denotes premium content | Jan 9 2009 Trade & Forfaiting Review magazine archive
Volume 4 Issue 6
Features
Broker's view : Technology breaks SME bad debt cycle
Credit insurance has persistently failed to gain a foothold in the small and medium-sized business (SME) sector in the UK.
Financial defaults: Contingency planning for defaults
'The most beautiful flowers grow nearest the edge of the cliff,' according to Jan Mekenkamp of The Hague office of Omni Whittington Emerging Markets. This quote, he says, an analogy for the relationship between risk and reward, came from an adventurous Dutch banker. His is not a happy story; he eventually wandered too close to the precipice and vanished, with his bank, over the edge. Mekenkamp shares his knowledge and experience that will hopefully protect others from a similar fate.
Latin America: Brazil: Transparency and change
Export finance business in Brazil is changing, writes Frederico Lohmann, Vice-President at SG Export Finance Brazil. Structures are more complex and the returns high.
Latin america: Forfaiting: Challenging and changing
Bruce Fields is Head of Forfaiting for the Americas for Standard Bank and Standard Americas, Inc. He is also President of the Association of Forfaiters in the Americas (AFIA) and tells us what to expect from forfaiting in the Americas in 2001
Latin America: regional overview: Striking a balance
Things are looking up for Latin America, according to Jorge Benitez, senior vice-president and general manager of the Latin America/Caribbean Global Trade Services Group at Bank of America in Miami. This group is responsible for all of the bank's trade finance, trade services and sales activity in the Latin American markets. Benitez looks especially at Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.
Roundtable: The European-Asian connection
TFR asked two of Europe's leading trade finance banks to give their impressions of European-Asian trade flows and the perception of risk in this market. From Deutsche Bank we have Axel-Peter Ohse, Global Head of International Trade Finance, and Albert Traunthaler, Head of Forfaiting and Letter of Credit Syndications, both based in Frankfurt. From BNP-Paribas responds Anouk Mas, Senior Relationship Manager in Global Trade Services in Paris.
Documentary processing : outsourcing opportunities
Seeing a resurgence of the global trade outsourcing trend, Bank of America is capturing a new market through its Strategic Processing Alliance venture. The outsourcing programme establishes partnerships with regional banks to become their primary provider of trade services operations. Robert Carver is Global Trade Sales Manager for the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Trade Services Group at Bank of America in London. This group is responsible for all of Bank of America's trade finance, trade services and sales activity in those markets.
Legal issues: A bank in a dilemma
Gwendoline Griffiths, a Partner at O'Melveny & Myers in London, looks at the problems faced by a bank if it suspects a customer of money laundering. A recent decision by the English courts has clarified some of the issues.
Trade finance index: Measuring trade finance's value
LTP Risk Management has created the first independent total return index covering the trade finance asset class, the LTP Trade Finance Index. Equity and bond market investors are accustomed to seeing performance statistics for indices across a wide range of asset classes and groupings, however until now there has been no comparable index for the trade finance market. James Parsons, Director at LTP Trade Ltd in London, elaborates.
company spotlight: syntra ltd - don’t get stranded at the border
Two leading e-business companies in their field - Syntra and International Software Marketing (ISM) - have merged into a single firm offering global commerce management skills for trade and export finance: global opportunity at the click of a button according to David Roots, general manager, Europe, of Syntra, Ltd.
freight forwarding : savings for shippers
Electronic Freight Exchange Corporation has launched what it calls the first open marketplace for multi-modal transportation. The web-based freight exchange promises savings, efficiency and expanded markets for shippers and carriers and has linked up with US bodies, the National Retail Federation (NRF) and the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW), to jointly promote EFXit! to NRF and NAW members. Rudolf Kessler reports.
freight forwarding : there’s nothing virtual here!
With hundreds, possibly thousands, of freight forwarding organisations in the UK alone, you could argue that exporters and importers are spoilt for choice. In reality, however, they all offer very much the same types of service. Now, after decades of industry inertia, a new web service is offering to revolutionise global freight transportation, according to the managing director of Webfreight in the UK, Roy Parmenter and commercial director, Steve Matthews
Interview : banking on technology
Alan Wilkinson has worked for the HSBC Group for almost 30 years in 12 different countries around the world. For much of the last decade he held senior positions in the area of trade services. This business has increasingly involved the provision of electronic solutions to major US and European multinational corporates importing from Asia. As the head of trade services Asia-Pacific, he oversees the trade business of 22 countries involving over 2,000 trade staff. His emphasis is now focused on delivering a full range of trade services through the internet.
market survey : a question of e-commerce
e-mmerce, with its sister publication Trade & Forfaiting Review, has undertaken a survey of readers and related market players on the subject of electronic trade finance. We sent questions to around 1,000 readers and received 121 responses. This response is not huge, but it rarely is with such questionnaires. However, the comeback was still commendable and shows that this area of trade and technology is one of the most relevant facing traders and financiers today. Many thanks to those who did return their questionnaires. Without such surveys, who’s to know if everyone is heading in the right direction with similar ideas and expectations?
online payment solutions : certain and safe?
It seems almost every day that we hear about a new website that facilitates business-to-business (B2B) trade. There are vertical marketplaces that cater to specific industries and there are online auctions that bring buyers and suppliers together to foster international trade. But what is missing, according to Alex Stonkus, president and COO of Actrade Capital, Inc, in the US, in the B2B e-commerce world is a safe and effective way for buyers and suppliers to eliminate uncertainties regarding e-finance and consummate a transaction via the web. Actrade offers such an option - one that satisfies the needs of both buyers and suppliers, he says.
Recruitment : search and you may just find
Bob Otis is vice-president of Advanced Research Technologies, an executive search firm based in the US, which recruits widely in the e-business field. He talks to e-mmerce about finding the right person for that B2B job.
regional focus: dubai - going it alone
Todays high rate of technology changes brings both opportunities and challenges, whether by choice or necessity. And in the Middle East, the growing transportation industry needs a strong tool to make it through. MIRSAL is a new project that entails the birth of a new generation of cargo community, free of papers and of waiting in line for Customs. It is to be used by sea and air agents, freight forwarders, importers and free zone companies to accommodate the fast upcoming future of goods transportation and document handling in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Suha Hadi, from the department of systems analysis and design at the University of Lodz in Poland reports.
Recruitment : just can't find the staff?
Talking to banks, recruitment firms and exporters, it seems clear that there are problems being experienced in finding good staff with not only the business-to-business e-commerce skills, but also those that appreciate and understand trade finance and business flows. Rupert Sayer looks into the problem.
