Post on 03-Feb-2022
TRADE FINANCE
2013 Q1 REVIEW
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Macro news …………………………………… 3
Corporate news ……………………………. 13
Commodities …………………….………….. 15
Asia ………………. …………………………. 19
People………………………..……………….. 22
Contents
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Trans-Pacific Partnership
More than 20 trade ministers gathered in Davos in January 2013 during the World
Economic Forum to prepare agendas and assess the optimum outcomes of the
World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) ministerial meeting scheduled in Bali,
Indonesia next December.
Their task was to figure out what, if anything could be salvaged from the fledgling
Doha Development Round1 – perhaps a trade facilitation agreement, and possibly
one on agriculture and food security. It is too early to know what will be tackled in
several months and what can be realistically expected from the WTO. For now,
the trade policy world is primarily focused on prospects for a deal this year by the
11 countries negotiating in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
Since passage of bilateral free agreements with South Korea, Panama and
Colombia in 2011, originally negotiated by the Bush administration, the TPP has
been the single most important focus of the Obama administration’s trade agenda.
That agenda may soon be joined by the pending formal launch of a US-European
Union free trade agreement (FTA).
The regional trade agreement framework may be a more feasible way to advance
trade rules and market liberalisation undertakings than the more traditional
multilateral fora of the WTO and its predecessor, the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
Origin of TPP
The TPP was originally convened by Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore
as a path to trade liberalisation in the Asia-Pacific region and came into force in
2006. In 2008, President Bush informed congress of his intention to commit the
US to formal negotiations in the TPP and with new participants, Australia, Peru
and Vietnam. In 2009, President Obama announced the US’ intention to join the
Macro News
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talks “with the goal of shaping a regional agreement that will have broad-based
membership and the high standards worthy of a 21st-century trade agreement”.
This statement, made in Tokyo during the APEC summit, was significant because:
It firmly established the US commitment to pursue comprehensive trade
liberalisation in all goods and services and for new trade rules that went beyond
those established under the WTO. This commitment covered any number of
developed, middle-income and emerging economy countries.
It t confirmed the US commitment, “as an Asia-Pacific nation”, to be a driver in
economic “discussions that shape the future of this region”. This complements the
administration’s now well-known policy of “rebalancing” or “pivoting” toward Asia –
with the expansion of economic and security linkages within Asia-Pacific as an
immediate priority.
TPP components
Trade from TPP countries account for more than 40% of worldwide trade and for
the US and are:
- the third largest goods export market at more than US$1.25trn; and
- the fourth largest services export market – more than US$155bn
according to 2011 figures.
According to data provided by the US International Trade Commission, six of the
11 TPP countries account for almost 95% of total US-TPP trade in goods. These
figures suggest that the real value for the US in terms of new market access
potential lies with middle-income countries, such as Malaysia, and emerging
economies, such as Vietnam, both of which have rapidly growing economies and
populations.
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While that does provide good prospects for US exporters, critics maintain the
long-term value prospect for the US is in achieving a TPP foundation agreement
that other, bigger economies can adopt down the road – namely the likes of
Japan, which has expressed interest despite considerable political hurdles for
certain sensitive sectors, such as agriculture. Other possible countries for
consideration in the not too distant future remain Thailand, which has expressed a
formal request to join in 2013 and possibly the Philippines, which is interested but
not quite ready internally to make a formal decision. South Korea is also an
obvious future TPP participant, now that it has implemented the US-Korea FTA,
has an FTA with Peru and is negotiating an agreement with Canada.
The 21st-century focus of the TPP framework is also unique in that it seeks to
address emerging trade issues, in addition to the traditional market access
measures found in most agreements negotiated to date. The Office of the US
Trade Representative describes the proposed agreement to include the following:
Core issues traditionally included in trade agreements, including industrial goods,
agriculture, and textiles as well as rules on intellectual property, technical barriers
to trade, labour, and environment.
Cross-cutting issues not previously in trade agreements, such as making the
regulatory systems of TPP countries more compatible so US companies can
operate more seamlessly in TPP markets. This all helps small- and medium-sized
enterprises participate more actively in international trade and boosts job creation.
New emerging trade issues, such as addressing trade and investment in
innovative products and services, including digital technologies, and ensuring
state-owned enterprises compete fairly with private companies and do not distort
competition in ways that put US companies and workers at a disadvantage.
