4th Annual Trade Finance Roundtable

On November 23, the International Trade and Forfaiting Association (ITFA) Middle East Regional Committee held its fourth annual trade finance roundtable, hosted by DP World in collaboration with GTR.
Maninder Bhandari, GTR’s Mena representative, led the discussion with Michelle Leong (Middle East head, EK Export Finance), Raja Al Mazrouei (executive vice-president, DIFC Fintech Hive), Sean Edwards (head of legal, SMBC Bank International and ITFA chairman), Shada ElBorno (managing director, regional head global subsidiaries, client coverage - MENAP, Standard Chartered), Sinan Ozcan (senior executive officer and board director, DP World), Tom James (CEO, Trade Flow), Vikas Jha (group head trade and supply chain finance, ENBD and ITFA MERC member) and Yusuf Ali Khan (MD head of Trade MENAP, Citibank).
The discussion covered current trends in trade finance; Dubai Expo 2020 emerging as a global trade platform for the country and region; and digitisation, including fintechs and the scaling up of digital capabilities, the ever-growing collaboration between new and existing counterparts within the trade space, and the acceleration of digitisation efforts precipitated by the pandemic. The focus also turned to new themes, such as ESG and taxonomy around it, the strengthening of the local financial sector’s ability to finance SMEs in a sustainable manner, new entrants, alternative service providers and platforms, the ever-evolving role of regulators in embracing technology and innovation, and existing players taking on more strategic roles to help close the trade finance gap.