THE VOICES FROM OUR REGIONS, October 2025

SERC Educational Event, Madrid, Spain, 25th September, 2025

Written by Jaime Saez, Grupo Santander

The International Trade & Forfaiting Association Board together with Banco Santander invited over 140 people from more than 50 trade related companies such as banks, investors, credit insurance companies, insurance brokers, fintechs, law firms and educational institutions to the ITFA’s Southern European Regional Committee (SERC) educational day, hosted by Santander on 25th September of 2025 at Santander CIB’s HQ in Spain.

The event was introduced by the host and continued with the view from ITFA on its latest initiatives. There were then 5 panels and presentations on relevant trade finance topics such as the Trade Finance Landscape and where we see it heading, macro environment, SME Trade Finance & Platform-Based Origination, Leveraged Finance opportunity for trade products, and Defence Financing.

The objective of this event was to provide 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 included experienced and senior trade finance practitioners and the event served to strengthen ties among the stakeholders that were represented in the event coming from all over Europe.

We warmly thank Banco Santander for welcoming the ITFA community to their premises in Madrid and we look forward to continuing our close cooperation in the future.