NBAD boosts trade finance appetite

Over the past year, the National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) has increased its trade finance business through a willing risk appetite.
 
This comes after a tough 12 months where liquidity fell out of the market and many financial institutions were significantly reducing their desire for trade finance risk.

Jeff Fallon, head of trade finance for Europe at NBAD, explains to GTR: “The transactions we have completed in the past year have exceeded expectations. The NBAD group has shown a very strong commitment to supporting the trade finance business and has shown a willing risk appetite, enabling us to grow the business in a controlled but progressive manner in our three European offices in London, Paris and Geneva.

“Due to the requirements of our trade finance clients and our willingness to support them, we are expecting to expand even more over the next year by increasing the volume and variety of transactions, expanding our trade finance department and enhancing our information technology capability in this important field to enable us to target more of the major European corporates.”

NBAD has also worked hard on building and maintaining strong customer relationships, with NBAD’s London operations joining with the bank’s overseas units for transactions, as Fallon explains: “NBAD’s extensive global network allows the European trade finance team to work closely with the NBAD’s units in the UAE, Egypt, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Sudan, Libya, Jordan, Hong Kong and Washington DC. This means that the bank can often be involved in both ends of the transaction, providing stronger control and enhanced service. Therefore if a client concludes business in Egypt, for example, they will be working with NBAD in Europe and NBAD in Egypt rather than going through another bank. Many clients see this as a significant advantage by having NBAD handle the entire transaction.”