Singapore-headquartered fintech firm dltledgers has launched a platform for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to access trade financing from alternative financiers.
SmartFin is a blockchain-based system that matches SMEs that are seeking finance to funders who can provide it. According to dltledgers, over 400 companies have already signed up, and can currently access financing from a handful of non-bank financiers, including TradeFlow, Drip Capital, Funding Societies, Crowd-Genie, Stenn International and Capital Match.
SMEs sign up to the platform via the web or on their mobile phones. They are contacted by the dltledgers customer service team in order to verify their credentials, and once this is completed they can submit their request for funding along with all their supporting documents directly via the blockchain platform, and control which lenders their application goes to. A dltledgers spokesperson tells
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has announced plans to ban financing of coal mining and power plants, as well as upstream oil and gas activities. But the bank has been urged to proceed with caution and avoid abandoning countries that continue to rely on fossil fuels for energy and exports.
In a new draft energy policy report, released last week, the multilateral development bank (MDB) lays out commitments to end financing for “any coal mining, oil and natural gas field exploration, drilling or extraction activities”.
Meanwhile, support for “any new coal-fired capacity for power and heat generation, or any facilities associated with new coal generation” will also be formally brought to a halt. The ADB notes that it hasn’t financed investments in coal power plants since 2013.
Arden Insurance Brokers has hired Richard Miller from PIB Insurance Brokers to head up its new trade credit, political risk and surety team.
Starting in the London-based role with immediate effect, Miller is tasked with setting up the unit, which will have a focus on UK businesses looking to sell both domestically and abroad. “Our product suite and range of services will cater for companies of all sizes in a multitude of sectors,” he says.
The unit will offer single risk, whole turnover, excess of loss, as well as political risk products, and will also work with financial institutions, Miller tells
London-based credit asset manager Channel Capital Advisors has hired Alok Kumar in the newly created role of head of portfolio analysis for trade finance.
Having started in April, Kumar has been tasked with working across all of Channel’s trade finance funds, and is responsible for the initial evaluation and structuring of deals, as well as certain aspects of portfolio management activities.
He rejoins Channel after a brief stint at cross-border supply chain finance platform Finverity, where he moved to take on the post of chief risk officer in 2019.
Kumar spent nearly three years as risk management officer at Channel prior to the move, having previously held roles at several banks in India, including Kotak Mahindra Bank, Union Bank of India, HSBC and HDFC Bank.
The US, EU and vaccine makers are squabbling over the prospect of waiving intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines. But a waiver is unlikely to have any real effect on ramping up production as it intends, and may not be a realistic prospect for global trade.
The US administration last week called to waive IP rights for vaccines, stating that “the extraordinary circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures”. It added that it will work with the World Trade Organization (WTO) to “make that happen”.
The waiver was first proposed to the WTO by
India and South Africa in October. They urged WTO members to work together to ensure that IP such as patents does not create barriers to coronavirus vaccines.