THE VOICES FROM OUR REGIONS, September 2025

ITFA Collaboration with Blockchain Rio in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, September 2025

Written by the Latin American Regional Committee (LARC), August 2025

In the second week of August, ITFA partnered with Blockchain Rio in Rio de Janeiro, one of Latin America’s leading technology and innovation events, bringing together experts from finance, fintech, and blockchain to explore the future of digital trade.

Representing ITFA, Diego Consimo, a member of the Latin America Regional Committee (LARC) Board, participated in three sessions across the event:

Keynote: “The Bridge Between DeFi, Tokenization and the Future of Global Finance”

In this talk, Diego outlined the growing impact of decentralized finance (DeFi) and real-world asset (RWA) tokenization on capital markets and global trade. He highlighted inefficiencies in the current financial system including high costs, regulatory barriers, and restricted access to credit and showed how blockchain-based solutions like XDC Network are addressing these challenges by offering scalable, interoperable, and enterprise-grade infrastructure for trade finance.

Panel: “Tokenization of RWAs – Brazil at the Center of a Global Revolution”

As moderator, Diego led a discussion with leading Brazilian players such as Vert Capital, Liqi Digital Assets, Speck Finance, and Foxbit. The session explored how Brazil is emerging as a key market for RWA innovation, with active pilots in tokenized receivables and growing regulatory clarity fostering institutional adoption.

Panel: “ITFA – The Trade Finance Revolution Through Digitalization”

Co-hosted with Lúcio Feijó Lopes and Evandro Caciano, this session focused on ITFA’s mission to promote trade digitalization in Latin America. Diego presented how ITFA is fostering an educational and institutional presence in the region, and how partnerships like this one with Blockchain Rio are key to that strategy.

Reflecting on the event, Lucio Feijó Lopes shared: “I am happy to help build the community in Brazil of the next generation of trade finance practitioners. After years involved with ITFA, it’s great to see the evolution of the organization now in Latin America, which is more focused on innovation. Exciting times ahead.”

Beyond the panels, the event served as a valuable opportunity to showcase ITFA’s work to the Brazilian market and to formally introduce the new LARC Committee to delegates in attendance.

ITFA 2025 Annual Conference / London the Alternative, September 2025

Written by the Paul Fennel, Northern European Regional Committee (NERC) Committee Member

The ITFA Alternative Drinks event brought together a diverse group of professionals across all aspects of Trade Finance, including representatives from Banks, Insurance, Legal, and Fintech. The informal setting of the Samuel Pepys Pub overlooking the River Thames on a sunny slightly autumnal September evening made for a great location to re-connect with old colleagues across the market and wider ITFA community and allowed people to hopefully build new connections within the Trade Finance sector.

Key Highlights

• Strong turnout from both established institutions and emerging players in the trade finance space.
• Discussions centred around:
  • Market trends.
  • Innovations in digital trade and risk mitigation.
  • Opportunities for collaboration across origination and distribution.
• Positive feedback on the format and venue with many attendees expressing interest in future events.
• Great also to see some more “experienced” ex-professionals from the market who were able to attend

On behalf of the organising committee would like to thank the ITFA Board for being so generous in allowing us to host the event, and big thanks to the ITFA secretariat who did a lot promoting the event.