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The agreement framework
By any measure, even compared to the scope of issue areas in the WTO’s Doha
Development Round, the TPP negotiating agenda represents an enormous
undertaking by the parties. The negotiating template consists of 26 chapters. The
core of the agreement, as with most comprehensive FTAs has to do with market
access in goods, services and agriculture, specifically the elimination or agreed
phase-out of tariff lines across commodities.
Tariff schedules from existing FTAs
The US is pushing for the TPP to adopt the tariff schedules contained in its
existing FTAs with Australia, Chile, Peru, Singapore and under the NAFTA5, in
which specific carve outs, phased-in tariff reductions and rules of origin for certain
sensitive sectors are contained. However, the non-US FTA countries, Brunei,
Malaysia, New Zealand and Vietnam, have been pushing for a common market
access schedule, whereby you avoid the overlapping, different commitments for
sectors in each of the individual bilateral FTAs.
Market access for goods and services
The market access for goods section covers government procurement,
pharmaceuticals, services (both cross-border and financial), telecommunications
and technical barriers to trade. While negotiators have yet to address many of the
core market access decisions, it is expected they will seek to use existing
commitments as a floor and aim to harmonise tariff elimination for all goods. Other
key issues in the goods discussion involve customs issues, export and import
licensing regulations and trade facilitation. As a goliath in services export trade,
the US will seek considerably greater access gains than is currently provided for
in General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) under the WTO. As within its
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FTA’s with TPP partners, the US is looking for increased market access in
banking, legal and insurance services as well as in e-commerce, express delivery
and telecoms.
Rules of origin and intellectual property
The second major negotiating initiative of the TPP is about rules. These chapters
cover rules of origin, which is of particular interest to textile and apparel exporting
countries, such as Vietnam and Malaysia, and which will be of interest to and may
impact trade with non-TPP countries, such as China. Intellectual property rights
IPR), a critical pillar of US bilateral trade agreements, also occupies a prominent
role in the TPP. These chapters will drill down into disciplines surrounding
enforcement on trademark and copyright violations and the internet,
pharmaceutical-related intellectual property rights (IPR) and a US proposal called
Trade Enhancing Access to Medicines (TEAM) to establish stronger patent term
extensions and data exclusivity. Other key chapters concern rules on foreign
investment, competition policy, labour rights, the environment and trade
remedies.
Competitiveness and supply chains
The third core section of the negotiation covers areas as novel and revolutionary
as its title suggests: ‘Horizontal and cross-cutting issues’. These issues aim to go
after activities and disciplines not addressed in past FTAs. One of the most
prominent and challenging negotiations attempt to deal with competitiveness and
supply chains, specifically how to treat intermediate goods – the inputs that go
into components for finished products – as they cross multiple borders through the
supply chain. Businesses will want to watch how negotiators address the flow of
goods through TPP and countries and where components that may originate in
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non-TPP countries will be treated. An example is apparel production that may
originate in Vietnam or Malaysia, but which includes important production inputs
from China. Hence, the rules of origin talks will be critical to the outcome of how to
balance competitiveness and production efficiencies for TPP members and those
supply chains with non-beneficiary TPP countries.
Regulatory coherence
Another key cross-cutting issue is regulatory coherence, which seeks to address
how countries can better understand each other’s internal regulations to doing
business and coming up with mechanisms to provide more transparency for rule-
making, standards, law and policy implementation.
The challenges for firms doing business in some foreign markets comprises a
host of growing and increasingly complicated regulations, non-tariff barriers, often
redundant testing and certification procedures, and a basic lack of transparency.
Negotiators are exploring how TPP countries can establish domestic agencies
with the mission of providing regulatory coherence for TPP beneficiary countries
and their firms.
Building block for global trade
From the outset, joining the TPP and acting as its de facto leader made perfect
sense for the US considering its already-existing bilateral FTAs with four of the
original participants: Australia, Chile, Peru and Singapore. Malaysia joined in 2010
and NAFTA partners, Canada and Mexico formally joined as the tenth and
eleventh members last December as part of the fifteenth round of negotiations.
Japan and Thailand are in consultations with TPP countries about their possible
entrance. As such, the US realised early on that one of the more attractive
features of the TPP was its framework design to expand membership.
