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Published on 11.December.2014 – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is supporting the expansion of international trade in Egypt by providing a US$ 50 million trade facility to Commercial International Bank under the EBRD’s Trade Facilitation Programme (TFP).

USD 50 Million Trade Finance Line to the Commercial International Bank

Under this facility the EBRD will issue guarantees in favour of international commercial banks, covering political and commercial payment risks for transactions made by Commercial International Bank.

Hildegard Gacek, the EBRD’s Managing Director for the southern and eastern Mediterranean (SEMED), said:

“We are very pleased to welcome Commercial International Bank into the EBRD’s trade facilitation programme. Under the trade finance facility, the EBRD will help Commercial International Bank to extend its support to its Egyptian clients allowing Egypt’s international trade flows to grow, which will contribute to overall economic growth in Egypt.”

Hisham Ezz Al-Arab, Chairman and Managing Director of CIB, said:

“We are delighted to have this partnership with the EBRD, which is in line with CIB’s commitment to support the Egyptian economy and underpin its growth. The Trade Facilitation Programme will help CIB to better meet its clients’ trade finance needs and expand the bank’s geographical reach by issuing trade instruments on behalf of its clients.”

Launched in 1999, the TFP aims to promote foreign trade to, from and among the EBRD’s countries of operations.

Under the programme, the EBRD not only provides guarantees to international confirming banks, but also grants short-term loans to select banks and factoring companies for on-lending to local exporters, importers and distributors.

The TFP currently includes over 100 partner banks in 23 countries where the Bank invests, with limits exceeding €1.5 billion in total, and more than 800 confirming banks worldwide.

To date, the EBRD has committed €634 million across 18 projects in Egypt in various sectors.

Under the EBRD’s Small Business Support programmes, the Bank has also provided 185 technical assistance and capacity-building support programmes, which directly benefit small and medium-sized enterprises in Egypt.

About the Commercial International Bank (CIB)

Commercial International Bank (CIB), established in 1975, is the leading private sector bank in Egypt, offering a broad range of financial products and services to its customers, which include enterprises of all sizes, institutions, households and high-net-worth individuals.

The Bank strives to provide clients with superior financial solutions to meet all of their financial needs.

CIB has succeeded in becoming the most profitable commercial bank operating in Egypt for more than 35 years and is the bank of choice for over 500 of Egypt’s largest corporations.

Published on 16.December.2014 – Trade Finance Survey reveals that significant amount of market gap exists between small and big size companies accessing for trade finance products even if the global economy has been recovering from the effects of last financial crisis.

Existing trade finance gap hinders both economic growth and job creation significantly.

Asian Development Bank Trade Finance Survey

In 2013, the global trade finance gap was estimated at $ 1.9 trillion. Of this gap, $1.1 trillion is in developing Asia (including India and the PRC). Banks reported a global rejection rate of trade finance applications of 29%.

Case studies of factoring, forfaiting and credit insurance providers reported similar global rejection rates at between 25%–40% of proposed transactions.

However, in the company surveys, only a very few proposals for these types of finance were reported and rejection rates for these were very low with factoring at 7%, forfaiting at 3%, and credit insurance at 5%.

This suggests that these forms of finance have considerable room to expand globally.

Geographically, much of the gap in trade finance happens within Asia. Asia registered the largest share of proposed transactions at 57% of the global total.

However, Asia also received the highest proportion (79%) of global rejected transactions (see Figure 1).

Asia’s BRICs countries – India and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) – registered the highest proportion (35%) of rejected transactions.

Expected Impact of More Trade Finance Support on Production and Jobs

While it is impossible to disentangle the direct impact that trade finance has on economic growth and job creation, surveyed firms offer some insight into how better trade finance access would manifest in terms of these outcomes (Figure 2).

A 15% increase in access to trade finance would increase production by 22%. Respondents noted that a 15% increase in trade finance support would enable firms to hire 17% more staff.

SACE has joined in a mission of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to Turkey, promoted by his office and the Ministry for Economic Development, to strength the potential for trade with this key market for Italy.

During the mission, SACE is announcing finalization of a guarantee on a € 400 million line of credit earmarked to finance contracts awarded to 50 Italian firms, including SAIPEM, as part of Project STAR (Socar Turkey Aegean Refinery).

The project, worth a total of 4.4 billion dollars, concerns the construction in project finance of a greenfield refinery at Aliaga near Izmir.

The facility will be of strategic importance for the country because, with its output of 200,000 barrels/day, it will reduce the country’s dependence on imported refined products.

