Risk

Islamic finance is a specialist area that presents exciting growth opportunities for the UK. Sharia (Islamic law) compliant banking assets make up 6% of the world’s banking assets, but globally, approximately one in four people are Muslim. The scope for growth is obvious.

Change is not just coming; change is here today, now. The impact of using electronic trade documents instead of hard copies of bills of lading, invoices, packing lists, and certificates to settle trade transactions via the Internet will be as profound to global trade finance as the containerization of cargo was to logistics.

Certificates of Origin, alongside with the ICC Incoterms® rules, are some of the most crucial trade documents which authenticate the origin of any goods which are exported. Trade Finance Global spoke to CO experts, traders, shippers and producers, compiling a list of the most common mistakes when preparing Certificates of Origin, and how to avoid them.

The World Trade Symposium in November coincides with incredibly interesting times in global trade. Not only will the run-up to the US 2020 Presidential election be well underway, but a spotlight will be firmly trained on the impact of Brexit on the EU, should it go ahead at the end of October.

TFG were live at the Telegraph’s Future of Trade & Export conference, joined by Michael Boguslavsky, Head of AI at Tradeteq. There are a number of disruptive opportunities to digitise trade finance, including, machine learning, artificial intelligence, robotics, natural language processing.

TFG are delighted to be joined by Michael Vatikiotis, who was the keynote speaker earlier today at FCI’s 51st Annual Meeting in Ho Chi Minh City, an experienced author, journalist and conflict moderator specialising in Southeast Asia.

Parker Norfolk’s Richard Bishop discusses best practices for capitalizing on trade opportunities while simultaneously ensuring sound risk mitigation.

Sullivan’s Geoffrey Wynne highlights the key legal and regulatory themes to pay attention to in 2019.

Trade Finance Global caught up with Charles Nahum at Finacity, looking at the state of the trade receivables securitisation markets in 2019

Rebecca Harding discusses the elusive hidden trade and how it relates to anti-money laundering initiatives and the challenges they bring for banks.

ADB’s Steven Beck explores the challenges, risks, and implications of fighting financial crime and how such precautions are impacting market gaps.

The superimposition of DLT into the trade and shipping space naturally brings about a major step towards the digitization of trade. The process of trade digitization, however, is still traversing a legislative grey area. In many jurisdictions, including the USA, there are currently no regulations or laws that recognize electronic negotiable instruments in lieu of their written counterparts. Overcoming this immense operating hurdle will be a key initiative to reaching the full potential of DLT in the trade space.

To date, attempts to digitize trade and trade finance and to connect trading parties have been relatively unsuccessful. Internal processes have become increasingly digital but transactions involving multiple parties are still costly, complex, and largely paper based. This lack of success to date has been due primarily to the limitations of legacy technology systems, platforms, and networks that supported such digitization efforts

In the early hours of the morning, President Trump raised a further $200bn worth of tariffs on Chinese exports (5,700 different products to be exact), moving the tariff from 10% to 25%.

TFG’s exclusive interview with Robert Besseling covers the latest macro-economic factors at a regional level in Africa’s key economies.