Trade Finance Talks

DLT is not just a buzzword but a trend which is about to transform the financial industry. The European Central Bank also has a stake in the innovation game. We met Dirk Bullmann, ECB’s Innovation Lab Leader, during Sibos 2019 in London. We learned more about ECB’s work on distributed ledger technology, crypto assets and stablecoin. How innovative are stablecoins solutions? To what extent can stablecoins minimize volatility? How are they used today and how could they be used tomorrow? We got all this covered.

TFG caught up with Steve Lotito, Managing Director & Head of Trade Finance-North America, Transaction Banking at MUFG Bank. Steve is also in the Board of Directors of BAFT. There are many challenges and opportunities facing the trade finance business that requires daily attention to the most senior Business Heads. We talked about how the US players are dealing with such issues as new regulatory and compliance requirements, finding new pockets of growth and investing in new products in the open account / working capital space, competing and collaborating with FinTechs, managing their balance sheets, attracting and retaining talent and more.

TFG caught up with Iain MacLennan, Vice President for Trade & Supply Chain Finance at Finastra, on the key trends in trade and supply chain finance in an era of uncertainty and geopolitics, in preparation for the World Trade Symposium which will be held in New York on the 6th and 7th November. Read the full interview here: https://www.tradefinanceglobal.com/posts/pocast-s1-e28-world-trade-symposium-iain-maclennan-on-policy-in-an-era-of-digital-trade/

AGTB: New kid on the block. TFG heard from Daniel Gould, Deputy CEO of Anglo Gulf Trade Bank, and its new digital offering for trade finance in the UAE and MENA region. Building a trade bank from scratch without relying on legacy technologies has enabled AGTB to reimagine trade finance, building a competitive product for the corporate banking space.

The Italian Banking market continues to face headwinds and pressures around new payment service directives (PSDII), challenges from the regulator, and changing customer needs. TFG caught up with the CEO of RegTech innovator CBI about their latest product CBI Globe, and how this is positioned to help Italian banks succeed and grow.

TFG spoke to Mishal Ruparel, General Manager at Banking Circle, about the new applications of technology in banking to help better serve the underbanked SMEs. Using AI-driven credit scoring and new approaches to analyse credit card transaction data, Banking Circle's proposition is game-changing the world of SME finance.

Hear from the co-CEO of essDocs Alexander Goulandris about the different solutions for paperless trade and the launch of a new product in collaboration with SWIFT, called CargoDocs Match. Digitising trade is an enormous change management problem. The huge number of stakeholders that simultaneously need to change how they do business, from a paper-based manual approach to a digital approach. In addition to that, there's legal quandary - it’s where not all countries embracing digital trade or facilitate it in the legislation. So that makes certain people and certain users uncomfortable.

Today TFG record live from the ITFA Annual Meeting in Budapest. The conference covered developments within areas of supply chain finance, credit risk insurance and ever more creative risk distribution techniques, as well as the rise of FinTech within the trade and open account environment. TFG heard from Mr Charles Bryant, the founder and Secretary-General of European E-invoicing Service Providers Association EESPA, discussing e-invoicing.

Today we're reminding our listeners that incoterms rules are changing at the start of 2020. With the updates and specific changes to be announced very shortly by the International Chamber of Commerce. We are delighted to be joined by a world-renowned exporting expert,  Mr Robert Ronai. He has over five decades of experience in exporting and importing stretches, in international banking and the world of international commerce. Bob now has the honour of being the first Australian and only the second non-lawyer to be invited by the ICC to be a member of their Incoterms® Drafting Group to draft the new Incoterms® 2020. Bob is a prolific speaker and an active voice within Incoterms and trade finance. Joining us today from Australia, Bob has managed two of the most active LinkedIn groups within trade finance and Incoterms, attracting a collective 50,000 followers in the community. 

Islamic finance is a specialist area that presents exciting growth opportunities for UK-based financial and related professional services. The industry’s increasing importance for Islamic and other investors around the world is evidenced by its steady growth in recent years. Potential future growth prospects are robust, supported by global demographic trends. Sharia (Islamic law) compliant banking assets make up 6% of the world’s banking assets, but globally, approximately one in four people are Muslim. The scope for growth is obvious.