ITFA MEMBER SURVEY: KEY TAKEAWAYS AND NEXT STEPS, May 2022

By the ITFA Board

At the start of the year, the ITFA Board launched a survey among the association’s members to collect important feedback on the ITFA community’s membership-related needs and expectations. Close to 100 responses were received from around the globe.

The Board was pleased to note that members’ overall satisfaction with the Association is high, with 49% and 41.5% of respondents indicating that they deem their membership to be of ‘excellent’ and ‘good’ value respectively. This demonstrates a marked improvement on the results of ITFA’s 2018/19 member survey, where membership was rated ‘extremely valuable’ by 23% of respondents and ‘very valuable’ by 56%, and signifies the progress the association has made over the last few years.

In keeping with the results of previous surveys, respondents this year rated their most valuable membership benefits as ‘networking opportunities’, ‘the ITFA annual conference’, and ‘access to technical content’. Members further noted that ITFA’s regulatory advocacy as well as its standardised documentation and guidelines – particularly with regards to the BAFT Master Participation Agreements – are of particular value.

In terms of areas where ITFA’s offering might be improved, 38% of respondents called for more market guidance and/or publications, 27% requested more physical events, and 24% voted for dedicated networking and social events.

Already work is underway to meet these requirements, and members are encouraged to read more about ITFA’s Market Practice Committee’s current work, including a new legal opinion on CRR, a new project to modernise the existing Uniform Rules for Forfaiting, and a template NDA for the inter-bank risk distribution market.

Members are also reminded to keep up to date with ITFA’s events calendar, which includes a growing number of in-person events globally, not least the annual ITFA Conference, taking place in Porto from 7 to 9 September. The recently released conference programme covers many of the topics suggested by survey respondents, including ESG in trade and supply chain finance, the impact of Basel IV, emerging market trade corridors, latest developments in credit insurance, and an entire morning dedicated to digital trade.

“It’s really important for members to come forward with their feedback, either as part of our surveys or on an ad hoc basis, so that we can ensure we’re meeting their expectations and continuing to deliver value to the trade finance community,” says ITFA Deputy Chair and Head of Communication and Membership, Lorna Pillow. “We thank all the members who took part in the recent survey. Their opinions will help shape the Board’s strategies and plans this year and next.”