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Four of the original TPP members make up the ten members Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and all 11 of the TPP are members of the 21-
member Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) forum. This acts as a
consensus-based organisation to facilitate trade and investment commitments,
but does not negotiate specific agreements between members. The TPP
embodies what is a central objective of APEC since the 2010 summit meeting –
the eventual creation of the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP). In
addition, ASEAN, which has negotiated a free trade area among its members,
specifically ASEAN+3 (ASEAN, China, Japan and South Korea) and another
regional group endeavour, ASEAN+6 (ASEAN+3, Australia, India and New
Zealand), called the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)
represent tremendous prospects for greater global trade liberalisation.
Obstacles and Need for a Trade Finance Index
Despite favourable conditions, opportunities for investor-driven trade finance are
materialising at a very slow pace. The report suggests that the reason is because
the industry has yet to tackle some significant barriers that need to be overcome
before trade finance can emerge as a viable asset class for investors, including a
lack of easily accessible data on pricing and other transaction information, the
lack of standardised documentation on transactions, and a settlement process
that one market participant calls “fiendishly difficult.”
The report adds that the easiest way to overcome the hurdle of trade finance’s
“invisibility” to financial investors would be to get the 20 largest trade finance
banks to commit to posting at least some data for all transactions on Bloomberg.
Although banks will likely resist disclosing certain proprietary aspects of deal
structures, many observers believe that the public disclosure of even rudimentary
deal details would begin to provide a necessary level of transparency and data for
investors.
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Among the additional steps that industry participants and others believe would
promote the development of trade finance as a viable institutional asset class
would be the creation of a trade finance index - even one based on the current
handful of deals that trade regularly - and the assembly of a trade finance primer
that established some standard terminology and definitions for the business.
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New Basel III bank capital requirements are poised to increase pricing on trade
finance, an essential component of international trade. A new report from
Greenwich Associates concludes that such an effect could accelerate the
development of alternative sources of credit – including trade finance funded by
non-bank investors.
In the new report entitled, Global Trade Finance: Basel III Capital Rules Open
Doors For Alternative Sources Of Funding, Greenwich Associates documents
mounting concerns among companies around the world about the possible impact
of Basel III. An increase in trade finance costs would have a particularly large and
negative impact in Asia, where companies’ reliance on trade finance as a critical
source of funding is higher than in developed markets. Already, European banks
that have been major suppliers of trade finance in Asia are pulling back, largely as
a result of the new capital rules. Although local Asian banks and Japanese banks
are stepping in to fill that void, conditions appear to be in place for the emergence
of alternative sources.
One of those sources will likely be trade finance funded by non-bank investors,
with participation facilitated via institutional funds or structured products. “In the
current era of historically low interest rates, investors hungry for sources of
attractive returns could be enticed by the incremental yield, low volatility, low
duration and diversification benefits of trade finance,” says Greenwich Associates
consultant Markus Ohlig.
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Banks and investment management firms have already successfully come to
market with a limited number of trade finance vehicles for investors, including
structured trade finance vehicles designed to provide the banks with capital relief
and investors with attractive returns. Another source of trade finance may be the
burgeoning class of institutional trade finance funds.
Obstacles and Solutions
Despite favorable conditions, opportunities for investor-driven trade finance are
materializing at a very slow pace. The reason: The industry has yet to tackle some
significant barriers that need to be overcome before trade finance can emerge as
a viable asset class for investors, including a lack of easily accessible data on
pricing and other transaction information, the lack of standardized documentation
on transactions, and a settlement process that one market participant calls
“fiendishly difficult.”
The easiest way to overcome the hurdle of trade finance’s “invisibility” to financial
investors: Get the 20 largest trade finance banks to commit to posting at least
some data for all transactions on Bloomberg. Although banks will likely resist
disclosing certain proprietary aspects of deal structures, many observers believe
that the public disclosure of even rudimentary deal details would begin to provide
a necessary level of transparency and data for investors.
Among the additional steps that industry participants and others believe would
promote the development of trade finance as a viable institutional asset class
would be the creation of a trade finance index – even one based on the current
handful of deals that trade regularly – and the assembly of a trade finance primer
that established some standard terminology and definitions for the business.
