CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE – Sean Edwards, ITFA Chairman, June 2024

Dear Members and Friends,

I hope this message finds you in good health and high spirits. As we kick off another month, I am delighted to bring you our monthly newsletter, aimed at keeping you updated on the latest developments and activities within our association.

Let me start with a brief summary of the key topics discussed during the Virtual ITFA AGM held earlier on this month. For those members who could not join us, you can click here and view the recording.  This well attended session covered various matters with the most salient one being the creation of a new membership category, Group Membership, allowing a group of companies to enable all its subsidiaries to benefit from membership status. The Board also suggested an amendment to its statutes, thereby removing the membership fee cap allowing the Board the flexibility it needs to ensure the Association is financially sound whilst maintaining membership oversight of any change in the maximum level of fees.

I am pleased to announce that Andre Casterman, Christopher Hall, Lorna Pillow and Simon Cook were re-elected for another 3-year term.  I am also pleased to welcome N L N Swaroop and Sian Aspinall who have also been elected for the first time. Please join me in congratulating the six of them! On another note, we wish to thank outgoing board members, Johanna Wissing and Zhang Mei for their support and commitment during their time serving on the ITFA Board!

As also mentioned during the AGM, June was another activity packed month with 6 in person events and two webinars, with the main event being the third annual ITFA Insurance Awards Ceremony, hosted at the premises of HSBC Continental Europe, Paris, France. May I take the opportunity to congratulate all the winners as well as all the participants for making this event a success.  After a long absence ITFA also set foot back in Athens, where together with the ITFA Southern European Regional Committee, we organised an Educational Event, entitled New Trends and Innovation in Trade and Supply Chain Finance.  ITFA was also present in Dubai, France (again), Madrid and Dusseldorf where we held another four successful events.  And that’s just one month, phew!

Looking ahead to July, following last year’s success we are excited to announce the ITFA Week, featuring three consecutive events. We kick off on Monday 8th July with an enlightening Educational Insurance Seminar in the afternoon.  Click here for further details.

We follow up on Tuesday 9th July with Part 1 of our Educational Seminar.  This session will cover the fundamentals of trade finance featuring insights from our Board members and esteemed guest speakers.  In the afternoon, do not miss the highlight on our summer calendar, the ITFA NERC Annual Summer Seminar and Reception. See here for more details.

On Wednesday 10th July, our educational journey continues with Part 2 of the seminar, followed by the ITFA DNI workshop in the afternoon.

The biggest event on our horizon is, of course, our 50th Annual Conference. With already nearly 250 registrations already, we anticipate a full house. Please save your spot and register at your earliest to avoid disappointment.  More information can be found here

I would like to once again extend our heartfelt appreciation to this year’s sponsors. We are proud to announce a record number of sponsors this year, reflecting the support and recognition ITFA consistently receives for its meaningful contributions to the market. If you or your organisation are interested in sponsoring our event, please click here for more information or contact us via email at info@itfa.org.

In this month’s newsletter you can read up on the Breakfast Briefing organised by ITFA African Regional Committee (ARC) at the GTR East Africa, Nairobi which took place at the end of May.  ITFA Americas’ have a lot to share this month starting with the ITFA Americas’ 27th Annual Conference which was held for the very first time in Chicago in mid-May, as well as a Q&A Article “ITFA Americas under the spotlight” wherein you will read about how the committee is pushing forward with a busy agenda of events, webinar, podcasts and industry-shaping advocacy work.

Along with these events you will find a couple of interesting articles, one about the creation of another ITFA working group, “Deep-Tier Supply Chain Finance Working Group”, and another article which is a Fintech article on the “Adoption of Electronic Documents in Documentary Business contribute by Benoit Steinbach who forms part of the ITFA DNI Initiative Group.  Last, by not least, I remind you about our “Voices from our Regions” where you can read all about our ITFA Southern European Region (SERC) Educational Event held in Madrid in the first week of June as well as the Trade Finance Networking Cocktail, held in Paris at the end of May.

Lastly, we are thrilled to announce that the following institutions have joined our ever-growing association – Allied World, CODIX, Emerald Capital Group, gunnercooke LLP and NORD/LB.

I encourage you to take the time to read through this newsletter, keeping an eye out for exciting announcements, upcoming events, and opportunities for involvement. Your feedback and suggestions are invaluable to us, and we welcome your active participation in shaping the direction of our organisation.

Stay connected with us on LinkedIn for instant updates on upcoming events.

Happy summer!