TFD Initiative: Asset Distribution – a macro-economic necessity

We are delighted to share the latest white paper produced by Tradeteq as part of the Trade Finance Distribution (TFD) Initiative. This paper explains how trade finance distribution helps small businesses by bringing additional liquidity to the market.

By selling trade finance assets to non-bank investors, not only can banks remove risk from their balance sheets, but they can also unlock new liquidity, helping to plug the trade finance gap and providing cash to the companies who need it most.

Here are the most recent TFD Initiative developments:

At the end of 2019, ITFA formed a formal association with the TFD Initiative to offer all ITFA members the possibility to participate in live projects and proof of concepts. TFD Initiative also facilitates collaboration amongst fintechs to address end-to-end requirements around data capture, credit scoring analytics and back-office integration. The Trade Asset Securitization Company (TASC) was set up as a service infrastructure which all TFD Initiative members can use to repackage assets as notes.

In January and February 2020, ITFA organised roadshows in London, Madrid and Helsinki to share the TFD Initiative market practices as well as Commerzbank’s technology adoption testimonial.

In February 2020, ING partnered with Tradeteq to distribute commodity trade finance exposures to non-bank institutional investor Federated Hermes, a leading global investment manager with US$575.9bn in assets under management as of December 31, 2019.

In April 2020, ITFA hosted a TFD Initiative webinar to introduce ways in which Covid-19 public relief efforts can be allocated to trade assets through banks. Joined by the ICC, ITFA members Afreximbank, Coriolis Technologies, Lloyds and Tradeteq debated how transaction-level trade distribution offers a more effective and transparent alternative to extending loans. Following this session, Tradeteq CEO Christoph Gugelmann raised a call to action to the UK Government.

We invite you to join TFD Initiative and to download the TFD Initiative white paper here. Stay tuned for more educational webinars/events on our Fintech Initiatives.