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Only A Matter of Time
Given the high levels of demand for trade finance among companies around the
world, the new capital pressures on banks and the potential benefits to investors,
it is certain that this market will continue to develop at a steady, albeit slow, pace.
“Historically, when demand for a product exists, the industry has shown the ability
to overcome logistical obstacles and make it happen,” says Greenwich Associates
consultant Dr. Tobias Miarka.
Despite some real obstacles to growth, Greenwich Associates believes it is only a
matter of time before trade finance becomes a viable asset class for investors,
and non-bank investor capital becomes an important source of funding for trade
finance around the world. With Basel III capital rules providing banks with an
incentive to make investments in the development of new vehicles and investors
eager for yield opportunities, the stage is set for an eventual boom in non-bank
funded trade finance.
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The Basel III balance-sheet friendly originate to distribute model, was in action
recently when Spanish telecoms operator group Telefonica signed a jumbo export
credit facility (ECA) for US$1bn with a syndicate of four trade banks on 5 March
2012.
Led by Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking (SG CIB) which acted
as agent and mandated lead arranger (MLA), the other banks in this syndicate
were Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd, BNP Paribas and Santander.
Swedish ECA EKN supported the facility and the Swedish Export credit
Corporation (SEK) assumed 100% of the funding.
The ten-year door-to-door tenor (i.e. circa five year average life) gives the Spanish
corporate the facility to finance deliveries of network equipment and
commissioning services from Swedish infrastructure vendor Ericsson to
Telefonica subsidiaries, situated in various countries.
SocGen’s export finance group managing director Xavier-Marie Robert explained
that the syndicate had been designing the structure of the deal for around six
months before it was announced. The banks guarantee 5% of the risk and, upon
execution of the loan agreement, the rights and obligations were transferred to
SEK. “For Basel III purposes, this gets it off our balance sheet,” said Robert.
He also commented on how the Swedish government is very supportive of
Ericsson – which does a lot of ECA financing as part of its export strategy – and
the combination of the EKN guarantee and the SEK funding makes it ‘very
attractive’ to structure this sort of deal.
The Swedish ECA has, according to a Reuters report at the time the deal broke,
tended to support big deals that involve exports and provide a boost to local
manufacturing.
Corporate news
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The Spanish operator has announced deals with Ericsson to roll out super fast
fourth generation (4G) networks in Brazil, Chile and the UK.
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JBIC Venezuelan rail carriages
The Japan Bank for International Co-operation (JBIC) signed a buyer’s credit
export loan agreement for ¥10.2bn (US$1.17bn) with the government of the
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
This is to finance the Venezuelan government’s purchase of Japanese railway
carriages for its state railway, Instituto de Ferrocarriles del Estado (IFE), built by
Japanese corporates for the Tokyo-based Marubeni Corporation (Marubeni). The
loan is co-financed with Mizuho Corporate Bank, bringing the overall co-financing
total to ¥17bn (US$1.83bn).
The carriages are required for a 45km railway operation between Caracas, the
capital city, and Tuy Medio, a neighbouring city. This loan follows earlier buyer’s
credit loans, when an international consortium, including Marubeni, was awarded
a contract by IFE for railway-related equipment, including railway cars, rail tracks,
and signal and communications equipment in 1992.
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After a shaky start to Rosneft seeking a US$10bn PXF facility, the world’s largest
oil producer has closed deal with oil traders Glencore and Vitol.
Long-term crude supply contracts were signed with the two leading commodity
traders on 4 March 2014 comprising a series of supply transactions, the price of
which is set at Rosneft tenders.
The agreement with Glencore envisages supply volumes of up to 46.9 million
tonnes of crude, while the contract with Vitol envisages volumes of up to 20.1
million tonnes.
Before these supplies take place, Rosneft will receive a prepayment from the
traders of up to US$10bn for “corporate-wide and investment purposes.”
However, analysts, according the Financial Times (8 March 2013), have observed
the financing agreement “caps a frenetic half-year of fundraising by Rosneft to
fund the TNK-BP acquisition,” and that it “was clearly part of the US$45bn in cash
needed to complete Rosneft’s US$55bn acquisition of the oil company TNK-BP
agreed in October.”
