Announcing one of the conference speakers, Bristol 2021 – Geoffrey Wynne

The ITFA Board is excited to host you in Bristol. With just one month to go, join us at the 47th ITFA Annual Conference being held between 6-8 October. Please click here to register at your earliest.

We are pleased to announce Mr Geoffrey Wynne as the speaker of the session being held on Thursday 7th October at 10am titled: ”How to battle problems like fraud and non-performance in trade finance transactions.”

Trade finance assets are considered safe investments – they generally are but sometimes there are problems. Over the years there have been some “clever” frauds which have caught out financers and equally simple and avoidable ones. Perhaps even more common are transactions that fail in whole or in part for a number of reasons; some of which may have been unavoidable but others which could and should have been prevented. Geoff Wynne of Sullivan will look at some examples of where things have gone wrong for a number of reasons, what to do about them and how they might have been avoided. There should be lessons for future structuring!

Geoffrey Wynne is head of Sullivan & Worcester’s London office and also head of its award winning Trade & Export Finance Group.  Geoff is one of the leading trade finance lawyers.  He has extensive experience in many aspects of banking and finance, specifically trade and structured trade and commodity finance and related legal and compliance issues.  He has recently been involved in a number of initiatives for trade finance in the digital world including digital payment obligations including the use of LIBOR in the BAFT MPAs of which he was a key draftsman. 

Geoff sits on the editorial boards of a number of publications and is a regular contributor and speaker at conferences. Geoff is a member of ITFA’s Market Practices Committee (MPC) and has been assisting with a number of key legal issues relating to trade and export finance. Geoff  is currently Co-Chair of the ICC Committee writing the Uniform Rules for Digital Trade Transactions (URDTT). 

In Chambers and Partners Geoff is ranked a Tier 1 lawyer for Commodities: Trade Finance.  He holds a Fellowship award for trade finance from Trade and Forfaiting Review and is recognised in the UK Legal 500’s “Hall of Fame”.

We look forward to welcoming Geoff in Bristol!