Private wealth clients, niche asset managers and sophisticated trading firms could all have appetite for tokenized trade finance.

Citi hopes to gain an edge in the highly competitive – and lucrative – securities services market by teaming up with data cloud company Snowflake to improve information flows across transactions.

Francesca Nenci, the recently appointed global head of trade finance at UniCredit, talks to Euromoney about the bank’s trade finance business and the client trends that will shape her approach to her new position.

A joint venture between the Asia-heavy bank and a Chinese supply chain tech player aims to make trade finance an alternative asset class with digital efficiency.

Easier access and growing awareness among investors of the potential returns on offer are driving the use of trade receivables securitization by small and mid-sized corporates.

Banks are taking a more proactive approach to sustainable trade finance, recognizing that their responsibilities extend beyond simply providing financially competitive products.

Given the standardization and interoperability challenges facing digital letters of credit, could wider use of digital trade finance platforms accelerate the development of alternative solutions?

Despite concerns over recent regulatory changes, synthetic risk transfers remain a key driver for business lending in markets where private investment is underdeveloped.

Digitalization may be a hot topic in the treasury world, but many financial institutions remain unconvinced that the benefits justify the cost and disruption involved in moving away from in-house servers or manual signatures.

Wider adoption of digital letters of credit is being held back by limited standardization and lack of interoperability.

Banks have responded to fintech innovation in credit risk assessment by introducing more sophisticated processes for determining the financial health of trade finance customers.

Euromoney’s 2021 trade finance survey reflects an unprecedented year for the industry.

For years, trade finance and cross-border payments have looked ripe for disruption by distributed-ledger technologies. Asia provides some firm examples of breakthroughs, but – in the second of a two-part series – Euromoney asks whether trade finance will always be just that little bit too complicated for the blockchain?

If the market for sustainable finance is ever to achieve true scale, it needs to crack the tough nut of sustainable trade finance solutions.

Previously known as reverse factoring, sustainable supply-chain finance is one of the products currently generating the most interest among both banks and their corporate clients.

Fourth-quarter numbers from Asia’s biggest trade finance banks suggest that business in the region has bounced back rapidly. Corporates have changed their approach to their manufacturing bases and supply chains, and have accelerated their use of technology. In the first of a two-part series, Euromoney finds there are lessons here for the rest of the world when the pandemic eventually eases.

Trade deal brings together 15 Asian nations; banks jostle to benefit.

Have banks and corporates underestimated the sheer complexity of digitalizing trade transactions?

Buoyed by relatively healthy balance sheets, corporates have demonstrated a willingness to directly support the financial health of their supply chains since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Fraud, commodity prices and concerns over defaults have created a perfect storm for commodity trade finance – and the capacity of trading firms and finance funds to support the market remains unclear.

Financial institutions have backed the International Chamber of Commerce’s call for governments to scale up their support for trade finance to meet post-coronavirus demand.

Customers are starting to embrace digital forwarders that provide supply chain finance services as well as digitized freight forwarding.

Naveed Sultan, head of treasury and trade solutions at Citi, says the overall default risk from coronavirus will remain low and will be limited to the SME sector.

The leading banks in Euromoney’s Trade Finance Survey 2020 comment on the highlights of the last 12 months and their expectations for the year to come.

Will it be the banks that have built strong, steady relationships or those with big budgets that take transaction banking into the future?

Voted for by more than 7000 treasury professionals, find out which banks rank top in the Euromoney Trade Finance Survey 2020.

HSBC takes the top spot in Euromoney’s survey for the third year in a row.

A lack of regulation and standardization creates opportunities for businesses that can create a one-stop shop for all blockchain trade finance needs. So who is doing it?

Trade finance is gaining momentum as a securitized asset class – the resultant increased liquidity may offer corporates access to trade finance much more easily and quickly, especially as digital solutions streamline the process. Will SMEs, which have traditionally found it harder to access the market, be able to reap the benefits as well?

There has been a distinct shift towards collaboration rather than competition as new distributed ledger technology platforms continue to emerge and more established platforms extend their reach.