ITFA ESG Announcement

We wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!
 
As previously announced at the ITFA Annual Conference in Bristol in October 2021, a new committee focused on the very important topic of ESG has been formed. Today we are pleased to announce the initial committee made up of individuals coming from a wide variety of backgrounds including banks, development banks, fintech, insurance, asset management and research. The committee members are:

Alexander Malaket – OPUS Advisory Services International Inc.
Deepesh Patel – Trade Finance Global (TFG)
George Pitcher – Marsh Specialty
Georgina Stevens – JP Morgan
Gwynne Master – Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking
Jay Mukhey – Finastra
Johanna Wissing – Credit Suisse (Switzerland) Ltd. – ESG Chairperson
Lucio Feijo Lopes – Feijo Lopes Advogados
Rudolf Putz – European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)
Natasa Ruiter – ING Bank N.V.
N L N Swaroop – HSBC
Paul Monigatti – AKA Ausfuhrkredit-Gesellschaft mbH
Shikha Kalra – Demica
Rebecca Harding – Coriolis Technologies Ltd.
Roberto Leva – Asian Development Bank (ADB)
Suresh Hegde – NN Investment Partners
 
You will also find short bios on each on the ITFA website. While this is a fully fledged team, it is by no means a closed group, and we still welcome applications from people passionate about the subject matter and wanting to make a contribution. If you are interested in joining, please contact Jo Wissing (johanna.wissing@credit-suisse.com).
 
The topic of ESG is certainly one of the most dominant ones in business, politics, society and other areas. Our next step is to fully integrate ESG into a trade finance context, and to deliver relevant, practical and neutral content to you. We have identified a number of crucial areas to focus on now. We should not forget how dynamic developments are in this space, so we will of course adjust and adapt our plan as required as we go along:

• Education: what best practices do we know, what initiatives are happening in trade, and how can collaboration, tech developments and policy updates support a just and equal transition;
• Standardisation: with countless standards, taxonomies and ESG rating methodologies available, we must tackle the mammoth task to develop a widely recognized framework;
• Advocacy: of initiatives in this space, as well as advocacy towards regulators on behalf of our members to drive inclusion of ESG considerations in capital models.

Across all these focus areas we want to of course be in close dialogue with you, our members as the relevant industry professionals, as well as collaborate closely with other industry bodies to team up and pool valuable resources and know-how.
 
We are very excited about setting out on this journey, and please feel free to reach out anytime if you are keen on joining us or discuss any particular topic.