Unlocking Liquidity with Collaborative Trade Finance
The volatile global economic environment in the wake of Covid has particularly impacted the world of trade finance and supply chain management. Physical shipping delays and surging commodity prices have compounded existing issues treasurers face, such as a lack of transparency, and slow, paper-based processes. But a new wave of digital trade finance platforms could […]
How LEIs Are Reshaping Finance
A legal entity identifier (LEI) is a simple tool that can help companies build trust in new relationships. This can be especially useful for trade in and out of emerging markets. With LEIs now becoming digital, new opportunities are arising, says Benjamin Würzburger, Chief Operating Officer of TMI Innovation Lab entry, Ceviant. An LEI is […]
Sustainable Transition: Supporting Treasury’s ESG Journey
Treasurers are increasingly looking to support their business goals by exploring the growing range of ESG-related financial instruments. During a recent podcast, TMI Editor, Eleanor Hill, spoke with three experts from Treasury4Good Award-winners Societe Generale, to see how the bank is responding to this demand. Corporate treasurers are keener than ever to find new ways […]
Remapping the Global Trade Space
Contour’s network-based blockchain offering could finally move trade finance out of the dark ages With a Tier 1 bank-supported global network built around R3’s Corda blockchain, and interoperability with essential shipping and trading networks, Contour is ratcheting up the digitisation of trade finance. TMI had no hesitation in making it the outright winner of the […]
Global Trade Finance Network Gets New Innovation Head
Elaine Ng, Contour’s new Head of Innovation, is looking forward to working with “a great mix of blue-sky innovation and commercialisation” as she draws up the company’s roadmap for 2022. TMI discovers more about her ambitious plans. Contour, the TMI award-winning digital trade finance network provider, appointed Elaine Ng to the newly created role last […]
The Future By Design
Lim Soon Chong took over as DBS’ Group Head of Global Transaction Services on 1 August replacing John Laurens, who will be retiring at the end of the year. Lim, who also continues in his role as Head of Digital for DBS’ institutional banking group, spoke to TMI about his new position, and the role […]
Optimise Trade Credit Lines By Streamlining Bank Workflows
Despite the rise of digitisation up the corporate agenda, many businesses are still clinging to antiquated paper processes. This post examines how digitising trade documents will ‘consign pain points and inefficiences to the history books’. The pandemic exposed the pressures faced by corporate treasury departments that are responsible for managing transactions and credit facilities with […]
Green Light for Green Trade Finance
Green trade finance transactions require a trade finance instrument to support an underlying green project. But with no market standards yet supporting their use, accusations of ‘greenwash’ threaten their integrity. TMI spoke to the Head of Trade Finance at one of the few global banks currently offering this option about how this view is being […]
Pandemic Powerhouses
TMI Corporate Recognition Award Winners 2020 In one of the toughest years for treasury in the past decade, treasury teams stepped up their innovation projects and rolled out digital best practices at speed. Here, we celebrate their successes. What a year 2020 was. As much as the financial crisis of 2007/8 had provided some insight […]
SCF for International Trade: Exploring New Frontiers
Cash management is critical for any business, as are well-managed operating costs and productivity, not to mention more efficient processes and relationships with suppliers. Supply chain finance (SCF) programmes tick all the boxes in delivering the above. Big retailers globally have successfully implemented SCF programmes for more than a decade, with many taking advantage of […]
Trade Finance Digitisation: Integrating Systems and Cultures
After years of discussion, trade finance digitisation is finally gaining momentum. While acceptance is growing, challenges are still present in digitising an industry as traditional as trade finance. One well-known challenge is how new technologies and platforms such as Contour can be integrated and made interoperable with legacy IT systems that will continue to be […]
Paper Cuts: Rio Tinto Leverages Blockchain for Trade
With the first fully digital, blockchain-secured end-to-end letter of credit transaction between Nanjing Iron & Steel and Rio Tinto complete, TMI asks Rio Tinto’s Michel Alves, Customer Service Manager, Iron Ore and James Liu, Account Manager, Southern China, to share their highlights from the experience. Engage in a conversation about cross-border trade and eventually talk […]
Trade and Supply Chain Finance: Rising Above Uncertainty
Covid-19 has changed so many aspects of life and business – global trade is no exception. With trade flows declining, and commercial payments following suit, Aoife Wallace, Head of Trade & Working Capital Europe, Barclays, and Daniela Eder, Head of Payments & Cash Management Europe, Barclays, examine how treasurers can play their part in supporting […]
Investing in Latin America: Today’s Energy Market Transformation
With announcements of major potential investments of over $300 billion in the next 10 years, Latin America is rapidly becoming one of the most attractive regions globally for investments by the world’s largest oil companies. Compelling opportunities are emerging, such as Brazil’s pre-salt, Argentina’s shale and Guyana’s frontier oil play. Therefore, many governments are taking […]
Trading Up: Ringing the Changes in Trade Finance
These are heady days for the trade finance industry. An area of business that has gone largely unchanged for centuries, new technologies and market participants are now altering the face of trade finance – posing fresh challenges but also opening up a range of opportunities for corporates. Eleanor Hill, Editor, TMI, speaks with Bruno Francois, […]
Building a Network of Networks
With solutions such as we.trade revolutionising supply-chain interactions, while others, such as Project Wilson, connect correspondent banks to facilitate working capital financing, Simone Del Guerra of UniCredit discusses the shifting landscape of correspondent banking and the possibility of combining corporate-to-corporate and bank-to-bank platforms to create a network of networks. Correspondent banking is evolving. Once […]
Material Gains with Virtual Accounts
Fashion leader OTB, parent company of major brands such as Diesel, Maison Margiela, Marni, Paula Cademartori and Viktor & Rolf, is a pioneer not only in its core business, but also in cash management. In 2016, in co-operation with partner bank UniCredit, OTB implemented an innovative virtual account solution in order to gain efficiency in […]