-plus more debt for the scheme. But is additional debt or a full refinancing the more likely outcome?
Cofco has signed the largest loan for an agri trading company yet which is linked to sustainability elements. Jonathan Bell examines this growing trend within agri-finance and importantly, how the Chinese trader is helping to push for increased traceability of soy beans.
In the third of this series of Risky Business podcasts Coriolis Technologies CEO Rebecca Harding talks to TXF’s Katharine Morton about how it’s not all about trade wars for China trade, but it doesn’t help.
In the second of this series of Risky Business podcasts Coriolis Technologies CEO Rebecca Harding talks to TXF’s Katharine Morton in more depth about the effects trade wars are having on US trade, and what the impact will be of US Exim getting back its mandate.
TXF talks to Makiko Toyoda and Jessica Schnabel, the women who are spearheading the development of IFC’s latest initiative to raise access to trade finance for women-owned businesses, revealing ambitious goals and the practical steps to help fulfil them.
In the first of this series of Risky Business podcasts Coriolis Technologies CEO Rebecca Harding talks to TXF’s Katharine Morton about where we are now with trade weaponization and the effect that trade wars are having on the key power relationships and physical supply chains globally, with technology at the forefront.
TXF sat down with industry experts to look at how changes in corporate trade and supply chain and digitisation are blurring the lines between cash management and financing international trade sustainably. This wide-ranging discussion was hosted by SWIFT in London.
In mid-June, Visa made the bold call that it was taking on SWIFT on facilitating direct, bank to bank transactions and going head on in the cross-border payments space for larger corporate payments. TXF asked Kevin Phalen, head of global business solutions at Visa, to go into more detail about Visa B2B Connect. It’s very much not about cards.
In mid-June, Visa made the bold call that it was taking on SWIFT on facilitating direct, bank to bank transactions and going head on in the cross-border payments space for larger corporate payments. TXF asked Kevin Phalen, head of global business solutions at Visa, to go into more detail about Visa B2B Connect. It’s very much not about cards.
In advance of the ICC World Banking Commission annual meeting in Beijing, TXF gathered China financial experts and corporates to talk about financing China trade. Multilateralism was the watchword as the country manages expansion against a slowing growth backdrop.
Just who are you? TXF contemplates trust in trade and the bumblebee in KYC. Some commercial KYC solutions are struggling, but SWIFT is coming into the game for corporate KYC alongside its bank registry. If banks and corporates are going to trust SWIFT for the KYC Registry, why would they need to embrace other technologies such as blockchain for trade?
When the self-styled biggest global provider of trade finance teams up with a large European asset manager to wrap European trade finance assets and lend to institutional investors, it should be a winning combination. But how can HSBC and Allianz Global Investors avoid the pitfalls of the past? TXF spoke to HSBC’s Surath Sengupta and AllianzGI’s David Newman to find out.
A premium online event focusing on recent and forthcoming developments across regional export & project finance with unbeatable networking opportunities across each market.
TXF Global Commodity Finance 2020 conference goes back to the future . Join deal makers from across the globe for an unmissable two day 80’s themed extravaganza.
The global export, agency & project finance games return for 2020! Join us in Madrid for the largest gathering of its kind and take your network further than ever before.
TXF's stages for change initiative is a space to celebrate the diverse experts in our industry. We shine a light on the underrepresented communities that make the market stand out.
The ultimate guide to Export Finance in Germany. Senior attendees from banks and exporters gather every year to make new connections and plan ahead...could you be one of them?
Roll up, roll up for the latest updates on Spanish Export Finance. This annual gathering will take you to the heart of the market and introduce you to senior decision-makers who make deals happen.
4 conferences in 1 - TXF will be coming to Paris, Frankfurt, Madrid and London for 4, 1 day events covering all the latest updates in the local export market. Pick your favourite and join us!
We're reuniting the French Export Finance industry to discuss trends in the market and make new valuable connections. Join us in Paris to get ahead of next year's deals.
Our first UK Export Finance event is coming to town this September. Delve into the local market and make high-level contacts that might just lead to your next deal...
A gathering of all the key players in MENA - a chance to shake hands, exchange business cards and plan ahead for another year of successful deal-making!
Join the crowds of exporters, ECAs, banks and insurers gathering to share their expertise and predictions for Asian project and export finance.
The only dedicated forum for the APAC trade and commodity finance community. Join dealmakers from across Asia-Pacific as we tackle key industry issues and analyse the latest deals in the market.