TRADE FINANCE

2013 Q1 REVIEW

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Macro news …………………………………… 3

Corporate news ……………………………. 13

Commodities …………………….………….. 15

Asia ………………. …………………………. 19

People………………………..……………….. 22

Contents

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Trans-Pacific Partnership

More than 20 trade ministers gathered in Davos in January 2013 during the World

Economic Forum to prepare agendas and assess the optimum outcomes of the

World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) ministerial meeting scheduled in Bali,

Indonesia next December.

Their task was to figure out what, if anything could be salvaged from the fledgling

Doha Development Round1 – perhaps a trade facilitation agreement, and possibly

one on agriculture and food security. It is too early to know what will be tackled in

several months and what can be realistically expected from the WTO. For now,

the trade policy world is primarily focused on prospects for a deal this year by the

11 countries negotiating in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

Since passage of bilateral free agreements with South Korea, Panama and

Colombia in 2011, originally negotiated by the Bush administration, the TPP has

been the single most important focus of the Obama administration’s trade agenda.

That agenda may soon be joined by the pending formal launch of a US-European

Union free trade agreement (FTA).

The regional trade agreement framework may be a more feasible way to advance

trade rules and market liberalisation undertakings than the more traditional

multilateral fora of the WTO and its predecessor, the General Agreement on

Tariffs and Trade (GATT).

Origin of TPP

The TPP was originally convened by Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore

as a path to trade liberalisation in the Asia-Pacific region and came into force in

2006. In 2008, President Bush informed congress of his intention to commit the

US to formal negotiations in the TPP and with new participants, Australia, Peru

and Vietnam. In 2009, President Obama announced the US’ intention to join the

Macro News

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talks “with the goal of shaping a regional agreement that will have broad-based

membership and the high standards worthy of a 21st-century trade agreement”.

This statement, made in Tokyo during the APEC summit, was significant because:

It firmly established the US commitment to pursue comprehensive trade

liberalisation in all goods and services and for new trade rules that went beyond

those established under the WTO. This commitment covered any number of

developed, middle-income and emerging economy countries.

It t confirmed the US commitment, “as an Asia-Pacific nation”, to be a driver in

economic “discussions that shape the future of this region”. This complements the

administration’s now well-known policy of “rebalancing” or “pivoting” toward Asia –

with the expansion of economic and security linkages within Asia-Pacific as an

immediate priority.

TPP components

Trade from TPP countries account for more than 40% of worldwide trade and for

the US and are:

- the third largest goods export market at more than US$1.25trn; and

- the fourth largest services export market – more than US$155bn

according to 2011 figures.

According to data provided by the US International Trade Commission, six of the

11 TPP countries account for almost 95% of total US-TPP trade in goods. These

figures suggest that the real value for the US in terms of new market access

potential lies with middle-income countries, such as Malaysia, and emerging

economies, such as Vietnam, both of which have rapidly growing economies and

populations.

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While that does provide good prospects for US exporters, critics maintain the

long-term value prospect for the US is in achieving a TPP foundation agreement

that other, bigger economies can adopt down the road – namely the likes of

Japan, which has expressed interest despite considerable political hurdles for

certain sensitive sectors, such as agriculture. Other possible countries for

consideration in the not too distant future remain Thailand, which has expressed a

formal request to join in 2013 and possibly the Philippines, which is interested but

not quite ready internally to make a formal decision. South Korea is also an

obvious future TPP participant, now that it has implemented the US-Korea FTA,

has an FTA with Peru and is negotiating an agreement with Canada.

The 21st-century focus of the TPP framework is also unique in that it seeks to

address emerging trade issues, in addition to the traditional market access

measures found in most agreements negotiated to date. The Office of the US

Trade Representative describes the proposed agreement to include the following:

Core issues traditionally included in trade agreements, including industrial goods,

agriculture, and textiles as well as rules on intellectual property, technical barriers

to trade, labour, and environment.

Cross-cutting issues not previously in trade agreements, such as making the

regulatory systems of TPP countries more compatible so US companies can

operate more seamlessly in TPP markets. This all helps small- and medium-sized

enterprises participate more actively in international trade and boosts job creation.

New emerging trade issues, such as addressing trade and investment in

innovative products and services, including digital technologies, and ensuring

state-owned enterprises compete fairly with private companies and do not distort

competition in ways that put US companies and workers at a disadvantage.