Commenting on the agreements Igor Sechin, Rosneft president and chairman of
the management board said: “We are happy to start the implementation of the
long-term contracts after having agreed heads of terms late last year. A number of
aspects constitute a landmark approach: on the one hand, we guarantee
predictable supply volumes to our customers based on tender pricing, on the
other – we receive prepayment that can be used for our strategic goals. The
contracts are beneficial for all the parties: they support further development of
Rosneft resource base, guarantee stable supplies to Glencore and Vitol, ensure
energy security for end consumers and in the long term will allow the optimization
of transportation and logistics chains of crude and petroleum products sales.
Commodities
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I would like to note that the opportunity for other partners joining these contracts is
open.”
Ivan Glasenberg, CEO, Glencore, said: “We are pleased to begin this new
agreement with Rosneft, which increases our access to one of the world’s most
important oil markets.”
Ian Taylor, president and CEO of the Vitol Group of companies, said: “We are
pleased to have concluded an important long-term contract with Rosneft, one of
our industry’s leading and most influential global companies.”
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Bangladesh - ITFC supports US$2bn finance for Bangladesh crude oil imports
As a member of the Islamic Development Bank Group, The International Islamic
Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) has signed a US$2bn annual financing plan
with The People’s Republic of Bangladesh (represented by the Ministry of Energy
and Mineral Resources) and Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), for the
import of crude oil and refined petroleum products during the year 2013.
The annual financing plan was signed during a ceremony that took place in
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia between Eng. Hani Salem Sonbol, acting CEO of ITFC and
Mr. Mohammad Mejbahuddin, secretary, Energy and Mineral Resources Division.
The amount of financing was agreed upon during a high level policy dialogue visit
held between 13 and 14 January, 2013 in Jeddah at the ITFC headquarters, with
the aim of meeting the Bangladeshi energy requirements for the year 2013. This
financing is in line with the ITFC's mandate to support member countries' strategic
sectors and to improve their trading capacity, allowing Bangladesh to fulfill its
requirements in financing vital imports of crude oil and refined petroleum products.
Commenting on the signing, Sonbol said that it is the ITFC's mandate to support
member countries' strategic sectors and to improve their trading capacity.
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By financing the energy sector, this agreement will have a major impact in
achieving the country’s socio-economic development.”
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Jean Francios Lambert – Bloomberg Business Week
Commodity trade continues to attract sufficient financing amid instability in the
Middle East and reduced lending by some European banks, said Jean-Francois
Lambert, HSBC Bank Plc’s global head of commodity and structured trade
finance.
“The world is in a complicated situation, but what needs to be financed, is
financed,” Lambert said in an interview in Geneva yesterday. “There is sufficient
liquidity in the market to finance commodities.”
Lambert said the market for commodity-trade finance has become “more normal,”
and he wasn’t aware of any major defaults. Banks in countries that use the euro
reduced their activity “a little” and haven’t pulled out of commodity finance,
according to Lambert.
“The banks of the euro zone during the crisis had less access to dollars,” Lambert
said. “There was a squeeze. They’re still there. They haven’t withdrawn.”
Lambert said HSBC continues to do business in Egypt, where a drop in the
country’s currency has made imports more expensive. Wheat purchases by
Egypt, the world’s largest buyer of the grain, have slowed, and the country had
enough wheat for 109 days of consumption, the government reported March 13,
down from 123 days reported on Feb. 27.
In Egypt, “wheat is still arriving and it’s still being paid,” Lambert said. “The
strategic imports continue to be purchased and are honored.”
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The country’s main sources of foreign currency have been tourism, the Suez
Canal, strategic exports and the U.S., according to the HSBC executive, who was
a moderator at a commodity-industry conference organized by the United Nations
Conference on Trade and Development.
“There is less tourism, there is less Suez, fewer strategic exports, what remains is
the U.S.,” he said. “It’s a country essential to global stability. We have a long-
standing presence there and that’s why we remain active there.”
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Asia misses out on huge trade finance figures
ISLAMABAD: Companies operating in developing Asia lost out on nearly $425
billion in trade finance in 2011 alone, according to a new survey by the Asian
Development Bank (ADB).
“Dramatic shortfalls in meeting financing needs of importing and exporting
companies are exacting a huge toll on job creation and economic growth in the
region,” said Steven Beck, head of Trade Finance at ADB.
