Introducing the Conference Speakers in Edinburgh – ”Banking Africa: Doing it Right” panel session

With the ITFA Annual Conference less than two months away, the ITFA Board is excited to announce that all preparations are well underway to ensure another successful and memorable event. To register on-line, to view the conference programme and for any other informative details, please click here.

At this year’s ITFA Annual Conference, Duarte Pedreira – Crown Agents Bank, will chair the Panel discussion titled ‘‘Banking Africa: Doing it Right’’. The rest of the panel will consist of Christian Karam – Africa Trade Finance Limited, Louis du Plessis – FirstRand Bank and Ian Henderson – Gulf International Bank (UK) Limited.

This interesting session will focus on:

1) Current status quo of African banking, a regional analysis (Northern, Western, Eastern and Southern Africa)

• Banking systems
• Market players
• Business models
• Type of trade finance being done

2) The role currently played by other financiers:

• Multilateral and development banks
• Funds
• Commodity traders
• Insurers

3) De-risking:

• Real impact in African banking
• Risk driven or revenue driven?
• Appetite for African trade in secondary markets

4) Trade Finance GAP:

• How to make trade finance available to African SMEs without compromising lenders?

5) Future of African Banking:

• Technology
• Compliance
• Client confidence
• Accessible trade finance

Duarte Pedreira is an experienced trade financier, with ample exposure to trade, commodity and working capital finance in a multitude of different jurisdictions, with an emphasis in emerging markets. His previous experience includes senior trade finance roles with the Standard Bank Group, where he was Head of Trade Finance Sales at the bank’s head office in South Africa, and Head of Transactional Banking at Standard Bank’s Angolan operation. Subsequently, and prior to joining Crown Agents Bank in August 2016 as Head of Trade Finance, he was also Head of Structured Finance Advisory for Caspian Sea Capital and an Underwriting Manager for the award-winning credit insurance team at AIG.

Christian Karam has over a decade of experience in trade finance and cross border lending. Founder and director at Africa Trade Finance Ltd (ATF) he is dedicated to arranging trade finance borrowing to FIs and large corporates in Africa. Prior to incorporating ATF, Christian spent 10 years at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation in London, where he set up and headed their Africa Desk. As a key speaker at several trade conferences in Africa and elsewhere, Christian has a wealth of knowledge in international trade finance and trade syndication. Christian holds a Bachelors and Masters Degree in Finance from the Skema Business School in France.

Louis du Plessis works in the Trade and Working Capital area of Rand Merchant Bank which is the Corporate and Investment Banking division of FirstRand Bank Limited. He heads a team responsible for trade finance with Bank and Non-Bank Financial Institutions, Escrow, Risk Distribution and Syndication as well as Credit Insurance. He has been directly involved in trade finance structuring for the past ten years across various disciplines covering corporates as well as banks. He holds an Accounting Sciences Honours Degree and is a Chartered Accountant.

Ian Henderson’s banking career spans 30 years gained through on-the-ground experience in the Americas, Africa, CEE and Asia. Ian joined GIB (UK) in 2016 as a Senior Portfolio Manager in the Trade Finance Asset Management team. Prior to that Ian has been involved in all aspects of trade finance for over 21 years. Ian has held positions as MD, Director, General Manager and consultant at Standard Bank of SA Ltd, Standard Bank London, Banque Belgolaise, WestLB AG, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ, Texel Capital, MRI Trading AG and Gunvor Group. Ian holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Business Economics from University of Witwatersrand, South Africa.

We look forward to this discussion and to welcoming Duarte and the rest of the panel in Edinburgh!