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Your Monday morning coffee briefing from TFG. UK and Indonesia strengthen trade ties launching the Joint Economic and Trade Committee.

By understanding how paper documents work, we explore whether trace:original by Enigio, is an alternative way of approaching digital trade.

Your Monday morning coffee briefing from TFG. A container ship ran aground, blocking the Suez Canal which carries about 12% of global maritime trade. The blockage may take some time to clear, further disrupting global shipping, already beset by high freight costs and delays caused by the pandemic.

More than 90% cost savings could be possible from using distributed ledger technology to handle authoritative digital original documents

A three pillar approach to achieving a more sustainable and inclusive future for global trade

Digitalising these documents may seem like a bridge too far for some banks, but the risks of not investing in these technologies are comparatively greater.

This is not the time to be imposing trade sanctions, it is the time to be lifting trade restrictions and easing tariffs on essential goods. – Simon Paris

TFG heard from Iain MacLennan, VP Trade & Supply Chain Finance, Finastra on how blockchain and DLT can close in the trade finance gap experienced by SMEs.

Interbank and bank-to-corporate messaging remains a challenge, and whilst the industry welcomes moves towards structured data and SWIFT’s new messaging types, there are still challenges.

TFG heard from Finastra and Cognizant discussing trade and supply chain trends in Asia for 2020. Accounting for half of global GDP, what are the biggest challenges that lie ahead?

Building any start-up into a successful business is a challenge, including tech start-ups. There was a time when tech was the most popular industry to start a business in, but thanks to this boom, there is now a lot of competition.

The crypto trading scene has changed dramatically over the past couple of years. When the 2017/18 bubble burst, Bitcoin was seen as the mad doginance world and only those who were insanely courageous, or perhaps merely insane, would go anywhere near it. Yet here we are in 2020, the waters of volatility have calmed and both individual hobby traders and institutional investors are getting into crypto trading like never before.

With the growth of major players such as Ant Financial in Asia in 2019, TFG asked Accenture’s European Banking Lead, Cecile André Leruste, on her thoughts and predictions for trade and SCF in 2020, focusing on growth coming out of South Asia.

“Look before you leap”, is how the saying goes. In stock trading, the relevance of this principle is greatly amplified. Many investors, both big and small, are drawn to stock market trading because of the positive results that it promises to bring. More often than not, the returns are quite substantial, provided you know how to play the game.

We heard from BCG’s Sukand Ramachandran on the consequences of trade wars and Brexit for global trade, and what this could mean for 2020. Will there be a downturn or disruptive shock, or will innovation and new capital help trade in the next 12 months?