This article is co-authored by Marcus Lankford and Mark Abrams. In December 2021, Bloomberg reported that several banks including BNP Paribas SA, Societe Generale SA, and ABN Amro have restricted financing commodity transactions following defaults linked to the pandemic and multiple frauds.
Your Monday morning coffee briefing from TFG: World’s first: SME lending returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2021, but regions still playing catch-up to London, says latest British Business Bank report.
In a panel moderated by Christine McWilliams at TXF’s Global Commodity Finance Virtual 2021, which TFG partnered with, this impact was discussed at great depth, looking at how to navigate commodity trade finance in a post-COVID world.
With electronic document rules in place, it is now the role of key players and regulators to go ahead and enable trade finance to take advantage of digital innovation.
TFG heard from BACB’s Jeff Fallon, arguing that deeper Africa-Europe integration will be challenging in the new environment – here’s why.