ITFA CEERC EDUCATIONAL EVENT & COCKTAIL GATHERING, VIENNA, AUSTRIA, Dec 2022

By Elitza Kavrakova, Raiffeisen Bank International AG, Member of Central and Eastern European Regional Committee (CEERC)

45 participants from 7 countries, 4 excellent presenters and a lot of networking – this is how the ITFA CEERC event held on the 23^rd of November 2022 in Vienna can be summed up. High above the beautiful city center in the sky conference rooms of host Raiffeisen Bank International AG (RBI), bank, fintech and ICC Austria representatives met in person after more than 2 years to refresh relationships and get updated on industry trends.

Colleagues from Austria and Central Europe enjoyed insightful presentations by André Casterman, Managing Director of Casterman Advisory and Chair of ITFA Fintech Committee on Market transformation impacting trade finance, DNI and TFD initiatives and tokenisation policy developments. Gunter Deuber, Head of Raiffeisen Research gave a very interesting presentation on the CEE outlook and key views going forward. The educational event part has been rounded up by Martina Zimmerl, Head of RBI Trade Finance and Irina Toumanian, Senior Relationship Manager at the Institutional Clients Eastern Europe Team of RBI, who covered the topic of Sanctions impact on Trade Finance with a very practice and case driven dialogue.

The event was followed by a cocktail reception, which presenters and participants used to extensively network and continue exchanging views on the topics presented.