ITFA AMERICAS 28TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE, MIAMI, June 2025

Contributed by Brendan Herley, Harpreet Mann and Lisa Varney, Co-Chairs and Vice-Chair respectively of the Americas Regional Chapter (AMRC).

ITFA Americas staged its 28^th annual conference in Miami in early June. The 3-day event was attended by over 160 delegates and proved to be a great success despite inclement weather. Eleven enlightening panel discussions and two memorable keynote speeches addressed a wide range of topical subjects, including today’s geopolitical and economic landscape, alternative funding solutions and ever-evolving technological innovations impacting trade finance. Not surprisingly, tariffs featured in almost all discussions, from their constitutional legality to their intended and unintended consequences. Similarly, AI was a hot topic that now plays an increasingly prominent role in global supply chains, compliance and portfolio management as well as marketing, fraud prevention and use (and acceptance) of electronic documents.

In addition to tackling a raft of regular themes, ITFA Americas’ conference also saw several new topics brought to the fore – the growing surety market, a Canadian perspective on the supply chain finance market, and broad overviews from senior figures at HSBC and JP Morgan – plus three educational workshops focused on credit underwriting, Miami’s growing prominence as a trade hub, and standby letters of credit.

Preceding the conference, ITFA Americas staged its Annual General Meeting at which the Advisory Board shared the accomplishments over the past year both in terms of events and initiatives.  The members elected two seasoned market practitioners to the advisory board, Luis Torres (SMBC) and Peter Clement (Rosenthal Captial Group).  In addition, Lisa Azzaro (Markel) was elected as Secretary to the Advisory Board.  Brendan Herley (Bank ABC) and Harpreet Mann (Amynta) were re-elected as Co-Chairs, as was Lisa Varney (Bondaval) as Vice Chair.

Given the quality of the speakers and the setting, it’s possible that ITFA Americas will look to return next year. With luck, most of the 19 sponsors will also renew their support. In the meantime, the advisory board is already preparing for networking events in July with its partners at IECA (Calgary Stampede) and AMSCI (webinar), and is advancing discussions on several fronts, including capital relief and carbon credits. No rest for the weary!