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.
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.
Open Account financing is going through a period of rapid change, thanks to digital innovation and competition. Recognised as a safe and flexible way for financing the real economy, we caught up with Erik Timmermans, founder of WOA, and John Brehcist, at their annual convention, to discuss the hottest topics in receivables 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 up with the President of the Bankers Association for Finance and Trade (BAFT). We talked about the balance of human capital and technology in the international transaction banking, about the amendments of the funded master risk participation agreement and how trade-based money laundering can be eradicated.
We interviewed Geoff Brady, Head of Global Trade & Supply Chain Finance (GTS) at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. We talked about the physical and financial aspects of the supply chain management, about the importance of Blockchain Consortia in the trade finance space and the BAML’s agenda for the rest of the year.
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.
TFG heard from Joel Schrevens Global Solutions Director of China Systems about the state of the trade and supply chain finance ecosystem. Established in 1983, China Systems is a leading trade services solutions vendor. The company is fully focused on providing an integrated front-end and back-office platform catering for internal and external deployment at a domestic, regional or global level.
Existing systems are woefully inefficient, siloed or still paper-based and many of them have not improved for decades. The Marco Polo Network is working with Financial Institutions, Corporates and Technology & Service Providers to remove the barriers preventing them from operating at their best.
TFG spoke to the author of ‘Digital Ecosystems within Trade Finance’, a BCG, SWIFT and ICC report on the state of networks and consortia, the key problem points within trade and trade finance, as well as the current barriers in terms of digitalisation both from a corporate and bank perspective. Deepesh spoke to Sukand Ramachandran at BCG about how global trade is changing and the role of digital ecosystems within this.
Singapore-based Finaxar, announces the partnership with Global eTrade Services (GeTs), a global trade platform company. Finaxar provides its unique Lending-as-a-Service to financial institutions, trade and e-commerce platforms using data-driven methods to provide the fast, tailored financing solutions for SMEs.
“Who trades what with whom?”. This is an inexcusable state of affairs in today’s world of big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, as Dr Rebecca Harding, CEO of Coriolis Technologies, explains.
Over the past 2-3 decades there have been many attempts to digitise parts of the trade and trade finance process, but it’s the complexity of trade that remains the challenge. Most successful attempts at digitisation have had to bite off a small piece of the problem and this has led to silos or what I call a ‘digital island’ phenomena.
In 2012, Asian Development Bank’s Trade Finance Program (TFP) commissioned a unique study, the first of its kind, to understand and quantify the unmet demand for trade finance, known as the global trade finance gap. Over the years, TFP has updated this study to quantify and inform policymakers and market participants about the main drivers for this persistent trade finance gap.
