GTR Magazine - November/December 2009

IFC Report: Maintaining life support for trade finance

 Georgina Baker runs the IFC’s trade finance initiatives, and is the architect of both the well-established global trade finance facilitation programme, and the newly launched global trade liquidity programme. Nick Lord meets up with her at the IMF meeting in Istanbul to discuss whether the initiatives are having the impact she intended.

ECAs: Stepping in or selling out?

ECAs’ essential mandate is to support a country’s exports in tough economic times. Shannon Manders investigates how effectively they are fulfilling their role in the current recessionary climate.

Roundtable: Future for private insurers

GTR assembled a group of leading brokers and insurers in London to discuss the impact of the crisis on the level of claims in the private trade credit and political risk market, and whether this has limited their capacity.

Roundtable participants

Chairman: Peter Flint, head of international arbitration, Barlow Lyde & Gilbert
Kit Brownlees, managing director, political, project and credit risks, AJ Gallagher
Charles Berry, chairman, BPL Global
Olivier David, head of special products, Atradius
Mark Cooper, managing director, TFC Brokerage
Claire Simpson, political risk underwriter, Hiscox
David Neckar, product development director, political and credit risks, Willis
Peter Sprent, deputy head, political risk and credit, Ace Global Markets
Paul Sanders, AVP, Zurich EMS in London
Nick Robson, head of credit and political risk, JLT Solutions
Neil Ross, senior vice-president trade credit, AIG (Chartis)
Andy Lennard, director and founder, Texel Finance
Bernard de Haldevang, head of financial and political risks, Aspen Insurance UK

New scheme to boost confidence in trade finance

Standard Chartered and OFID have partnered up to create additional capacity in the trade finance markets. Their US$500mn risk-sharing programme has the potential to generate incremental trade of more than US$2bn a year. Rebecca Spong reports.

Celtic Tiger looks to exports

The Irish economy – previously dubbed the Celtic Tiger in reference to its years of economic boom – has been reduced to a whimpering kitten, forced to lick its wounds. But will the nation’s exports be the key to driving economic recovery, asks Shannon Manders.
 

Reinsurers await renewal

Credit and political risk underwriters are bracing themselves for the renewal of their reinsurance treaties, writes Kevin Godier.
 

SCF: Local banks must tackle integration

Local banks in emerging markets need to consider the integration of their treasury and trade services, not only to better manage their liquidity, but also to successfully compete against global banks, writes Liz Salecka.

Sibos highlights liquidity needs

Sibos 2009 in Hong Kong probably lacked the drama of last year’s conference, hosted as the world’s financial system went into meltdown. However, the same topics of conversation persisted this year, with banks and corporates keen to find a way to plug the liquidity gap in trade finance. Liz Salecka reports.

Swift Report: Moving up the chain of command

Swift has appointed André Casterman, formerly head of Swift France as the new head of trade and supply chain, replacing Jackie Keogh, who had successfully developed the supply chain solutions team over the past few years. Casterman speaks to Helen Sanders.

GTR Asia: Fortuitous times ahead for SCF

This edition’s GTR Asia Market View comes from Roger Packham, regional trade finance head, global transaction banking, Asia Pacific, Deutsche Bank.
Packham is based in Singapore and is responsible for building revenue momentum for Deutsche Bank’s trade franchise in the region as well as developing new trade programmes. Packham has previously worked at Citigroup, where he spent eight years, most recently holding the position of regional trade services product manager, Asia Pacific, global transaction services. He has also worked in senior positions at Westpac and HSBC.

GTR Asia: India-Europe trade heats up

Although trade volumes between Europe and India have been dented by a fall in demand, there are signs of a revival in the next 12 months. GTR asks banks present in both Europe and India to discuss how best they can capitalise on these recovering trade flows.

Discussion participants:
M Vasudevan, head of transaction banking, corporate banking, ICICI Bank UK
Venkatesan Thiagarajan, head of trade – emerging markets, Barclays
Raghu Bagalwadi, head of trade finance, IDBI Bank
Pravin Advani, head of supply chain and trade finance Asia Pacific, global transaction services, RBS
 

GTR Asia: Risky business in Indonesia?

Although the re-election of president Yudhoyono cut Indonesian risk and boosted confidence, support from export credit agencies and multilaterals is still needed to secure long-term infrastructure financing. Katherine Demopoulos reports.

GTR MENA: Trade under examination

This edition’s Market View is provided by Maninder Bhandari, managing director, Middle East & Africa, treasury services, BNY Mellon. Talking to GTR from Dubai, he outlines key market trends.

GTR MENA: Leading power in Lebanon trade

Bank Audi stands at the forefront of efforts by Lebanese banks to expand their trade finance operations – booking more than US$2.4bn in trade transactions in 2008. Nicholas Noe speaks to Abdul Salam Chebaro, head of trade finance at the bank.

Russia: Exorcising spectre of bad debts

Confidence in Russian banks is slowly being restored. The market for trade finance stands on the edge of recovery, if the real economy starts to pick up and fears over the rising level of bad loans are quelled. Rebecca Spong reports.

Russia: Putting a trade twist on an investment bank

With Standard Bank’s stake in Troika Dialog formally approved in September, the Russian investment house is about to venture into new markets and product lines, including trade finance. Rebecca Spong met with Ruben Vardanian, chairman and CEO of Troika Dialog, to find out more.

Turkey turns away

Turkey is increasingly trading with other regions of the world, mainly Asia, Middle East and Africa, due to a dearth of western demand. But the highly profitable and liquid banking sector is ready to finance it. Nick Lord reports.

Cocobod sweetens a stale market

The West African trade finance market has been hit by the global economic slowdown, and by some local controversies, but a few stand-out deals have given cheer to bankers, reports Julian Evans.