Page 30 - Personal Data Held News Today

Opaque company structures and questionable transactions at the heart of Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance are driving public and private sector lenders away, leaving a major funding gap after Greensill’s collapse. The alliance, a loose network of companies with ties to metals tycoon Gupta, has been eagerly seeking new sources of financing after the GTR has spoken to numerous trade finance industry sources about whether private sector lenders are prepared to replace Greensill as a source of fund...

UAE Trade Connect (UTC), a trade finance solution that addresses the risk of double financing and fraud across the United Arab Emirates, has moved into full commercial production. Having been in development since 2017 through an initial collaboration between telecommunications firm Etisalat and tech company Avanza Innovations – as well as First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) – the platform formally went live with seven UAE-based commercial banks this week. UTC allows banks to send invoice information...

A shipment of flat carbon steel to the UAE from India has become the first integrated paperless letter of credit (LC) and electronic documentary transaction for a steel export, according to HSBC, which financed the trade. The live trade finance transaction between the UAE’s Universal Tubes and Plastic Industries, and India’s Tata Steel, involved end-to-end digitisation of the documentation on blockchain trade finance network Contour. essDocs,  a Contour partner, managed the electronic bill...

The Africa Trade Finance Survey Report garnered responses from 185 commercial banks – representing 58% of total assets across the continent – to better understand the impact of Covid-19 on African lenders of trade finance for the period January to April 2020. It reveals that, as previously suspected, the pandemic “affected the trade finance activities of banks across the continent and led to material disruptions to trade”. While a “significant range of respondents” from different s...

UK-based SME financing provider Bibby Financial Services (BFS) says it has established a £300mn pandemic recovery fund for new and existing customers as coronavirus lockdown restrictions in the UK begin to ease.   The company says the fund will target businesses trading on credit terms who are seeking funding to grow as the economy reopens. SMEs will be able to access the funds through BFS invoice finance products such as trade and export finance variants, factoring, invoice discounting and...

An influential industry group has issued first-of-its-kind guidance on structured letters of credit (LCs), a divisive product that is gaining popularity in the trade finance sector. Structured LCs, also known as synthetic or prepaid LCs, vary widely but typically involve the issuing bank receiving upfront some or all of the funds due. The banks involved ...

The Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (TDB) has issued a three-year partial risk guarantee facility to support women-led small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Burundi. Provided as part of its Trade and Development Fund (TDF), the guarantee, valued at BuFr500mn (US$260,000) will be used by microfinance institution Women’s Initiative for Self-Empowerment (WISE) to borrow approximately US$510,000 in working capital from Banque de Gestion et de Financement (BGF). The fundin...

New Zealand’s government is proposing mandatory climate-related risk disclosures, introducing a bill last week that would compel banks and insurers to divulge climate risks to investors.   The proposed legislation will require large lenders and insurance companies to begin collecting data from April next year in order to meet mooted disclosure requirements for the 2023 financial year.  The move means New Zealand will be the first country to mandate reporting of climate risks by the financi...

Country: Canada   GTR: What does Sustainalytics do? Ranney: Sustainalytics is a global provider of ESG data and analysis covering over 12,000 traded securities around the world. On the buy-side, we provide research and analysis services to asset owners and investment managers that are incorporating ESG into their investment management strategies. We also provide services to issuers, including the provision of second-party opinions on companies’ green and social sustainability-linked bonds an...

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