Trade and supply chain finance is at the forefront of innovation as there are currently many pain points for corporate clients and banks. As the industry moves towards a platform model, we heard from Accenture’s Cecile Leruste on thee major transition and megatrends going on in commodity finance.

We caught with Trade Finance Global’s Head of Trade Finance, Mark Abrams, discussing the latest on mid market access to trade and receivables finance, in light of trade wars and geopolitical uncertainty, particularly Brexit. The interview was held at ExCred Commodities in London.

We caught up with the Head of Trade Finance at Asian Development Bank, Steve Beck. We talked about the newly published Trade Finance Gaps, Growth, and Jobs Survey.

We caught up with the Head of Trade Origination & Advisory at Natwest Bank, to talk about trade in the UK, given the current uncertain geopolitical climate around Brexit. We asked Rowan Austin about the current outlook for UK SMEs, trade barriers and how the bank is approaching trade and transaction banking digitisation through some of its initiatives at Sibos 2019.

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.

In Europe, small and mid-sized companies make up an astonishing 99% of all businesses – and over the last five years they generated 85% of all new jobs in the region. at a time of accelerating economic uncertainty and technological change, it would be irresponsible for those of us with the power to act not to do what we can to give the drivers of Europe’s economy the tools they need to succeed.

Singapore-based Finaxar, announces the partnership with Global eTrade Services (GeTs), a global trade platform company. Finaxar provides its unique Lending-as-a-Service to financial institutions, trade and e-commerce platforms using data-driven methods to provide the fast, tailored financing solutions for SMEs.

There is, so far as I am aware, little or no precedent for what the UK is attempting to do: seeking to reduce unfettered access to its closest and most important market – which also happens to be one of the world’s two largest. In 2018, 46% of the UK’s exports went to the EU, and 54% of UK imports came from it. Almost all countries in the world try to make trade deals, not dismantle them.

Access to affordable trade finance is a condition of success in international trade, to the same extent as rapid clearance of customs and efficient transportation. For decades, successful companies in developed countries have benefitted from the existence of mature financial industries distributing high volumes of finance and guarantees at low rates. Trade finance is normally a high volume and low-cost source of finance, because the risk of default is small, with a global average of 0.2%, and little difference across countries.

It’s TFG’s first ever Podcast Takeover, and we welcomed Michael Bickers, Editorial Director of BCR Publishing, who Trade Finance Global have partnered with for the BCR Supply Chain Finance Summit APAC on the 15th and 16th of October in Singapore.