Capital investment can be vital for driving economic development, but on its own, it is rarely enough. True development requires robust financial systems that serve all trade participants and minimise those trade finance gaps limiting opportunities for businesses in regions where liquidity remains a formidable challenge.
To learn more about the power of financing, Mahika Ravi Shankar, Assistant Editor at Trade Finance Global (TFG) spoke with Ankita Pandey, a relationship manager with the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Trade and Supply Chain Finance Program (TSCFP), at TFG’s Women in Trade, Treasury & Payments event in London.
A significant aspect of ADB’s trade finance initiatives involves research and data-driven advocacy. The bank’s Trade Finance Gaps, Growth, and Jobs Survey, published biannually, remains the only global analysis dedicated to quantifying the shortfall in available financing.
Pandey said, “It is a survey-based assessment of the significant and growing gap between demand for, and supply of various forms of trade financing”
The insights provided by the survey and its accompanying report help organisations of all sizes and scopes refine their risk-sharing frameworks and inform responses to economic trends and events the world over, such as ESG standards, tariffs, and artificial intelligence. But perhaps most importantly, it provides us with insights into the financing struggles of internationally active businesses.
The absence of accessible financing affects businesses of all sizes, yet small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are well known to suffer the most. Women-led SMEs have it worst of all, facing additional, often systemic, barriers that make it harder for them to secure the funding they need to fulfil expansion plans.
Despite increased awareness and targeted programs, these disparities persist. Development banks and partner institutions provide financial literacy training and encourage banks to integrate more women into trade finance roles.
Pandey said, “We work closely with a range of partners and stakeholders to deliver training programs to women-led SME businesses, on entrepreneurship, finance and trade financing specifically, among other relevant topics.”
ADB’s initiatives encompass supply chain finance, risk-sharing arrangements, and AI-driven sustainability tools designed to help SMEs understand and operate within complex regulatory frameworks.
On the financing side, the bank works directly with local banks, increasing their capacity to fund businesses that might otherwise struggle to access credit. Risk-sharing arrangements with partner institutions push this even further, ensuring trade continues to drive economic development, hopefully, one day without the need for any ADB involvement whatsoever.
Pandey said, “Our mission is to bridge the trade finance gap by effectively mobilising private sector capital. By including a broader range of society, especially SMEs, we aim to maximise the developmental benefits of trade.”