“These trade finance gaps need to be addressed to give developing Asia a boost
to create jobs and alleviate poverty,” Beck said, adding trade finance is lending
and guaranteeing that supports import and export transactions and is critical to
international trade.
In the survey, conducted in the fourth quarter of 2012, 138 companies said that a
five percent increase in trade finance support would result in an increase of
production levels by two percent, and staffing by another two percent,
underscoring the strong links between trade finance, economic growth, and job
creation.
According to the 106 banks surveyed, almost $2.1 trillion worth of trade finance
proposals were received in Asia, but $425 billion in trade finance requests were
not approved.
Reasons cited by the surveyed banks include the poor payment records of their
correspondent banks, low country ratings in developing countries, and weak
banking systems. At the global level, $1.6 trillion out of the $4.6 trillion proposed
trade finance was not met.
ADB’s trade finance program (TFP) fills market gaps for trade finance by providing
guarantees and loans to banks to support trade.
Asia
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About US$1.6tn out of the US$4.6tn global trade finance demand was not met in
2011, an Asian Development Bank (ADB) survey reveals.
Of the US$1.6tn gap, nearly US$425bn was on trade finance transactions in
developing Asia, where total demand reached US$2.6tn.
The 106 banks surveyed mentioned that reasons for rejecting trade finance
proposals could include the poor payment records of their correspondent banks,
low country ratings in developing countries, and weak banking systems. They also
indicated that if fully implemented, Basel III could reduce bank support further, by
an average of 13%.
Steven Beck, head of trade finance at the ADB, tells GTR: “The survey was
conducted at the end of 2012, just prior to the Basel committee loosening liquidity
requirements for banks, which I suspect will help them in general support more
economic growth.
“But the main concern in the trade finance community has always been that if
there isn’t enough of a distinction between trade finance and other forms of
finance, then there may be a natural inclination for banks to move away from low-
margin trade finance transactions and into higher-margin higher-risk type
transactions.”
He hopes that initiatives by the ADB and the International Chamber of Commerce
(ICC) – such as the trade finance register – will help educate banks, but also
regulators, on the asset class that is trade finance.
“The initial impetus for us in creating the trade finance register was to substantiate
our argument to Basel to treat trade finance as a unique asset class, and that
continues.”
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In the survey, 138 companies said a 5% increase in trade finance support would
result in an increase of production levels by 2%, and staffing by another 2%,
highlighting the strong links between trade finance, economic growth, and job
creation.
“This survey is the first ever attempt at quantifying gaps and linking those gaps to
growth and jobs. We really didn’t know what to expect in terms of the results. We
created the trade finance programme because we knew there were gaps, and we
focused on the most challenging markets. In 2012 we did US$4bn in turnover
through over 2,032 transactions, so we’ve always known that there were gaps, but
had no idea to what extent. In that context this has been a very interesting
exercise for us,” says Beck.
In order to fill that gap and make development banks’ trade finance programmes
redundant, he recommends an industry-wide effort to produce broader and more
statistically significant data to disseminate knowledge and encourage private
sector players to get involved in transactions.
The ICC will be releasing the third trade finance register report at its next meeting
in Lisbon on April 15-18.
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Hochberg nominated to stay at US Ex-Im
US President Barack Obama has announced his intent to nominate Fred
Hochberg to stay on as Chairman and President of the Export-Import Bank of the
United States (US Ex-Im).
Under his leadership in FY 2012, Ex-Im Bank for the fourth-straight year set
export finance records in a number of key areas. Overall financing for the first time
exceeded $35.7 billion and supported $50 billion in exports and approximately
255,000 export-related American jobs at more than 3,400 U.S. companies. Small
business financing rose over 70 percent from $3.3 billion in FY 2008 to $6.1 billion
in FY 2012. There was an increase of 16.5 percent in authorizations for minority-
and woman-owned businesses.
Hochberg’s previous government experience includes time as Deputy
Administrator, then as Acting Administrator, of the Small Business Administration
from 1998 to 2001 during the Clinton presidency. He is also former President of
the Villian Vernon Corporation, a mail order service founded by his mother, which
he grew into a publicly traded corporation.
