denotes premium content | Jan 10 2009 Trade & Forfaiting Review magazine archive
Volume 8 Issue 9
Welcome to Trade & Forfaiting Review’s (TFR) second annual awards issue, where we devote our cover story to the top trade-finance names of 2005. Congratulations to the winners and the highly commended. And thanks to all our readers who took the time to vote.
The TFR Awards are based on an online readers’ poll. This year, we canvassed more than 5,000 subscribers, requesting their vote in 20 categories ranging from Best Global Trade Finance Provider to Best Trade Finance Law Firm. Awards were then made on the basis of the highest number of votes cast. However, where the results were exceptionally close, as was the case in three categories this year, we have made a joint award.
We have also made special mention in some, but not all the categories, where an institution received a particularly large number of votes but just fell short of our criteria to be named joint winner. For instance, results were especially close for the Best Trade Bank in East Asia award – won by HSBC, but with last year’s winner ANZ not far behind. SG CIB also did well in this category and was hot on the heels of Rabobank and Fortis in the category for Best Soft Commodities Bank.
In fact, the French banks, particularly BNP Paribas, had an excellent showing of votes across the board. BNP Paribas, winner of three awards this year, also performed well in the Best Structured Trade and Export Finance category, as well as the Middle East and East Asia categories. Meanwhile, ABN Amro, winner for the second year running of the Best Trade Platform/Online Trade Provider class, also received a high number of votes in the Latin America category – an award that was hotly contested and ultimately saw both BBVA and Citigroup win the title.
This year, the Best Export Credit Insurer prize goes to Coface, which won by an impressive margin. But because there was a cluster of private export-credit insurers and export-credit agencies that came in with a similar vote count (albeit some way behind Coface), we have listed them as highly commended. Meanwhile, those institutions receiving the most votes overall were BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, HSBC and ABN Amro.
Congratulations once again to all the winners and to all of those that came close. We will contact you with details of our annual awards ceremony as soon as they are available. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy this issue. As always, if you have any comments or suggestions, or would like to contribute to a future issue of TFR, please contact me on mmartensen@ark-group.com. We welcome your feedback.
Michele Martensen, editor
Features
Risky business
Aidan Applegarth, managing director of NoesisRede, takes an in-depth look at risk management in structured trade and commodity finance, and evaluates the market’s approach to the processes involved.
Circumventing the compliance crunch
Compliance technology drives cost savings and helps companies stay on top of a changing regulatory landscape, writes Bernie Hart, global product head, JPMorgan Chase Vastera.
Trading timber
The environmental impact of deforestation and the negative image it portrays mean financiers rarely rush to finance the trade of forestry products. Here, David Sullivan, CEO of Trade Finance Corporation in Hong Kong, takes a look at the pros and cons of financing forestry-trade transactions with a review of the timber industry in Asia.
Redrawing the political risk map
Dan Riordan, executive vice president and managing director of Zurich, examines the rise in south-south trade flows and the ensuing political risks.
Harnessing CEE volatility
Central and Eastern Europe, a region historically plagued by political and economic volatility, has offered mixed fortunes for trade financiers. Recently, margins have been disappointingly low, but as Erika Morphy discovers, opportunities remain.
TFR Awards 2005
Trade & Forfaiting Review honours the top trade-finance names of 2005 in its second annual awards issue...
Regulars
Country risk appetite – June 2005
The analysis from Standard Bank...
Emerging-market debt pricing
Omni Whittington Commentary, July 2005
Fast track to growth
Amanda Greene talks to John Turnbull, global head of structured trade and commodity finance at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), about his career, his role at SMBC, and the division’s plans for growth.
One step ahead
Having carved itself a unique space in the trade-finance sphere, Texel Finance shows no sign of relinquishing its strength. Amanda Greene reports on the visionary trade-finance boutique and discovers a team finely tuned to the requirements of the industry.
Rumour control: Stern leaves Deutsche
TFR hears that Ian Stern is leaving the performance-risk-finance (PRF) team of Deutsche Bank to join Standard Chartered (StanChart) in London.
60-second interview: Sainath Radhakrishnan
Earlier this summer ABN Amro announced a new mandate from French banking institution, Groupe Caisse d’Epargne, to provide outsourced and white-labeled trade services through its trade portal, MaxTrad. ABN called the deal the first of its kind in mainland Europe – albeit probably not the last. Sainath Radhakrishnan, head of financial institutions trade outsourcing solutions with ABN, tells TFR that outsourcing or rather, white labeling trade finance front-end systems is a growing activity for many banks – and a major business area for ABN Amro itself.
Latin America: riding the coming election year
The Brazilian economy is benefiting from a combination of factors that are creating some interesting times in the trade-finance world, writes Nicholas Shaw, head of trade finance at BBVA in Brazil.
Letter from Hong Kong: David Sullivan
On a recent trip to London I treated myself to a first-class air ticket. I should obviously apply for a job with a commodity fund. Anyway, I was looking forward to that personal ‘Cathay girl’ service in the first-class cabin when along came ‘Aussie Brett’ and ‘Hong Kong Eddie’ saying “we are looking after you tonight”.
Market view: Prabhat Vira
With many newer economies outperforming the developed markets in production efficiency, the balance of power is constantly changing in the world of commodities. Low labour costs, proximity to natural resources, economic liberalisation and global demand have combined to stimulate the growth and modernisation of commodity processors in new markets.
