Editor’s letter: Opportunity knocks?

“The worst year on record? Maybe…” That was the start of TFR’s Review of the Year in 1999

Feature
Sponsored comment from UniCredit Group
Demand for receivables purchase is increasing as companies turn to more imaginative ways of raising capital and smoothing cash flow, says Robert Fleischmann, Head of Structured Trade and Commodity Finance at UniCredit Bank Austria.

News
People & places: Relief as Kazakh banks respect ‘qualifying’ trade
BTA Bank, the largest bank in Kazakhstan, has published its term sheet setting out how creditors will be treated in its forthcoming restructuring.

Regular
Market view: Apocalypse postponed
In 2007, HSBC’s Stuart Nivison returned to the UK after 18 years working in the Far East. Then all hell broke loose...

Regular
Marsh: Credit Risk Appetite for Emerging Markets – December 2009
The volume of trade transactions in the private market continues to be at a low level, but we have seen a slight reduction in overall pricing during the past month.

Regular
Omni Bridgeway: Emerging market debt pricing
The latest emerging market debt pricing figures from specialists Omni Bridgeway.

Feature
Review 2009: Sponsored comment from UniCredit
Angelo Rizzuti and Florence Werdisheim look back on a tough year in structured trade and export finance.

Regular
The last word: Is the end nigh?
Is it the beginning of the end or merely the end of the beginning? Cynicus Economicus looks back at the economic crisis over the past year – and forward to 2010.

News
People & places: Trade finance default register ‘to be ready by March’
The ICC-ADB Trade Finance Default Register initiative is on course to finish collecting data from participating banks by the end of January 2010 and will present the data publicly in March 2010.

News
People & places: Australia backs PNG gas project with $500m loan
The Australian government has backed the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project in Papua New Guinea with a loan of $500m (AUD547m) to support the participation of Australian suppliers in one of the biggest natural gas projects in the region.

Feature
Review of the year: Extreme sport
It was a year of highs and lows, opening in the aftermath of the post-Lehman Brothers crash in world trade, but ending much, much busier. TFR talks to five trade finance professionals for their opinions of the year in review.

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60-second interview: Nick Cullen
Nick Cullen discusses the forfaiting market at the end of a turbulent year.

Feature
Review of the Year: 2009, like the girl with a curl...
Geoffrey Wynne looks back over the past 12 months in trade finance – a year that was great for some and a nightmare for others.

Feature
Review of the year: The final countdown (for 2009)
Nick Grandage counts down the top ten most frequently asked questions during 2009.

Regular
Omni Bridgeway Commentary, December 2009
In February 2009, Morgan Tsvangirai, the current Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, formed a power-sharing government with long-standing President Robert Mugabe.

Feature
Feature: Mercosur
The Mercosur free-trade agreement between Latin America’s biggest economies has helped increase trade, but rivalries and divisions remain. By Ivan Castano.

News
People & places: Mehmet Saydam takes new role at Deutsche Bank
Mehmet Saydam, Director at Deutsche Bank in the Structured Commodity and Trade Finance team, has joined ‘the bond brigade’ in a promotion to the role of Head of Commodities, Russia and CIS, in Global Capital Markets at the bank.

Feature
The big interview: Tan Kah Chye
Tan Kah Chye, Global Head of Trade, Transaction Banking, at Standard Chartered, launches a passionate defence of trade finance.

News
People & places: Ferrexpo secures $230m PXF
Swiss iron ore producer Ferrexpo has secured a $230m pre-export financing loan, making it the first metals and mining company with assets in the CIS to conclude such a deal since the start of the global financial crisis.