The inability of trade-finance participants to fully leverage the value of the data generated by transactions remains a source of frustration, particularly for small businesses.

Widespread use of ISO 20022 could have a far-reaching impact on supply-chain finance by facilitating faster processing of transactions.

While foreign investment in China has fallen, supply-chain shift is a different story. Rather than transferring their main production away from China, manufacturers are cultivating deep regional supply chains across Asia and beyond.

Beneath the Great Game geopolitics of US-Vietnam relations, there are some intriguing possibilities in the detail.

For decades, transaction banking was a profitable but largely ignored corner of the banking industry. Then Covid happened. Today, bank chiefs see it as critical to everything they do. Given the challenges ahead – collaborating with fintechs and embedding ESG principles in global supply chains – the revolution under way in this business is unstoppable.

Providers of trade finance remain bullish despite predictions that growth in global trade will stagnate during the remainder of this year.

Banks must address the nature and quality of trade finance roles to address staff longevity concerns.

Sinan Ozcan, senior executive officer of DP World Trade Finance – part of the company that handles around one-eighth of global trade volumes – talks to Euromoney about its plans to finance these volumes as well.

High interest rates and low bank appetite for risk have created the perfect conditions for a renaissance in invoice factoring.

The green transition is boosting demand for key metals and Africa’s commodity markets are under pressure to increase extraction. But buyer awareness of Scope 3 emissions means that processes need to be cleaned up and fast.

Better AML controls across traditional financial systems have increased the appeal of international trade as a conduit for fraud.

Most leading providers of trade finance have welcomed changes to disclosure rules despite research suggesting they could negatively impact demand.

As interest rate volatility persists, corporates are taking a hard look at their trade finance options.

The banking sector appears to be quietly confident that the European Commission will row back on new regulation that, if enacted, could notably increase the cost of some trade-finance instruments.

Twinco Capital facilitates access to sustainable funding by focusing on pre-production finance.

Business-to-business buy-now-pay-later providers are optimistic that economic uncertainty and higher interest rates will drive corporates to pay suppliers sooner and secure inventory more rapidly.

HSBC’s global head of trade finance talks about how the bank has built 'the trade finance platform for the future'.

The impact of the supply chain disruption that was such a notable feature of last year’s trade finance survey continues to be felt as banks widen the range of services designed to improve corporate resilience.

Big transaction banks are responding to corporate customer demand for sustainability linked supplier-finance programmes by extending the geographical availability and range of the products they offer.

Strategies and financing need to be radically reassessed to achieve sustainability in a rapidly changing world.

DeFi is touted as a solution to the multi-trillion dollar global trade-finance gap, despite tech concerns.

Brazil’s agribusiness sector is booming on the back of sky-high commodity prices. The public banks that have long financed the sector now face a wave of new private-sector competitors.

Both HSBC and JPMorgan have recently boosted their digital trade finance offerings, as the ICC Centre for Digital Trade and Innovation commenced testing of digital trade systems between Singapore and the UK.

Rising interest rates and macroeconomic uncertainty mean that corporate cash balances are at very high levels.

The pandemic and the war in Ukraine have brutally exposed the fragility of global supply chains.

While the impact on energy is centre stage, the war in Ukraine is also wreaking havoc on soft commodity prices and trade routes. Trade in agricultural commodities is taking a hit. The pool of banks financing these commodities is already dwindling, while the risks for those that remain are growing.

More awareness by corporates of the role played by small suppliers has boosted early payment programmes.

Technology advances and positive ESG considerations could help private credit reduce the global trade finance gap.

The failures of we.trade and HSBC’s Serai highlight the challenges that blockchain-based solutions face.

Several FIs hope to capitalize on an easing in physical supply-chain constraints to extend trade-finance offerings.