Page 38 - Personal Data Held News Today

Despite dark predictions for a long, drawn-out hit on trade as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, trade transaction volumes in Asia finished 2020 ahead of 2019 levels, according to HSBC. Proprietary data from the global trade bank, seen by GTR, shows that the number of guarantees, trade and receivable finance products taken up month by month in 2020 overtook 2019 levels in September, and stayed above year-prior levels throughout the fourth quarter. “It was very difficult to predict what kind...

AXA XL has brought in Caroline Tran to lead its political risk, credit and bond (PRCB) insurance business in Europe, a newly created position for the global re/insurer. Tran joins AXA XL from Atradius, where she had been for the last 12 years, most recently as deputy head of special products and product leader for structured single situations and political risks. She started her career with Coface in Shanghai in 2004 and, a year later, became a country risk analyst and a political risk underwri...

In the second half of 2020, Chinese restrictions on coal imports from Australia – part of a wider trade dispute between the two nations – left vessels anchored in the Bohai Sea for months on end, unable to offload cargo, divert course or even change crews. “It’s totally devastating,” says Gaurav Singh, a navigation officer aboard Anastasia, which has been unable to dock since leaving Australia’s Hay Point in July last year. “Everyone is in panic, physically and mentally exhausted...

At the end of last week, the European Commission set out a plan to control Covid-19 vaccine exports from the EU, including requiring vaccine makers holding contracts with the bloc to have authorisation to export. The Commission cites a “lack of transparency” of vaccine exports from the EU as the reason for the measures, which came into effect on January 30 and will apply until the end of March. The new export control regime mandates information disclosure by Covid-19 vaccine producers that ...

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 in...

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 ...

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 ma...

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 ...

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 net...

As the Chinese currency continues to perform strongly against the dollar, large corporates trading into and out of China are reportedly looking to ramp up their use of yuan-denominated trade finance products. Yet concerns remain over the potential impact a burgeoning Chinese currency could have on smaller domestic exporters. The renminbi (Rmb) has risen markedly since the early months of last year. At that time, the Chinese currency fell to its weakest point against the greenback since 2008 as ...