Alfa-Bank and Novolipetsk Steel Company (NLMK), in cooperation with Commerzbank, Germany, and Vesuvius GmbH, Germany, have launched a pilot project of cross-border payments via the Marco Polo international trade finance network. For Marco Polo, it is the first Russian-German import-export operations financing project.

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.

The Italian Banking market continues to face headwinds and pressures around new payment service directives (PSDII), challenges from the regulator, and changing customer needs. TFG caught up with the CEO of RegTech innovator CBI about their latest product CBI Globe, and how this is positioned to help Italian banks succeed and grow.

Your Monday morning coffee briefing from TFG. Here are some of the last week’s updates from the trade sector. 7th October 2019.

(Maldives, October 9th, 2019): The International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), has signed a major US$1.5 billion framework agreement with the Republic of Maldives. The five-year framework agreement, signed by… read more →

Following the financial crisis, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) recognised the need for a forward-looking approach to account for credit losses. Previously, the IAS 39 accounting standard for assessing provisions was based on an incurred loss model. This approach has been criticised as “too little, too late” as it was perceived as delaying the recognition of potential turbulences while favouring forbearance.

AGTB: New kid on the block. TFG heard from Daniel Gould, Deputy CEO of Anglo-Gulf Trade Bank, and its new digital offering for trade finance in the UAE and MENA region. Building a trade bank from scratch without relying on legacy technologies has enabled AGTB to reimagine trade finance, building a competitive product for the corporate banking space.

The Italian Banking market continues to face headwinds and pressures around new payment service directives (PSDII), challenges from the regulator, and changing customer needs. TFG caught up with the CEO of regtech innovator CBI about their latest product CBI Globe, and how this is positioned to help Italian banks succeed and grow.

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.

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.