SME Finance

Trade Finance Global caught up with Head of Macroeconomic Research, Ana Boata at Euler Hermes last month at The Institute of Export & International Trade’s World Trade Summit. A very interesting macroeconomic view on how households, retail and economic growth has changed in 2019 due to trade wars, Brexit and business uncertainty.

We spoke to the Finastra’s CEO Simon Paris about the future of trade and challenges of capitalism, during the World Trade Symposium at New York. We discussed key themes around bilateralism and multilateralism in global trade and why we need to turn our eyes to plurilateralism. A typical SME trade finance transaction is $25,000, but the average cost to trade finance instruments is $4,000 and this is not particularly helpful in addressing the trade finance gap. Is the technology the remedy here?

The UK government’s Export Credit Agency (ECA), UKEF, has a mandate to ensure that no viable UK export fails for lack of finance or insurance.

We spoke to Anabel Gonzalez during the World Trade Symposium in New York. We discussed whether the current US-China trade war had a positive impact on Latin American trade flows. Geopolitical uncertainty continues to threaten foreign investment and economic growth, particularly in emerging markets. Policymakers around the world are fretting about trade uncertainty and its impact on access to business finance, meanwhile, innovation and competition remain critical for economic growth.

New York, World Trade Symposium. With the world trade order under threat from protectionist movements, tit-for-tat tariffs, and a shift away from free and open trade, TFG’s Editor Deepesh Patel caught up with ICC’s Secretary General and Member of the World Trade Board, John Denton at Finastra’s World Trade Symposium.

We spoke to Ronan Quigley from the British Chambers of Commerce during the World Trade Summit on 23rd October at The Law Society in London. The event took place amid growing speculation about the prospects of a winter General Election, following the Government’s defeat to its proposed timetable for the passing through of its EU Withdrawal Agreement Bill. Ronan gave us an overview of the support landscape for UK businesses, post-Brexit and discussed the new version of the Incoterms.

With the UK and EU yet to reach an agreement on their future trading relationship, it is vital goods vehicle operators are as prepared as possible for a No Deal Brexit. In this scenario, new border procedures and haulier responsibilities will come into effect immediately. Hauliers must ensure they fully understand the new road haulage procedures, documentation requirements and responsibilities that will arise; otherwise, they risk their operations coming to a standstill.

With the development of more interconnected alternative finance options for businesses and the emergence of open banking in the marketplace, the option of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending is seeing a great increase in popularity over the years among its SME audience.

Northern Ireland and the U.K. Have a long and complicated relationship. The latter half of the 20th century was one of its most turbulent periods, as clashes between nationalist and unionist groups killed nearly 4000 people between 1968 and 1998. The violence ended courtesy of the Good Friday Agreement, signed in April of 1998…

Looking at the bigger picture of international trade flows and supply chains is crucial when looking at helping businesses access finance. We heard from Tony Brown at the Annual WOA Convention, discussing the world of open account pre- invoice, including purchase orders, transportation, distribution and pre-shipment finance.

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.