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2 September 2024: On its golden jubilee, ITFA’s Annual International Trade and Forfaiting Conference will be held from 4 to 6 September 2024 in Limassol, Cyprus.

Trade Finance Global (TFG) is delighted to announce that it is the media partner with this conference. Deepesh Patel, Editorial Director, and Mark Abrams, Head of Trade Finance, will represent TFG.

The best minds in the industry will come together from all over the world to deliberate on trade and supply chain finance, characterised as it is by relentless dynamism. Attendance in 2023 was a record high, and this event also looks poised to host a surpassing number of delegates, speakers, and sponsors.

Key speakers include Constantinos Petrides, Cyprus’ Former Minister of Finance; Krishnan Ramadurai, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Global Credit Data Consortium (GCD); and Natasha Condon, Global Head of Trade Sales and EMEA Trade Region Head at JPMorgan Chase.

Industry leaders are responsible for synthesising their specialised, technical findings from the year. The conference will discuss developments in areas such as electronic trade documents, the impact of non-bank investors, and supply chain finance management and digitisation. 

Emerging market credit risks and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations in different global regions will also be covered, since they both impact and are impacted by geopolitical developments. 

As the global trade landscape grows increasingly volatile and unpredictable, the opportunity for industry experts to network and discuss is a precious thing. The conference is packed with many panel discussions, including:

• Deepesh Patel, Editorial Director of TFG, will be hosting a panel discussion entitled: ‘Navigating Emerging Market Credit Risk in a post-rate fear era.’ It aims to unpack the ‘fear era’, and explore market hysteria and recovery surrounding US interest rates.
  • Deepesh will be joined by panellists Clint Eastwood, Laszlo Varnai, Richard Waite, and David Smithson.

• Following lobbying in Brussles, the Insurance Committee will provide an update on their initiatives. This will be followed by a panel of bankers, brokers, and insurers breaking out the red boxes, moderated by Alastair Hill, Executive Director of WTW Financial Solutions.
  • Alastair will be joined by George Bellord, TFG Editorial Board member Carol Searle, Lucy Cutting Butler, and Christophe White.

• Geoffrey Wynne, Partner at Sullivan & Worcester LLP and TFG Editorial Board member, will be moderating a panel discussion on the digitisation of trade and trade instruments. 
  • He will be joined by Patrik Zekkar, Pierre Courquin, and Professor Sarah Green.

TFG will also be hosting a roundtable discussion on whether enough is being done to bridge the trade finance gap. It will cover trade credit insurance, digitisation of documents, the role of supply chain financing, and more. The roundtable discussion will feature:

• Baihas Baghdadi, CEO and Founder of Trade & Working Capital; 
• George Bellord, Director at BPL; 
• Cruz González Agrelo, Head of Lenders Solutions Team Europe and Global Head of Receivables and Supply Chain at WTW; 
• N. L. N. Swaroop, Global Product Head for Sustainability, Innovation & Asset Distribution – Global Trade and Receivables Finance at HSBC; 
• Khilola Turaeva, Head of Trade Risk Distribution in EMEA at Bank of America; and Patrik Zekkar, CEO of Enigio.

TFG will deliver exclusive interviews with:

• Carol Searle, General Counsel and Group Board Director at Texel Group;
• Damian Austin, Chief Banking Officer at BACB;
• Marilyn Blattner-Hoyle, Global Head of Trade Finance, Trade Credit, and Working Capital Solutions at Swiss Re Corporate Solutions;
• Professor Rebecca Harding, Director at Rebeccanomics;
• Marcus Miller, Managing Director, and Marie-Aude Vesval, Global Unfunded Risk Participation Leader, at Marsh;
• N. L. N. Swaroop, Global Product Head for Sustainable Trade Finance, Innovation, Financial Institutions, at HSBC, and Sian Aspinall, Group CEO, at BPL.

Throughout the week, TFG will also launch an educational ITFA podcast and report on some sessions at the conference.

ITFA’s 50th Annual International Trade and Forfaiting Conference is set to be a valuable opportunity to gain and share knowledge, and network with peers and industry professionals.

For more information and to register for the conference, please visit the event website here.