CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE – Sean Edwards, ITFA Chairman / Head of Legal and Special Adviser to The Global Trade Finance Department At SMBC, Mar 2022

Dear ITFA members and friends

I hope you are fine wherever you are in the world.

At every level, personal and professional and wherever we are located, we have all been affected by the war in Ukraine. First and foremost, this is a humanitarian crisis. As I write, there is some hope that the suffering of the people of Ukraine (and some Russians too) may be coming to an end as peace talks make some progress. Equally challenging will be winning the peace. The choices that are made will profoundly affect us for years to come and could be the catalyst for some very important structural changes to the global economy and trade in particular. Let us hope for wisdom, far-sightedness and a continued devotion to globalism.

During the first quarter of this year we were, I must say, extremely busy with the necessary pre conference preparation. As a matter of fact, while I was writing this intro piece, I was chased by our secretariat to provide feedback on the conference website, to ensure we launch according to plan.

In March we hosted the first in-person event for this year.  Despite a last minute tube strike, the event was still well attended. The event was organised by our NERC committee and hosted by Allen & Overy, whom I take the opportunity to thank again for their hospitality.  

An individual session, followed up by two panels, discussed ESG and it’s potential effect on Trade Finance. During the event our ESG Committee, in collaboration with Coriolis Technologies, also launched a white paper, the intention of which is to shed more light onto the number of challenges associated with the ESG regulatory process.  A kind reminder to all those who could not make it, that the sessions were recorded and can be viewed by clicking here (link to video).

ESG will certainly be a hot for this year and we, via our ESG Committee endeavour to keep our members posted, whether it being through in-person events or through webinars and publications.

In fact, our conference this year will also be heavily inclined towards ESG principles. For the very first time ITFA will be making a contribution towards carbon footprint, and all our sponsorship items for this year (where practical) will be ESG compliant. 

ITFA is pleased to announce that the following five institutions have joined our ever growing association: Cooley LLP, MashreqBank, MUFG, The Mauritius Commercial Bank and Wenzl Assekuranzmakler GmbH.

Stay tuned for more updates about our annual conference!

Best wishes

Sean Edwards