denotes premium content | Jan 9 2009 Trade & Forfaiting Review magazine archive
Volume 4 Issue 9
Features
An underused resource
André Soumah, Executive Chairman of ACE Group in Geneva, looks at the structured commodity trade credit system using agricultural commodities as collateral in Africa.
Banking on the future of forfaiting
While global trade has consistently grown as a percentage of the global economy, traditional forfaiting activity has not grown consistently with the expansion of trade, argues Riccardo Striano, Senior Vice-President, ITFEX Ltd. He explains why and what can be done about it.
Coface @rating updates
Coface, the leading export credit insurer, launched its @rating country ratings in February 2001. These ratings are accessible free of charge through www.cofacerating.com to help companies find out where they can trade safely in the world.
Enhancing farmers’ returns
Warehouse receipts can bring new capital to emerging market producers and new opportunities for trade financiers. Dan Day-Robinson, of Day Robinson International Consulting Ltd, tells us about the Samara Oblast warehouse financing system pilot project in Russia he has been working on.
Glad to see the back of April?
The LTP Trade Finance Index from LTP Risk Management gives its April performance update. The US and Europe look shaky, while Argentina can’t climb out of its hole.
It’s all in the interpretation
Two recent court decisions, arising in two different jurisdictions, and concerning two different important financial instruments – letters of credits and avals – are of interest to the forfaiting and trade finance communities, according to Michael Sullivan, partner at Piliero Goldstein Jenkins & Sullivan, LLP in New York.
More creative times ahead
Economic conditions in Kazakhstan are improving, and combined with excellent commodity resources, structural reforms and better trade results, the country should be set to provide many a good deal for trade financiers. Magzhan Auezov, Head of Credit Structuring at ABN AMRO Bank Kazakhstan explains further.
Outposts in Amsterdam
Turkish banks have built up niche areas of trade finance business based out of Amsterdam in recent years. Rupert Sayer talks to several such leading trade banks there.
Risky (e)business
A company in California sells electronic components on and offline. Credit risk is managed by a 10-person department, facilitated by a credit insurance policy with a fairly high deductible. Credit managers spend a substantial time communicating with information agencies, the insurance company’s underwriters and claims department, collection agencies, and so on. The strain on the department is increasing, as more buyers flock to their website, demanding ‘realtime’ credit approval, often for small exposures.
Taking the ICC to task in Africa
African managers have some harsh things to say about LCs, UCP 500 and other ICC tools. Arjuna Balasingham, Senior Manager of Structured Trade & Commodity Finance at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi in London, takes a critical look at some of the commercial aspects of ICC tools for trade in Africa. This no-holds-barred analysis and insight could apply equally well in other markets.
Triple Dutch
TFR has interviewed trade and export heads at the top three Dutch trade banks: ABN AMRO, ING Barings and Rabobank. Here they talk about investment banking ethos, emerging market crises, strategy and threats to business.
What’s in a rupee?
A ground-breaking loan guarantee programme involving US Ex-Im Bank, The Industrial Development Bank of India and Bank of America promises to help India make progress on infrastructure improvements. Dan Scanlan is Senior Vice-President and Director of Global Trade Services-Asia at Bank of America. He explains more.
bolero.net: more cash, more partners and another deal
Online trade community bolero.net has raised more money, while continuing to attract several new partners to its programme. It has also signed deals with WiseKey, the public key infrastructure body and published 52 Bolero XML document definitions. And the icing on the cake is a live export deal just completed involving Colombian coffee exports to the UK. Antonio Costa reveals more.
documentary processing: outsourcing for profit
Three banks and an IT firm have established a joint venture that will deal with online documentary processing activities, leaving them to concentrate on other more core activities. The firms are now looking for a fifth partner to join them. Dennis Chong reports.
e-mail as e-commerce: it could be an e-mail dominated world
The benefits of turning e-mail into an e-commerce medium is being missed by many companies, believes Phyllis Huster, President of NetTone Ventures, Inc, in Atlanta, Georgia. Huster is an industry expert in unified, instant and wireless messaging and helps companies such as Telcordia Technologies partner, develop and invest in new emerging messaging technology offers. Here, she explores the pent-up opportunities locked behind the intersection of e-mail with e-commerce and how this may benefit a corporation's current e-commerce strategy.
freight forwarding: Logis XM - determining shipping performance
At AEI logistics is much more than just the movement of goods. We analyse available resources and identify the optimum critical path that results in the ultimate satisfaction of our customers. In fact, we go beyond meeting our customers' requirements, and take it a step further to create a logistics model that far exceeds the expectations of our customer's customer.
freight forwarding: our place at the table
Defining the role of logistics providers in the internet economy is a key puzzle to solve in the e-fulfilment world. Eric Vargas, Vice-President, Customer Products, at logistics company and freight forwarder Danzas AEI, has some strong opinions as to his firm's role.
internet information: shattering those internet dreams
'Click and ship' in our lifetime? I don't think so, believes Glenn Zagoren. He is Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of ProNetLink.com and PNLTV.com and is an appointed adviser to the US Department of Commerce IFAC on e-commerce issues affecting global trade. Governments will always complicate matters and there will still be aneed for some time to go offline for at least part of the transaction.
interview: vastera's vantage point
Greg Stock is Vice-President, Marketing at Vastera Inc, the US-based software and services company that specialises in trade finance solutions. He talks here to e-mmerce about products, costs, hopes and fears.
mobile technology: WAP's place in trade
Stephen Pariman and Peter Webb from CMG, the information and communications technology services group, take a look at the growing opportunities of mobile commerce for trade financiers.
online trade systems: watch out bolero - here's @globaltrade
CCEWeb has unveiled @GlobalTrade, its secure payment and trade management system. @GlobalTrade allows for a letter of credit to be issued online; for the buyer to verify electronically that merchandise has been shipped on time and in the quantities and condition expected; to eliminate the need to pay cash in advance for purchases; to virtually eliminate delays caused by discrepancies in paper-based processing; and to track the entire transaction process online in real time. It also brings a Visa-branded payment aspect to online transactions. Rupert Sayer talks to CCEWeb.
roundtable: e-commerce regulation: an irregular business
Online cross-border trade is still in the wild west of its infancy. Trying to regulate this great unknown is provind understandably difficult. Here, two experts on e-commerce regulation answer e-mmerce's widely-held concerns on the issue. Dan Taylor is President of the International Financial Services Association (IFSA), while Robert Parson is a Partner at law firm Middleton Potts in London.
tradecard: anytime, anyplace, anywhere
Online trade finance system TradeCard has cemented partnerships with a leading US and Taiwanese bank, while agreeing a logistics pact with Fritz and a tie-up with online marketplace TradeEasy. But most interestingly, it has agreed to develop with MasterCard