Hochberg’s name had been connected with vacant cabinet positions, including
Secretary of Commerce and US Trade Representative…
During Hochberg's tenure, the Bank has increased its focus on customers, both
foreign buyers and U.S. exporters. It is seeking new markets for U.S. goods and
services in emerging economies with growing infrastructure needs, including
Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Turkey, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Nigeria and South
Africa. Hochberg has also worked to expand the global footprint of key domestic
industries in which U.S. exporters have a comparative advantage. These include
renewable energy, construction and farm machinery, medical technology,
People
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agriculture, and avionics. In addition, he has streamlined processes, cut
transaction times and introduced innovative new financial products.
Lloyds builds out UK Trade Team
Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking has strengthened their specialist Trade Finance
team in the South East of England with the appointment of David Weatherhead.
Weatherhead was appointed as Regional Trade Director for London and the
South East, with particular focus on medium-sized businesses and corporate with
turn-over’s of up to £500 million.
Weatherhead has more than 24 years experience in banking, 14 of which were at
RBS, working in international trade for SME’s to large corporates.
BNP Paribas names Global Head of Export Finance
Amongst the global reorganization of the BNP, sees the hire of Yasser Henda, as
the new Global Head of Export Finance for the French power house.
Henda has been with the institution for over 14 years where he has acted as
Deputy Global Head, Export Finance and before that also Head of Export
Finance, Middle East / Africa. Henda takes over from Olivier Paul, who is now the
COO of Corporate Banking Europe. Under the reorganization of the bank much
more emphasis is now being placed on regionalization. Part of this structure sees
the establishment of the bank corporate banks division on a regional basis.
Paul will now report into the newly appointed Global Head of Corporate Banking
Europe, Dominique Remy. However the reorganization doesn’t change the rest of
the set up of the export finance department. Henda reports directly to Christophe
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Rousseau, Head of Specialized Finance Europe, which is part of CBE. Rousseau,
in turn, reports directly to Remy.
Paul will also remain as the chairman of the export finance committee of French
bankers for the next year.
Societe Generale appoints Global Head of Export Finance
SGCIB has appointed Frederic Surdon as its new Global Head of Export Finance.
Surdon was previously COO for the banks global finance division, where he
worked since 2008. Based out of Paris, he started the role at the beginning of
March.
Surdon takes over from Denis Stas de Richelle, who has helmed the highly
successful business line 2007. De Richelle now moves into the, newly created
role, of Global Head of Infrastructure and Asset-based Finance.
Both Surdon and De Richelle report to Matthew Vickerstaff (global head of the
structured finance department in the global finance division).
Deutsche Appoints new Head of Structured Trade Export Finance Asia
After Paul Gardner holding this position since 2010 in the banks Singapore office.
Deutsche Bank has now appointed Evert-Jan Zondag . He is based in Hong Kong
and has been with Deutsche since April 2010, when he joined from the Project
Export Group in RBS/ABN AMRO. Zondag reports to Kaushik Shaparia, the MD
who acts as Regional Head of Trade Finance and Cash Management, Corporates
- Asia Pacific.
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New Export Finance Head at JPM
Clarine Sternfert has been appointed Head of Non-Aviation Export Finance in
EMEA at JP Morgan. Sternfert joins from Citi she was most recently Head of the
bank’s African trade finance business. Based in London she will be based in
London and will report to Andreas Mehl, Head of EMEA Export Finance.
In her own words (taken from an E-Financial interview) Clarines role entails:
“I will be heading origination for export credit agency financing on the non-aviation
side for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. I will be working on long-term
financing projects that have a large capital expenditure, anything from $50m to
$5bn across a number of sectors, including telecoms, oil and gas and cement
projects. These projects could be public sector or private corporate initiatives.”
Standard Chartered’s senior Structured Commodity Finance hire
Standard Chartered appointed a new Global Head of Commodity Structured
Finance. Michael Jakubik is the man charged with controlling the banks SCF
business based out of Asia, who will report directly to Arun Murthy (Global Head
of Commodities).
Jakubik joins the bank StanChart from Standard Bank in London, where he was
Head of Commodity Structured Solutions.
Barclays expands trade and working capital team
Based out of London, Payman Jassim appointed as a Trade and Working Capital
Director, brings wealth of experience and knowledge to the bank. Jassim joins the
bank from JPM where he was a Structured Trade Advisor. He has also worked as
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a trade finance lawyer for RBS, SNR Denton and White & Case. Within these
roles he has experience developing and executing a number of structured trade
finance products across a number of jurisdictions and industries.
