ICC Advisory Group on Trade Finance letter to G20 Head of State and Government

In the lead up to the 2020 G20 Leaders’ Summit Victor K. Fung, Chairman of the Fung Group and Marcus Wallenberg, Chairman of SEB – Co-Chairs of the International Chamber of Commerce’s Advisory Group on Trade Finance – have written a letter to G20 leaders urging action to safeguard the supply of essential working capital and short-term credit to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Real-time data from ICC’s global network shows a worrying increase in the failure rates of SMEs in recent months—with business sentiment among SMEs rapidly deteriorating in both advanced and emerging economies.

There is increasing evidence that the supply of trade credit to SMEs and emerging markets is at significant risk of retrenching in response to growing corporate, sovereign and currency risks. Stating that shortages of trade finance could prove fatal to the survival chances of already stretched small businesses, Messrs Fung and Wallenberg write that there is a clear business case for proactive G20 interventions and urge commitment to action commensurate with the scale and urgency of the crisis faced by SMEs.

Read more about global efforts to Save our SMEs

Read ICC Memo to G20 Governments, Central Banks and International Financial Institutions