denotes premium content | Jan 9 2009 Trade & Forfaiting Review magazine archive
Volume 6 Issue 3
Features
Editor's foreword
In this, the final issue of Trade & Forfaiting Review before Christmas, we consider the recent developments in Brazil. Despite the various debt crises in Latin America, major traders in the region have always managed to secure the financing necessary to conduct business. However, according to Ed Hogan of Citibank (p.15), market turbulence surrounding the recent Brazilian presidential elections has revealed a deficit in the trade financing required to ensure the stability of the region's economy.
Brazil: the elections and beyond
Mario Mesquita reviews the recent presidential elections in Brazil and examines the potential impact that Lula da Silva and his team will have on the country’s stressed economy.
Down but not quite out
Trade finance has always been the oil that greases the wheels of Latin America’s economic engines, writes Ed Hogan. Traders in Latin America have relied on providers of credit to supply this much-needed elixir. But the recent elections in Brazil have highlighted a marked deficit in trade-financing levels in the region.
Leveraging export finance in Brazil
Having felt the full force of the economic catastrophe brought on by the Argentine debt crisis, Brazil is now undergoing a major period of financial restoration with a new president at the helm. Luiz Carlos Aguiar discusses the credit risk-mitigation instruments being utilised to leverage export financing in Brazil.
Conquering Everest
Having just completed his fifth year as chief executive of ECGD, Vivian Brown is not ready to put his feet up just yet. ECGD is undergoing a period of major transition in terms of internal reorganisation, revising its status as a capitalised Trading Fund and pursuing a strategy of working more closely with private industry – and Brown is determined to lead the evolution.
Layisha Laypang reports.
Cyprus: the money-laundering dilemma
A considerable amount of disinformation has been spread concerning the role of Cyprus as
a major money-laundering centre. Rowan Bosworth-Davies sets the record straight.
The changing face of Cyprus
Cyprus is an established trade hub for the Middle East and other regions globally. As the country proceeds towards full European membership by 2004, Sophocles Parapanos asks if international companies will continue to operate out of the island as the tax system changes in line with EU standards and legislation.
On the move
Kamini Bharvada offers a legal insight into the move from paper to electronic trade finance.
She argues that although the trading community is progressing towards the use of electronic documents and PKI technology, ease of adoption within current practices will inevitably facilitate the process.
Regulars
Indicative forfaiting rates
A number of positive influences during November have lent a more constructive tone to the forfaiting market of late: the larger than expected US rate cut, the ratings upgrades of the next batch of European-Union entrants, the award of an investment grade to Kazakhstan and the resounding result in the Turkish elections. These have pushed worries over Iraq to the background for the time being.
Latin America casts shadow over Eastern Europe
Gains in Eastern Europe have been reversed by losses in Latin America as the LTP Trade Finance Index™ – the independent total return index for the trade finance asset class – shows modest growth for the month of October.
