Their answers may surprise you. They certainly surprised us.

Going into the project, we expected the doom and gloom surrounding tariffs, geopolitical uncertainty, and a growing disparity between those seeking finance and how much of it they can access – the notorious trade finance gap – to permeate participants’ perceptions of the industry.

Instead, as you will see, the most common answer was “collaboration”. Yes, there is volatility. But stakeholders across the trade ecosystem recognise this, and for everyone involved, a solution is required. No man is an island, as John Donne wrote, and in the globalised trade ecosystem, no physical island should be a metaphorical island either.

Cropping up in second place were “resilience” and “Africa”. Really, our answers were about diamonds in the roughs, opportunities in the chaos. Trade finance acts as a metal detector in bringing these opportunities to the surface.

Here is the full summary, an immortal reference of the hot topics at this year’s ITFA conference:

• “Resililence” – André Casterman, Chair of the FinTech Committee, ITFA
• “Collaboration” – Gwen Mwaba, Managing Director – Trade Finance and Correspondent Banking, African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank)
• “Fluidity of trade” – Neal Harm, Secretary General, FCI
• “Resilience” – Surath Sengupta, Head of Transaction Banking Products, Lloyds Banking Group
• “Collaboration” – Natasha Condon, Global Head of Trade Sales, JP Morgan Payments
• “Value of in-person meetings” – Alex Gray, Director – Trade and Transaction Banking, LIBF (The London Institute of Business and Finance)
• “Call to action on the trade finance gap” – Craig Weeks, Senior Vice President – Trade, BAFT (Bankers Association for Finance and Trade)
• “Opportunity in Africa” – John Omoti, Head of Supply Chain Finance, Bank of China
• “Uncertainty” – Alexia Boutin-Somnolet, Head of Political Risk and Structured Credit – Europe, Marsh
• “Cooperation” – Jean-Marie Charollais, Managing Director – Head of Trade Asset Distribution, Wells Fargo Bank NA
• “Shift happening with US tax” – Baptiste Audern, CRO, Komgo
• “Interest for Africa” – Nicolas Langlois, Managing Director, Global Head of Trade Distribution – Transaction Banking, Standard Chartered
• “Impact of trade on the global economy” – Patrik Zekkar, CEO, Enigio
• “TF COP and sustainability in Africa” – George Wilson, CEO, ARM Africa Trade Finance Fund
• “Collaboration” – Tal Weiser, CRO, Surecomp
• “South-south trade and investment” – Tedd George, Chief of Staff, ITFA
• “Collaboration” – Charlie Salmon, Vice President – Receivables and Supply Chain Finance Leader – UK & Ireland, Marsh
• “Pricing is thin” – Veronica Foldnes, Global Head, Commodity, Trade and Sovereign Credit, Swiss Re Corporate Solutions
• “Resilience” – Sean Edwards, Chairman, ITFA