Banking & finance

“A new era has already begun.” ICC Banking Commission 2018 Annual Meeting concludes in Miami.

  • 9 April 2018
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Featuring in-depth discussions on issues from global financial regulation to innovation in supply chain management, the ICC Banking Commission’s 2018 Annual Meeting concluded Friday, opening up further avenues for collaboration in the trade finance industry.

How do you navigate a new era of uncertainty? Click To Tweet

 

The question neatly sums up last week’s four days of task force meetings, specialised group discussions, plenary addresses and breakout sessions that comprised the ICC Banking Commission’s 2018 Annual Meeting, which took place this year in Miami from 3-6 April 2018.

Much of the event focused on the necessary transformation of trade finance in the face of emerging geopolitical and technological trends. At the same time, there was general agreement that these same trends open vast opportunities for future growth.

“As business we always live with risk. The question is how we adapt and provide solutions,” said Jerome Peze, CEO of Tinubu Square, on a panel of chief executives who were asked about the effect of macro political and economic trends on the trade finance industry.

Political and societal trends are creating uncertainty but new technologies also bring opportunities for business to develop and maintain trust, argued Shona Tatchell, CEO and Founder of Halotrade, a company that uses blockchain technology to make supply chains more transparent.

In other words, legacy trade finance systems may be changing at an unprecedented pace, but we are only at the beginning of the potential that new disruptive technologies now offer as they increasing enter the mainstream.

 

 

New rules for the digital era

The Banking Commission Annual Meeting– the leading international trade finance forum – officially concluded on Friday, and the meetings and discussions opened up a range of new areas for future ICC work on developments. Kicking off the final day, ICC Global Development Director Julian Kassum and ICC Banking Commission Senior Policy Manager David Bischof outlined their views on ICC’s mission in an era of increasing uncertainty.

 

 

“A new era for the global trade finance industry has already begun,” Mr Bischof said. As the world has faced political and economic challenges in the past, ICC has historically risen to the occasion, Mr Kassum added. The ICC Banking Commission’s rules first emerged in the 1930s – at a time of rising protectionism and nationalism.

The Banking Commission gave updates on its working group on the digitalisation of trade finance – as well as a briefing on the e-compatibility of ICC’s global trade finance rules. Adapting and developing these rules for the digital era will be crucial for both capturing the growth and development potential of new technologies and continuing the central role that ICC occupies within the global trade finance industry, Dave Meynell, Senior Technical Advisor at the ICC Banking Commission, argued.

Follow @ICCBanking on Twitter to look back at the 2018 Annual Meeting.