Successful seminar in Vienna

ITFA’s Central and Eastern European Regional Committee has hosted a successful education seminar in Vienna.

The event took place on Thursday 29th April at Bank Austria’s Lassallestrasse offices in central Vienna and was attended by 22 participants drawn from Austria, Czech Republic, Germany and Hungary. Dr. Andrea Hauptmann, Vice President at RZB gave a presentation on the revised Uniform Rules for Demand Guarantees (URDG), International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) publication 758.

Dr. Hauptmann is a member of ICC Austria, a long-standing delegate to the ICC Banking Commission and a member of the seven-person URDG Drafting Group. Her presentation covered the principal changes incorporated in the new version of URDG.

This was followed by a presentation given by ITFA Deputy Chairman Sean Edwards on the new forfaiting rules currently being drafted by the ICC and ITFA.

The afternoon meeting concluded with a lively discussion on the nature and future of forfaiting. This continued through the evening at a cocktail reception, which took place at Vienna’s Meinl Weinbar.

Semih Özcan,
Executive Director
Global Credit Markets at RZB and Chairman of ITFA’s Central and Eastern European Regional Committee notes that the afternoon event was successful in drawing together representatives from across near-by countries in the region. He adds that the informal discussion that followed the presentations demonstrates that the forfaiting market is embracing change in the aftermath of the crisis in the banking sector and in light of new demands and developments in supply chain financing.