John Basquill

GTR’s annual Asia trade leaders roundtable brought together senior figures from the region’s trade finance market. Held on the sidelines of GTR Asia in September in Singapore, the discussion covered shifts in demand for trade and working capital finance in a higher interest rate environment, how China’s domestic slowdown has affected trade flows, and how efforts to digitise the sector have progressed – particularly as artificial intelligence enters the mainstream.

HSBC has appointed former Citi director Arpana Amin as global head of supply chain finance.

Stenn, the UK-based invoice financing provider that was placed in administration last week, had its banking facilities frozen by Citi, GTR understands.

Nearly 50% of firms are now using electronic bills of lading (eBLs) yet only a fifth of banks currently support them, according to a survey of companies involved in international trade.

UAE ministers have hailed progress in expanding access to finance for smaller businesses after Abu Dhabi-based embedded finance startup CredibleX announced it has raised US$55mn in a seed funding round.

UK-based Kimura Capital has closed its trade finance fund, adding to wider market challenges around financing for smaller and mid-sized commodity traders. Bloomberg reported on December 17 that Kimura Capital was shutting down its London-based lending business and returning money to backers, including institutional investors such as Goldman Sachs Asset Management. GTR understands that the ...

Miami-headquartered eCapital Corp, which provides financing to small and medium-sized businesses in North America and the UK, has announced the acquisition of working capital provider LSQ Group. LSQ’s platform allows companies to optimise their working capital cycles by automating and accelerating payments, while using technology and proprietary data to manage credit risk. eCapital, whose offering ...

Crédit Agricole CIB has announced Dominique Honoré will lead its newly launched global trade and commodities product line, with Vincent Gancel appointed as deputy head. The product line sits within Crédit Agricole’s international trade and transaction banking business, bringing together its trade finance, commodity finance and receivables and supply chain finance activities within a single ...

Aggressive US sanctions against vessels transporting Russian oil are expected to have a substantial impact on trade flows, with Russia’s remaining shadow fleet unlikely to be large enough to fulfil demand, researchers believe. The outgoing Biden Administration announced on January 10 it had imposed sanctions on more than 150 individual vessels, as well as numerous ...

The availability of trade credit has remained stable for small businesses across the EU, despite a “complex set of challenges” such as rising costs and tighter lending conditions, the European Commission has found. A survey on SME access to finance carried out by the Commission and European Central Bank finds that during 2024, nearly three-quarters ...