Page 35 - Personal Data Held News Today

The Covantis blockchain platform for post-trade processes has moved into full production, two years after being created by a group of major agribusinesses to digitalise agricultural shipping transactions. It was announced last week that the platform had gone live with more than 30 entities, including its six founding members – Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Bunge, Cargill, Cofco, Louis Dreyfus Company and Viterra. The platform will initially cover bulk shipments of commodities such as corn and...

NMS Infrastructure has appointed Gareth Sinnett as head of trade finance, a newly created position for the UK-based engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) project developer. He is responsible for all trade finance activities at NMS, reporting to Nick Oliver, head of business development. Sinnett’s career includes 24 years spent across various senior roles within international development company Crown Agents and a number of its subsidiaries, winning and delivering multi-disciplinary ...

The sudden downfall of supply chain finance (SCF) heavyweight Greensill was triggered after US$4.6bn in insurance cover fell away overnight, court documents reveal. Problems with Greensill’s trade credit insurance cover first arose in July 2020, when Australia’s Bond and Credit Company (BCC) said it did not intend to renew or extend policies due to expire ...

Supply chain finance (SCF) provider Greensill could be at risk of insolvency within days, after Credit Suisse suspended two investment funds relied on by the London-based fintech. Credit Suisse issued a notice to investors on Monday saying it was immediately suspending its SCF high income and investment grade funds, which provide as much as US$10bn ...

Pressure is growing for UK and US companies to move supply chains out of Xinjiang following recent measures by both governments to crack down on imports of goods linked to the Chinese region. However, analysts suggest that switching to new suppliers elsewhere in the country, or even in Asia, comes with similar risks. Amid international ...

The Indian government has pledged to pump US$2.7bn into a new development finance institution (DFI) as part of plans to galvanise infrastructure spending and help the country bounce back from the deleterious effects of Covid-19. The announcement was made in the country’s annual budget earlier this month, with India’s finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman stating that she would introduce a bill for setting up the new DFI with a starting capital of roughly Rs200bn. The ambition is to have a len...

The decline in global goods trade volumes caused by the Covid-19 pandemic appears to have been less drastic than predicted by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in late 2020, with export growth in Asia during the second half of the year matched by increased demand from other markets. In its most recent goods trade barometer, the WTO says growth in trade volumes remained strong in the fourth quarter of 2020, after a stronger-than-anticipated rebound during Q3. The UN Conference on Trade and Deve...

HSBC has hired Celine Herweijer as group chief sustainability officer, reporting directly to Noel Quinn, HSBC’s group CEO. She joins from PwC, where she most recently served as global innovation and sustainability leader, driving the consulting firm’s strategy and partnerships on innovation and emerging technologies, including on agendas such as responsible technology, tech ethics and ...

UK Export Finance (UKEF) has overhauled its supplier credit facility programme to make its support more accessible to the large proportion of SME trade that is financed by non-bank lenders. Launched this week, the British export credit agency’s new standard buyer loan guarantee (SBLG) allows it to guarantee a loan of up to 85% of a UK company’s export contract value, enabling British exporters to get paid upfront while their overseas buyers can repay the loan from their lender over a longer...

DBS Bank has provided a structured trade facility to Chandra Asri, Indonesia’s largest integrated petrochemical producer, to support the company’s efforts to boost export sales. The US$60mn short-term credit line is made up of both pre-shipment and post-shipment finance, which Tan Su Shan, group head of institutional banking at DBS, says will give the company the ability to “obtain, scale and diversify access to competitive financing”, as well as bolster the country’s balance of payme...