Coronavirus

In their response to the Covid-19 pandemic, governments have learned and applied many of the lessons of past crises. Early testing and tracing at scale gave countries including Germany, Taiwan and South Korea a lead in combating the virus.

Barings Bank collapse. Noble Group’s demise. The 2020 commodities scandals of Agritrade, Hin Leong, Zenrock, Sugih Energy and Hontop Energy. Will these recent commodity financial scandals shatter Singapore’s reputational armour?

TFG announced a media partnership with City & Financial Global Ltd for 10th edition of City Week 2020 – its annual International Financial Services Forum.

Soaring demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) and COVID-19 tests resulted in a scramble for supplies. Governments are borrowing on a grand scale to subsidise and protect domestic capacity.

The pandemic has been vastly disruptive. It has prompted powerful responses from the government and the private sector. The number of new cases globally appears to have stabilised. Lockdown measures early in the quarter weighed heavily on UK growth but the recovery picked up some pace in June, with GDP rising 8.7% from May.

TFG heard from Kevin Shakespeare, Director of Stakeholder Engagement at the Institute of Export & International Trade (IOE&IT), on the significant changes in how exporters and importers trade with the EU come 1st January of 2021 – the end of the transition period.

Forecasters are predicting official figures released this week will show the UK economy suffered the worst impact from the coronavirus pandemic of any major advanced economy.

TFG heard from Arnaud Doly, CEO & Founder, Nabu, on how blockchain and AI can play a key role in helping reduce unmet demands in trade finance and completing the work that humans do to provide better trade finance services.

Your Monday morning coffee briefing from TFG. Productivity in the UK dipped in the first quarter of the year and is likely to fall further as estimates suggest that the fall in output has been greater than the fall in hours worked. Various causes of this slowdown have been proposed including low interest rates, low investment, short-termism in the corporate sector, austerity, Brexit and mismeasurement to name but a few.

Smart Currency Business have collated predictions from major banks and highlighted key factors which may influence the pound, euro and dollar in their latest quarterly forecast.

Your Monday morning coffee briefing from TFG.Almost half of all Covid-19 cases reported so far were from just three countries: the US, Brazil and India. Wearing masks became compulsory in UK shops and other enclosed public spaces. EU leaders agreed to create a €750bn EU recovery fund to support member states worst hit by COVID-19.

The ICC’s Survey on Trade Finance reveals the industry-wide challenges and disruption as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic push trade and trade finance into a state of global uncertainty.

In the UK Boris Johnson announced a further loosening of lockdown restrictions, reopening most remaining leisure facilities and dropping advice that public transport should be used for essential journeys only.

TFG heard from Andreas Tesch of Atradius on the status of credit insurance market in Asia and the key initiatives taken in response to Covid-19’s impact on Asian trade.

TFG has released its latest issue of Trade Finance Talks entitled ‘Coronavirus & The Fourth Industrial Revolution’.