We caught up with Peter Jameson, Head of Trade and Supply Chain, Asia Pacific in Bank of America. We discussed the highlights of 2019 and the opportunities in 2020 for the trade, receivables and supply chain finance. There will be continued pressure on trade flows, with reduced volume, commodity prices, and financing demand. Despite this, Asia Pacific’s growth prospects remain favourable as compared to other regions. Businesses continue to seek growth and focus on further developing their banking needs in the region.

We discussed with AIG some of the challenges and opportunities in the trade credit insurance sector. Enabling the much-needed reduction of the trade finance gap, and bringing in a wider array of investors while mitigating the risks of such expansion in the backdrop of geopolitical uncertainty will be a huge challenge in 2020. However, dealing with a broader collection of participants in the trade finance ecosystem in terms of jurisdictions, size of the borrower, types of assets and fintech entrants set us up for interesting times.

As the most authoritative voice in the trade finance industry, ICC Banking Commission, maintains a permanent dialogue with regulators and supervising bodies, helping to develop regulations affecting the industry.

The title of the EBRD’s transition report 2019-2020 – “Better Governance, Better Economies” – summarises its message well. Good governance matters. It matters at the level of countries, subnational regions and firms…

2019 has been a fairly promising year of growth for some emerging and developing markets, but with continued regulatory scrutiny, correspondent banking relationships continuing to be a cut, and a sluggish growth forecast for 2020, what does this mean for trade in EDE’s?

With the growth of major players such as Ant Financial in Asia in 2019, TFG asked Accenture’s European Banking Lead, Cecile André Leruste, on her thoughts and predictions for trade and SCF in 2020, focusing on growth coming out of South Asia.

TFG’s Editor, Deepesh Patel, spoke to Yves Mersch about the strategical priorities of the ECB in 2020. They discussed the importance of central banks’ independence for the foreseeing of their mandates. The ECB’s mandate is to ensure price stability…

TFG’s Editor Deepesh Patel spoke to Stacey Facter, BAFT’s Senior Vice President for Trade Products, during BAFT’s Global Annual Meeting, held in Frankfurt from January 13-15, 2020. Anti-money laundering (AML) and sanctions were key compliance themes at the meeting, so TFG caught up to discuss how these could be tackled moving forward, and what’s in stock for 2020.

We heard from Steven Beck, Head of Trade Finance at the Asian Development Bank, giving his musings on 2019, a year of uncertainty in trade, and what 2020 might bring for trade and supply chain in Asia.

Currency is part and parcel of monetary policy, and a public mandate of the European Central Bank (ECB). TFG’s Editor, Deepesh Patel, spoke to ECB’s Yves Mersch about the possibilities of central bank digital currencies in relation to payment systems, faster transaction times and settlements. Separating the hype from reality; Mersch spoke to TFG about the regulatory consequences of central bank digital currencies. “We are tech neutral. We want to stay ahead of tech. Tech has to serve our purpose, not the other way around.”