Tuesday, August 26th, 2014

Banks and forfaiters in Middle Eastern and North African countries are affected by the global financial crisis but trade finance offers scope for doing new business. Lack of liquidity and a collapse in stock market prices are taking their toll. However financing trade using traditional instruments such as letters of credit, stand-bys and avalised promissory […]

Tuesday, August 26th, 2014

ITFA’s Southern Europe Regional Committee (SERC) has elected two new members. Amid turmoil in a number of Southern European region markets, attendance at SERC’s meeting in Milan on 12th March was somewhat depleted. Nonetheless two new members were elected to the committee: Mr. Stefano Cesari of Unicredito, and Mr. Paolo Jelmoni of Reginato & Mercante, […]

Tuesday, August 26th, 2014

ITFA’s Northern European Regional Committee (NERC) aims to increase its representation of the region and become more inclusive in its activities. These are the aims of Paul Jennings, of ABC International Bank, NERC’s recently elected chairman. He is conscious that currently representation on the regional committee has largely been drawn from London and feels that […]

Tuesday, August 26th, 2014

A new ITFA Brazilian Regional Committee has now been established. The new committee was formally ratified by ITFA’s Board on 6th March 2009. It has initially four members: Renato Schulman of Banco Finantia, the Committee’s Chairman; Guilherme Gottardi of Banco Fibra, Alexandre Ozzetti of London Forfaiting Company and representing ATFA, The Association of Trade & […]

Tuesday, August 26th, 2014

The International Chamber of Commerce is to hold its annual International Trade Finance Conference Week in Vienna. The event, which will be held between 11th and 15th May, is to be hosted by RZB Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich at their Am Stadtpark 9, premises. The week includes an extremely wide variety of presentations and discussions under […]

Tuesday, August 26th, 2014

Investment banking in the main Asian centres of Singapore and Hong Kong is in the doldrums, with many formerly profitable product areas doing little if any business. However trade finance in general and forfaiting in particular are offering some rays of hope. “Many exporters need funding,” explains Charles Brough, chairman of ITFA’s South Asia Regional […]

Tuesday, August 26th, 2014

Representatives of banks throughout the Central and Eastern Europe Region attended the half-day educational course on UCP600, held in Vienna on 29th January. At the event, hosted by Bank Austria, Radek Dobas, the highly experienced Head of Documentary Payments at Ceska Sporitelna, spoke about the International Chamber of Commerce rules for documentary credits set out […]

Tuesday, August 26th, 2014

Almost 100 people attended the event that took place at Accountants Hall in the City of London on Thursday evening 5th February. Those invited had been drawn from around the Northern European region and represented a good cross section of the market. “Even if funding is presenting difficulties to finalising transactions, the strong turn out […]

Tuesday, August 26th, 2014

The new chairman of ITFA’s Southern Europe Regional Committee (SERC), Demetris Zouzoukis, is leading an initiative to share information and common concerns for the good of all members in the region during the current financial crisis. Zouzoukis, Deputy General Manager and Head of Forfaiting at Athens based Marfin Factors & Forfaiters, is currently convening a […]

Tuesday, August 26th, 2014

The document, produced by the ITFA’s Market Practice Committee and lawyers Denton Wilde Sapte, is designed primarily for new entrants to the market. It also reflects the views of a number of ITFA members both in form and content as well as those of the Forfaiting Task Force set up within the International Chamber of […]

Tuesday, August 26th, 2014

We are receiving reports, that because prices of certain goods and commodities have been moving against buyers, some are unilaterally canceling letters of credit. We understand that the L/Cs emanate from a variety of markets and are affecting overseas suppliers who are not being consulted by their customers in advance of shipping commodities. This is […]

Tuesday, August 26th, 2014

Twenty-eight people from all over the world attended the forfaiting seminar in Prague on 2nd and 3rd September, ahead of the conference. The course, which spanned two half-days, was an introduction to best practice in forfaiting and covered, among other things, risk assessment, how to carry out discount calculations, documentary issues and considerations of how […]