We have seen a lot of interest throughout the trade finance sector for experienced
trade finance lawyers. Clearly they bring a different view point to the business
along with in depth knowledge of deal intricacies.
Matrixes names Commodities Head
Dominique Fraise has been appointed Head of Global Energy and Commodities
at Matrixes, where he will report to Pierre Debary, Head of Structured and Asset
Finance.
Fraise, who holds a masters degree in international trade law from University
Paris, started his career at Banquet Françoise did Commerce Exterieur in 1989,
where he was an account officer in the commercial banking department in
Bordeaux. He later became the head of South-East Asia at the international
department, before being appointed Head of Commodities, South America at
Natixis (San Paulo) in 1997. Since 2007, he has held the position of Deputy Head
of Global Energy and Commodities at the French bank.
New Chief SCF at JP Morgan
Michael McDonough is the man who will steer JPM’s Supply Chain Finance (SCF)
at the American bank. Reporting directly to Danni Cotti McDonough, based out of
NYC, leads the global function working with multinational corporates around the
world. Working with reams across the JPM network, the SCF business structures
and puts in place funded solutions for working capital optimization and risk
mitigation.
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McDonough was previously Global Product Director for the SCF business. He had
worked in Global SCF positions at RBS and ABN AMRO in London and
Amsterdam.
Euler Hermes appoints CEO
Ronald van het Hof has been appointed CEO, World Agency at Euler Hermes.
World Agency is a team within Hermes that provides trade related credit
insurance to clients with turnovers above €500 mn.
Since 2007 van het Hof has served as chief executive officer of Allianz Nederland
Group, with responsibility for non-life and life insurance activities and EUR 5.6
billion in assets under management. In parallel, he was a member of the
supervisory board of Mondial Assistance Europe from 2008 -2010, and chairman
of the supervisory board of several Allianz insurance entities in The Netherlands.
Prior to that he was a member of the management boards of several subsidiaries
of Cologne-based Gothaer Insurance Group.
Van het Hof brings to Euler Hermes more than 20 years experience in the
insurance sector, including multiple management and supervisory board positions
and responsibilities for distribution, marketing, restructuring and sales activities.
Jayant Rikhye appointed as head of international Asia Pacific at Hong Kong
and Shanghai Banking Corporation
With effect from 18 March, Rikhye replaces Guy Harvey-Samuel, who has been
appointed chief executive officer (CEO) for HSBC Singapore
Rikhye is currently head of strategy and planning Asia Pacific, overseeing
strategic planning and working closely with country CEOs and business heads in
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all markets across the Asia Pacific region. In his new role he will have direct
responsibility over 12 markets in Asia, comprising Bangladesh, Brunei, Indonesia,
Japan, Korea, Mauritius, New Zealand, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand
and Vietnam. In this capacity, he will be a key source of support and guidance to
country CEOs.
At the same time, Rikhye will maintain his responsibilities as head of strategy and
planning Asia Pacific until a successor is appointed.
Rikhye joined the HSBC Group in 1989 in India and has worked in a number of
countries in a variety of functions including operations in India, internal control and
securities services in the Philippines, corporate banking in Taiwan and financial
institutions (FI) group and institutional fund services in Hong Kong. His more
recent appointments include acting chief operating officer (COO) for The Saudi
British Bank in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and head of securities services for the
Middle East and North Africa (MENA) based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Bank of Communications UK appoints Keith Dixey to head its trade finance
origination business
Dixey joins from ANZ, where he was director of transaction banking, Europe,
since 2008. Before that he held the positions of director, structured trade and
commodity finance at Barclays and head of commercial banking at Belgolaise
Bank.
Bank of Communications UK’s CEO, John Liu, says: “The bank needed a veteran
business originator in the trade finance field and therefore Keith was appointed.
We welcome Keith’s joining and believe he will help build a good foundation for
Bank of Communications’ long term trade finance related business strategy in
London.”
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Bank of Communications UK was established in 2011 as the first overseas
commercial banking subsidiary of the parent bank in Shanghai. It aims to support
China-UK bilateral trade relations.