SACE is making a € 2.1 billion line of guarantees available to Italian businesses operating or intending to operate in Turkey that will enable them to:

• access loans guaranteed by SACE to support their development plans in the country (investments in distribution networks, industrial joint ventures, acquisitions of local companies, advertising expenses, retail outlets, machinery purchases, etc.)
• sell goods and services by offering Turkish customers extended payment terms of up to five years, through the use of letters of credit, and ensuring them against default risk
• collect payments from Turkish customers in advance, insuring them against insolvency risk.

SACE already has pre-commitments with the principal banking groups in the country: Turkiye Is Bankasi AS, Turkiye Garanti Bankasi AS, Turkiye Cumhuriyeti Ziraat Bankasi, Akbank TAS, Yapi ve Kredi Bankasi, Turkiye Halk Bankasi TAO, Turkiye Vakiflar Bankasi TAO, Denizbank AS.

One of the emerging favored markets for Italian exports with over € 13 billion in goods sold in 2013, Turkey has the third largest exposure in the SACE portfolio, with € 1.3 billion in transactions insured and € 1.5 billion in new projects currently under consideration, focused primarily on construction and infrastructure, steel and industrial equipment.

Turkey is one of the emerging countries SACE has indicated as high-potential markets, with sustainable risk profiles, to which Italian exporters should strengthen their positioning in the medium-long term to capture additional potential of € 38.5 billion in the next two years*, € 4 billion of it provided by Turkey.

A glance at SACE operations

In Turkey, where it has a representation office in Istanbul, SACE is intensely active alongside companies in various areas of industrial technology, with interesting activity on the part of SMEs.

The transactions currently on the table include project finance in both the private and public sectors, loans to banks and leasing companies, and a growing number of export credit transactions in favor of SMEs.

The supplier credit transactions, dedicated primarily to smaller companies, have been the most numerous in 2014, a year in which SACE has approved € 340 million in new transactions.

Published on-19.November.2014- Approximately 35% of large U.S. companies do business with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citi and J.P. Morgan.

The top five is rounded out by HSBC and Wells Fargo, both of which have achieved market penetration levels of 23–24%.

These banks are the 2014 Greenwich Share Leaders in U.S. Large Corporate Trade Finance.

The 2014 Greenwich Quality Leaders are Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan and RBS.

Despite this high level of concentration, companies have seen some significant shifts in the competitive landscape of providers over the past several years. In domestic trade finance, up-and-coming Wells Fargo capitalized on an opportunity to gain ground.

“Many of the banks are weighing the thin margins for trade finance against the increasing capital requirements from Basel III,” says Greenwich Associates consultant Andrew Grant. “We are seeing some banks actively pulling back in certain segments while others aggressively step in to fill the void.”

Throughout this period, one trend remains consistent: The international needs of large U.S. companies are expanding.

With companies eying Western Europe, Asia and Latin America, banks with broad international networks have a clear advantage, and providers including HSBC have capitalized on this demand with strong gains in market penetration.

Consultants Don Raftery and Andrew Grant specialize in trade finance in the United States. Please read full report from this link.

About Greenwich Associates

Greenwich Associates is the leading provider of global market intelligence and advisory services to the financial services industry. Our clients include nearly all of the world’s leading investment banks, commercial banks and asset managers.

Greenwich Associates began in 1972 with the vision of Charley Ellis and a small team of 10 Members in Connecticut (US). His big idea: Create a superior professional strategic financial consulting firm, hire the very best people and deliver insightful, unbiased, timely and above all actionable advice to help clients improve business performance.

Knowing that the best advice requires the best information, we have developed our own independent, in-depth market research practice. This year alone, we will interview more than 50,000 highly regarded financial services executives in more than 70 countries.

Today, Greenwich Associates serves:

Financial services providers
Financial services buyers
Market information users

Our client base includes more than 250 leading banks and fund manager firms, plus the more than 50,000 corporations and institutions who, as participants in our research, are members of the Greenwich Exchange.

Published on 02.December.2014 – Two months ago GTR called all companies that read the magazine and attend GTR events to vote in GTR’s annual Leaders in Trade awards.

The voters have been asked to tell which financial institutions are the best internationally.

