ITFA Webinar: Documentary trade is facing COVID-19 too – how can technology and policy help?
10th April 2020
Traydstream was proud to be invited by ITFA to participate in a webinar round table discussion on ‘Documentary trade is facing COVID-19 too – how can technology and policy help?’
Documentary trade practices rely heavily on the exchange of paper documents. The recent disruption of international courier services and the sudden move to working-from-home are seriously impacting traditional banking operations in this area. Whilst transmitting documents in a timely manner poses a real challenge, getting them to the right destination – the home of the document checker – looks like the new mission impossible.
Key digitisation highlights
The session was moderated by André Casterman, Chair Fintech Committee, ITFA and featured the following:
- Jari Hänninen, Head of Structured Finance, Credit Products, Nokia Corporation
- John Ahearn, Vice Chair, Global Trade, Citibank
- Samuel Matthew, Global head of documentary trade, Standard Chartered Bank
- Vinod Madhavan, Group head trade finance, Standard Bank
- Sean Edwards, Chair, ITFA and Head of Legal and Special Adviser Trade Finance, SMBC Europe
- Jacco de Jong, Global Head of Sales, Bolero International
- Uzair Bawany, Chief Revenue Officer and Co-founder, Traydstream.
The group discussed how this period has the opportunity to be a global catalyst for the use of technology in banking operations as the risks and opportunities by digitization and automation are better understood. The panelist summarise the challenges that are currently out in the market as well as how fintechs and other players can fill the needs gap. There was also a call on regulators to further provide guidance and set the stage for greater standardization.
The ITFA is a driving force and clear voice in these conversations by bringing together banks and financial institutions who are engaged in originating and distributing trade related risk and finding creative ways to mitigate risks. The clear takeaway from the session was that Trade Digitisation is now more relevant then ever before and now is the time to act. Never let a crisis go waste in making changes that improve our way of working forever