Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) has been around for several years and has its roots in the world of cryptocurrencies, often referred to as Blockchain. Having brought some very interesting opportunities to the Banking market, attention was sparked in other industries such as Insurance, Healthcare, Shipping, Supply Chains, Manufacturing and Trade Finance.
Over the past 2-3 decades there have been many attempts to digitise parts of the trade and trade finance process, but it’s the complexity of trade that remains the challenge. Most successful attempts at digitisation have had to bite off a small piece of the problem and this has led to silos or what I call a ‘digital island’ phenomena.
Despite today’s climate of rising trade tariffs and falling trade volumes, UniCredit’s Global Head of Global Transaction Banking, Luca Corsini, claims we have reason to remain optimistic for trade finance revenues in the coming months, pointing to the rising need for security in trade transactions, the rise of digital platforms to simplify and expand service provision, and continued infrastructure development stemming from Asia
All global industries require standards. Remember what a huge step forward it was when the carrier industry agreed on the design for a shipping container. The same is true for electronic trade documents and their supporting systems.
TFG heard from Accenture’s Cecile Andre Leruste, on the major digitisation initiatives within the commodiy finance space. Commodity finance is in a phase of major transition, driven by multiple megatrends
In today’s geopolitical climate many foreign policy makers use sanctions or similar, steps such as the refusals to grant authorisations, to place economic pressure on governments, organisations and individuals.
TFG spoke to the leading trade, banking, forfaiting, factoring and open account industry bodies to get an update on the key projects, initiatives and milestones from 2019.
How can the UK ‘green’ its finance system? Meeting the Paris Agreement’s targets on greenhouse gas emissions is no easy feat. TFG spoke to Sir Roger Gifford, Chair of the UK Green Finance Institute, on how we can integrate climate science data and risk analysis into financial decision making to get sustainability at the forefront of the agenda for governments, banks and companies.
The next generation of technology-led financial services innovators are disrupting the industry in a big way, and TFG’s Deepesh Patel caught up with Natalie Ceeney CBE, Chair of Innovate Finance, at WCBI.
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.
