Page 67 - Data Controller News Today

In the latest episode of the GTR News Brief, host Felix Thompson gives a breakdown of recent major stories in trade and trade finance news as covered by GTR. After months of deadlocks, the World Trade Organization has named Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as its seventh director general. Global commodity trader Trafigura is set to secure a new sustainability-linked ...

The number and severity of attacks on vessels by pirates in the Gulf of Guinea are increasing, posing a threat to global trade and the safety of seafarers working in the region, according to the International Maritime Organization (IMO). In a letter to all agencies of the United Nations (UN) dated February 10, IMO secretary-general ...

HSBC and Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) have closed an Islamic trade finance facility worth US$100mn. The financial institutions refinance trade facility is a new addition to HSBC’s Islamic product suite, according to a press statement by QIB. “We are very proud that QIB is the first bank in the region to complete an Islamic trade ...

To embed, copy and paste the code into your website or blog: Virginia is for lovers and, in the near future, may be for privacy as well, as the Commonwealth’s legislature is currently considering adopting its own comprehensive consumer data privacy law: The Consumer Data Protection Act (CDPA). The CDPA, which would establish a framework for controlling and processing personal data in Virginia, is comprised of House Bill 2307 and Senate Bill 1392, and appears to be close to crossing the goal l...

Global commodity trader Trafigura is set to secure a new sustainability-linked revolving credit facility (RCF) as it works to cut its carbon footprint and boost renewables, though the firm says it has no plans to shift away from oil in the coming years. Having published its first ever emissions reduction target in a responsibility report last month – which will see the commodity trader work to cut its own direct and indirect emissions by 30% in the next three years – Trafigura is preparing ...

Global shipping company Hapag-Lloyd has secured an export credit agency (ECA)-backed syndicated green loan from a group of nearly a dozen banks. BNP Paribas and German development bank KfW Ipex-Bank structured and coordinated the US$417mn facility, which will be used to finance the firm’s purchase of three container ships from South Korea. Nine other banks took part in the deal, which has a 12-year maturity date and is backed by the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (K-sure). This particular ...

BNP Paribas has announced plans to cut financing to companies involved in Brazilian deforestation, though investigative campaign groups say the commitment is “weak” and lacking in urgency. According to a statement issued by the bank on February 15, financial products or services will only be provided to companies that have a strategy to achieve zero deforestation. The strategy must be in place by 2025, and be effective across their production and supply chains. The measure targets producers...

US authorities say companies in Iran are using forged shipping documents, vessel impersonation techniques and UAE-based front companies to circumvent sanctions and export oil. The US Department of Justice makes the allegations in a forfeiture claim filed in early February. It is attempting to seize 2 million barrels of oil currently aboard Achilleas, a Liberia-flagged tanker, that it says originates in Iran and is being sold to support the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which it has ...

After a series of pilot transactions, FQX, a Swiss-based fintech focused on electronic negotiable instruments, has launched its electronic promissory note, or eNote, solution into the global market, bringing a 2,000-year-old debt instrument into the digital age. First used during the Han Dynasty in 118 BC, promissory notes are negotiable instruments that enable companies and individuals to obtain finance based on an unconditional promise to pay. Much like other paper-based trade processes, prom...

British exporters need the UK to sign more trade deals if they are to trade their way back to profitability following the double whammy of Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic, according to new data from HSBC. In a recent survey of 1,000 UK businesses, conducted by polling firm YouGov in January for HSBC UK, 62% say that free trade agreements will be important to growing profits in the future, while just over a third say that they would want a trade deal to be in place before they would consider a ...