When Covid-19 containment measures were implemented in markets across the world, SCF providers reported a
surge in demand. Despite years of warnings that supplier finance programmes may not survive an economic downturn, it appears that funding
However, SCF programmes generally only help suppliers once the goods have arrived at their destination. Unlike with a letter of credit (LC), a buyer has no guarantee of payment and so will generally wait until delivery before approving a supplier’s invoice.
According to Tim Nicolle, chief executive of London-based fintech PrimaDollar, that creates space for so-called “supply chain trade finance”: a hybrid product where features from the traditional trade finance sector are blended with those of emerging technology-driven SCF.
Thomas Carroll, an insurance broker, has appointed Rob Farquharson as head of credit and surety, a newly created role.
Farquharson has 18 years’ experience in the trade credit and surety market. He joins from Parker Norfolk, where he was director of trade credit. Prior to this, he held roles at Marsh, Willis and Euler Hermes.
This appointment comes as the firm reports growing requests for credit insurance. Gareth Cotty, managing director, says: “In the current climate, managing credit risk has never been so important and our business has always sought to offer solutions to our clients’ live risk exposures. Challenges because of Covid-19 and opportunities because of Brexit should put trade credit risk at the forefront of business risk thinking. Rob’s vast experience and industry knowledge allows us to offer practical solutions, ensuring our clients can continue to trade with confidence.”
Originally
launched in 2018, Tradeteq’s cloud-based platform allows originators to package trade finance products into standardised investments that can be bought and sold through private distribution networks and settled like common fixed income products.
The company says it intends to use this new funding, which comes from a consortium of US technology investors, to speed up its product development as well as expand its geographical reach.
“We had so far focused on the bank to capital market channel, which involves the repackaging of open account instruments into fungible notes such that they can be sold to pension funds, insurance companies and the likes,” Christoph Gugelmann, Tradeteq’s co-founder and CEO, tells
Serai, an HSBC-backed online B2B platform for SME trade, has launched a solution that allows companies in the apparel industry to trace the origin of the cotton and other raw materials that go into their products, enabling them to manage environmental, sustainability and governance (ESG) risks across the entire textile supply chain.
The solution, which is currently being piloted, enables suppliers to input information about their raw materials or intermediate goods, such as provenance or ESG performance, and share this with multiple parties over a secure platform.
“A large buyer could ask its supplier to prove what garments have gone into every shipment, and then ask its supplier’s suppliers what yarn went into those garments, and beyond that, what the origin was of the raw material used to make that yarn,” Vivek Ramachandran, Serai’s CEO, tells
The Trump administration used its final days in office to introduce a slew of new sanctions on a network accused of brokering the sale of prohibited Venezuelan crude oil to buyers in Asia.
Three individuals, 14 entities and six vessels were added to the list of sanctioned entities maintained by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), a formidable authority that sits within the US Department of the Treasury.
The Treasury alleges that all of these players have ties to a vast Mexico-based network, which the US claims has been helping Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro government bypass stringent sanctions placed on its state-owned fuel company, Petroleos de Venezuela (PdVSA), since 2019.