Trade finance marketplace LiquidX has expanded its Singapore office with three new hires as the company plans to roll out its new trade credit insurance platform in Asia next year.

Elaine Ho joined in June as director and head of legal for Asia Pacific, and in May, Mai Le and Lydia Chew both joined LiquidX’s Singapore team in vice-president roles.

Ho moves from global commodities supplier Bunge, Le joins from Standard Chartered and Chew moves from Trafigura.

“We are adding people with high capabilities to boost our presence in Asia. We have expanded as we’ve seen increased customer demand across the region,” head of Asia at LiquidX, Rohit Goyal tells GTR.

“Singapore is also a natural hub for fintech and business’ growth in the Asia Pacific region. When we consider Singapore’s fintech ecosystem and public policies – it is an obvious choice for us to establish our hub for the region here,” he adds.

Goyal previously worked across the fintech, private equity and asset management sectors in Singapore, before joining LiquidX last year.

“Now, we plan to continue to grow in Asia, as we have customers based across the region, including in Hong Kong/China, Southeast Asia, India and the Middle East,” he says.

Headquartered in New York, LiquidX handled US$2.7bn-worth of transactions in the second quarter of this year and since 2016 has processed US$21bn-worth of trade volumes.

 

Easy access trade credit insurance for Asia

The hiring spree follows LiquidX’s launch of a new digital marketplace for trade credit insurance in the US. The LiquidX Trade Credit Insurance Marketplace saw the company work with insurance broker Marsh and two underwriters, Euler Hermes and Atradius, to build the platform.

The digital marketplace enables banks, non-bank investors and corporate suppliers to directly access the trade credit underwriting market for insurance. Users can request quotes from multiple underwriters and digitally execute and process insurance policies.

“We launched the insurance platform in the US earlier this year, and we will be expanding it to Singapore in the first half of next year,” adds Goyal.

The solution modernises a process that is often arduous, as usually a financier or corporate would typically have to go through a broker to get a quote from the underwriting market.

LiquidX acts as the broker of record on transactions carried out on the platform, with Marsh as the co-broker. Marsh will perform advisory, policy administration and maintenance, and run eventual claims processes.

The LiquidX Trade Credit Insurance Marketplace also connects to LiquidX’s financing marketplace, making it easy for investors to buy insurance cover for any trade finance assets.

The platform initially offers non-payment coverage but will expand into other types of insurance, including political risk, contract frustration and structured credit products.