Tradetech Hub

One of the difficulties related to international trade is the large volume of paper documents that make up much of the information flow between the different parties, including various documents such as invoices, bills of lading, certificates of origin, and customs declarations. 

As part of trade facilitation, the UK government introduced the Electronic Trade Documents Bill, which is currently undergoing legal stages before being fully enforced. It’s a great step forward, however, industries need more than that.

2022 was a year of seismic and rapid changes for international trade and trade finance. War in Europe, COVID-19, and inflation created unimaginable disruptions in the industry. This dynamic phase is creating opportunities and gives way for new entrants in the ecosystem.

I remember reading a quote which has stuck in my mind ever since – “Sharing among an entire ecosystem of innovative partners is a crucial step for modernisation.” 

The central theme at this year’s Sibos conference in Amsterdam, the blue-chip gathering of the world’s top executives in banking and finance organised by SWIFT, focuses on how to best embrace digital transformation while mitigating risk and elevating sustainability.

On April 12, 2022, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Economic Forum (WEF) formally launched their latest joint publication The Promise of TradeTech: Policy approaches to harness trade digitalization.

Twenty years ago Asia had a 12% share of the global factoring market. Today that share is 25%.

In this article, FCI’s Lin Hui looks at factoring’s two decades of steady growth in Asia, and where the industry goes from here…