Best Global Trade Finance Bank:

• First place: HSBC
• Runner-up: Citi

Best Global Export Finance Bank:

• First place: Société Générale
• Runner-up: HSBC

Best Global Commodity Finance Bank:

• First place: BNP Paribas
• Runner-up: ABN Amro

Best Global Structured Commodity Finance Bank:

• First place: ING
• Runner-up: Deutsche Bank

Best Trade Finance Bank in Latin America:

• First place: Santander
• Runner-up: BBVA

Best Trade Finance Bank in Asia:

• First place: Standard Chartered
• Runner-up: Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Best Trade Finance Bank in CEE:

• First place: Commerzbank
• Runner-up: Raiffeisen Bank

Best Trade Finance Bank in CIS:

• First place: Sberbank

Best trade finance bank in Australia and Pacific:

• First place: Westpac
• Runner-up: ANZ

Best Trade Finance Bank in the M.East & N.Africa:

• First place: HSBC
• Runner-up: FGB

Best Trade Finance Bank in Sub-Saharan Africa:

• First place: Standard Bank
• Runner-up: Barclays Africa

Best Trade Finance Bank in the Nordic Region:

• First place: SEB
• Runner-up: Nordea

Best Trade Finance Bank in North America:

• First place: JP Morgan
• Runner-up: Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Best Trade Finance Bank in Western Europe:

• First place: Deutsche Bank
• Runner-up: Crédit Agricole

Best Trade Finance Bank in the UK:

• First place: RBS
• Runner-up: Barclays

Best Islamic Trade Finance Bank:

• First place: Maybank
• Runner-up: ITFC

Best Development Bank in Trade:

• First place: Asian Development Bank
• Runner-up: African Development Bank

Best Alternative Trade Finance Provider:

• First place: Falcon Group
• Runner-up: Trade Finance Partners

Best Export Credit Agency:

• First place: UKEF
• Runner-up: EDC

Best supply chain finance bank:

• First place: Citi
• Runner-up: JP Morgan

Best Forfaiting House*:

• First place: LFC
• Runner-up: UniCredit

Best Factoring House*:

• First place: GE Capital
• Runner-up: Bibby Financial Services

Best Trade Outsourcing Bank*:

• First place: BNY Mellon
• Runner-up: Wells Fargo

Best Trade Finance Software Provider*:

• First place: China Systems
• Runner-up: Misys

Best Bank for Documentary Processing*:

• First place: Commerzbank
• Runner-up: RBS

Best Trade Credit and Political Risk Insurance Broker*:

• First place: BPL Global
• Runner-up: Arthur J Gallagher

UK Export Finance (UKEF) – a government department and the UK’s official export credit agency (ECA) – is in a celebratory mood at the latest news from trade finance magazine and events organizer Global Trade Review (GTR).

Having been asked which financial institutions are the best internationally, the 10,000 senior management readers of GTR, have voted UKEF as the best ECA.

With companies such as Barclays, Citi, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and RBS all winning awards in the trade finance and global trade finance sectors of the GTR Leaders in Trade 2014, the award puts UKEF in good company.

It also follows UKEF’s delivery of innovations that include the launch of both the Direct Lending Facility, which supported its first loan in early October, and the Export Refinancing Facility, as well as the extension of guarantees for offshore Renminbi-denominated loans – a first for an ECA.

At the same time, UKEF has strengthened its short term product offering, supporting contracts worth over £1 billion already in 2014, with over 200 companies and contracts worth over £2 billion supported since their launch.

Added to the announcement that UKEF will guarantee a sukuk bond for the first time early next year and plans to simplify the application and approval process to help small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), it has been a highly productive year for UKEF.

Commenting on the award, David Godfrey, Chief Executive of UKEF said:

Over the past couple of years we have successfully introduced and embedded our regional team of export finance advisers, provided Airbus with credible and competitive capital markets funding solutions, and have secured eligibility for UKEF paper to be discounted at the Bank of England’s Discount Window – helping banks with their liquidity ratios.

Global Trade Review is a respected publication, whose trade conferences and seminars are among the best attended in the calendar. That it is their readers – banks, intermediaries, other ECAs and exporters – who have voted for us, is especially pleasing. This is a vote of confidence for the whole UKEF team and we are delighted.

About UKEF

UKEF is the UK’s export credit agency. UKEF helps UK exporters by providing insurance to exporters and guarantees to banks to share the risks of providing export finance. In addition, UKEF can make loans to overseas buyers of goods and services from the UK. UK Export Finance is the operating name of the Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD).

UKEF:

• insures UK exporters against non-payment by their overseas buyers
• helps overseas buyers to purchase goods and services from UK exporters by
• guaranteeing or funding bank loans to finance the purchases
  shares credit risks with banks to help exporters raise tender and contract bonds, in
• accessing pre- and post-shipment working capital finance and in securing confirmations of letters of credit
• insures UK investors in overseas markets against political risks