ITFA SERC EDUCATIONAL EVENT, MARCH 15TH – MADRID, SPAIN, Apr 2023

Contributed by the ITFA Southern European Regional Committee

ITFA, together with Banco Santander, organised ITFA’s Southern European Regional Committee (SERC) educational day in Santander’s HQ on March 15th, 2023. The event was very well attended with over 120 people coming from more than 40 trade related companies in different regions, including banks, investors, credit insurance companies, insurance brokers, fintechs, law firms and credit rating agencies.

The objective of this event was to serve as a forum to openly discuss current challenges and opportunities, as well as innovations and ideas related to the distribution of trade related financing activities. The event also served as a network platform for players.

Alberto Amo, Global Head of PDM GTB & Global Distribution Channels at Santander, opened the event and reflected on the significant evolution of the trade activity in the industry and within Santander. Setting the tone, he mentioned that ”the distribution of Trade Finance has evolved enormously in the past 10+ years, and the pace is only accelerating. We have been focusing on tackling key challenges, including wider range of counterparties to distribute, talent, distribution of risk management, digital innovation, and regulatory and operational complexity”.

Jonathan Lonsdale, Global Head of PDM Trade & Working Capital Solutions at Santander, said of the event: “This was a great opportunity to get such a strong international audience together in Santander’s Madrid HQ.  It was particularly pleasing to have all of Santander’s Trade distribution professionals from across the globe in one place, and to be able to interact with many of the most significant investors, insurers, and other counterparties in the Trade Finance space.  We really appreciate the fact that we were able to work with ITFA to have so many counterparties make the journey to meet and interact with one another at our HQ and we look forward to continuing our close co-operation with ITFA in the future”.

Alberto Carrion, Committee Member of ITFA’s SERC highlighted: “This has been a long overdue event to get some updates about latest trends in Trade Finance with both regional and international members including all different type of counterparties connected through ITFA. It has been overwhelming and very pleasing to see all the Trade Finance community reunited in Madrid eager to share experiences, concerns and opportunities to promote the continuous development and growth of the Trade Finance and forfaiting industries in the region”.

The SERC committee would like to thank all those who were present during the event and to all those who contributed to it.