CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE – Sean Edwards, ITFA Chairman / Head of Legal and Special Adviser to The Global Trade Finance Department At SMBC, Oct 2021

Dear Members and Friends,

I am basking in a warm post-conference glow after returning from Bristol, the venue of the 47^th Annual Conference. Given the present circumstances and after one year’s absence, this year’s event was a remarkable success, attracting over 200 delegates from 18 countries! Three days of education, networking, fun and finally catching up and building on relationships. On behalf of the ITFA Board, I would like to take the opportunity to thank all those who attended and showed the enduring strength and bonds of our community.

A special thanks also goes to our sponsors; Deutsche Bank, African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), The Texel Group, Willis Towers Watson, Bank of China, Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, SMBC Group, Zürcher Kantonalbank, London Forfaiting Company Ltd, Africa Trade Finance Limited, Wilben Trade, Liberty Specialty Markets, UniCredit, 360tf, Sullivan & Worcester UK LLP and Enigio. Thanks for your valuable support!

As most of you are aware, Zeyno Davutoglu, Head of Education, resigned from the ITFA Board. May I take the opportunity to personally thank Zeyno for her sterling work throughout her tenure. At the same time, I’d like to welcome Simon Cook, Partner, Sullivan and Worcester UK LLP, who will be replacing Zeyno. Good luck Simon! We look forward to working with you.

And finally, a HUGE THANKS goes to my fellow board members. Terrific teamwork!

This October edition of the ITFA Newsletter includes various write ups on the areas touched upon during the annual conference. Shannon Manders, ITFA consultant, provides a round up article on the sessions discussed in Bristol titled ‘2021Annual ITFA Conference: 5 things we learned‘. Clarissa Dann, Deutsche Bank, provides an in-depth summary of the session presented by Sanjay Raja, Deutsche Bank, titled: ‘’How bright the dawn?’’. And finally, Katharine Morton, TXF, contributes an interesting read titled: ‘The trade credit village just got smaller. Does the Zurich exit matter?’’

Last but not least, we are proud to welcome the following eight institutions to our growing association: ABBYY, Access Bank plc, Accelerated Payments Ltd, Banque Saudi Fransi, DP World Financial Services, Pemberton Asset Management, Ta3meed Financing Platform and Zenith Bank PLC (Nigeria). Welcome all!

We are pleased to inform you that all conference presentations are available on the ITFA website. ITFA members may access these presentations here (https://itfa.org/member-area/presentations/).

We look forward to hearing from you with any feedback you may want to share with us by sending an email to myself, any of the Board Members or to our general email, info@itfa.org.

Best wishes,

Sean Edwards