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The agreement framework

By any measure, even compared to the scope of issue areas in the WTO’s Doha

Development Round, the TPP negotiating agenda represents an enormous

undertaking by the parties. The negotiating template consists of 26 chapters. The

core of the agreement, as with most comprehensive FTAs has to do with market

access in goods, services and agriculture, specifically the elimination or agreed

phase-out of tariff lines across commodities.

Tariff schedules from existing FTAs

The US is pushing for the TPP to adopt the tariff schedules contained in its

existing FTAs with Australia, Chile, Peru, Singapore and under the NAFTA5, in

which specific carve outs, phased-in tariff reductions and rules of origin for certain

sensitive sectors are contained. However, the non-US FTA countries, Brunei,

Malaysia, New Zealand and Vietnam, have been pushing for a common market

access schedule, whereby you avoid the overlapping, different commitments for

sectors in each of the individual bilateral FTAs.

Market access for goods and services

The market access for goods section covers government procurement,

pharmaceuticals, services (both cross-border and financial), telecommunications

and technical barriers to trade. While negotiators have yet to address many of the

core market access decisions, it is expected they will seek to use existing

commitments as a floor and aim to harmonise tariff elimination for all goods. Other

key issues in the goods discussion involve customs issues, export and import

licensing regulations and trade facilitation. As a goliath in services export trade,

the US will seek considerably greater access gains than is currently provided for

in General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) under the WTO. As within its

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FTA’s with TPP partners, the US is looking for increased market access in

banking, legal and insurance services as well as in e-commerce, express delivery

and telecoms.

Rules of origin and intellectual property

The second major negotiating initiative of the TPP is about rules. These chapters

cover rules of origin, which is of particular interest to textile and apparel exporting

countries, such as Vietnam and Malaysia, and which will be of interest to and may

impact trade with non-TPP countries, such as China. Intellectual property rights

IPR), a critical pillar of US bilateral trade agreements, also occupies a prominent

role in the TPP. These chapters will drill down into disciplines surrounding

enforcement on trademark and copyright violations and the internet,

pharmaceutical-related intellectual property rights (IPR) and a US proposal called

Trade Enhancing Access to Medicines (TEAM) to establish stronger patent term

extensions and data exclusivity. Other key chapters concern rules on foreign

investment, competition policy, labour rights, the environment and trade

remedies.

Competitiveness and supply chains

The third core section of the negotiation covers areas as novel and revolutionary

as its title suggests: ‘Horizontal and cross-cutting issues’. These issues aim to go

after activities and disciplines not addressed in past FTAs. One of the most

prominent and challenging negotiations attempt to deal with competitiveness and

supply chains, specifically how to treat intermediate goods – the inputs that go

into components for finished products – as they cross multiple borders through the

supply chain. Businesses will want to watch how negotiators address the flow of

goods through TPP and countries and where components that may originate in

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non-TPP countries will be treated. An example is apparel production that may

originate in Vietnam or Malaysia, but which includes important production inputs

from China. Hence, the rules of origin talks will be critical to the outcome of how to

balance competitiveness and production efficiencies for TPP members and those

supply chains with non-beneficiary TPP countries.

Regulatory coherence

Another key cross-cutting issue is regulatory coherence, which seeks to address

how countries can better understand each other’s internal regulations to doing

business and coming up with mechanisms to provide more transparency for rule-

making, standards, law and policy implementation.

The challenges for firms doing business in some foreign markets comprises a

host of growing and increasingly complicated regulations, non-tariff barriers, often

redundant testing and certification procedures, and a basic lack of transparency.

Negotiators are exploring how TPP countries can establish domestic agencies

with the mission of providing regulatory coherence for TPP beneficiary countries

and their firms.

Building block for global trade

From the outset, joining the TPP and acting as its de facto leader made perfect

sense for the US considering its already-existing bilateral FTAs with four of the

original participants: Australia, Chile, Peru and Singapore. Malaysia joined in 2010

and NAFTA partners, Canada and Mexico formally joined as the tenth and

eleventh members last December as part of the fifteenth round of negotiations.

Japan and Thailand are in consultations with TPP countries about their possible

entrance. As such, the US realised early on that one of the more attractive

features of the TPP was its framework design to expand membership.

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Four of the original TPP members make up the ten members Association of

Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and all 11 of the TPP are members of the 21-

member Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) forum. This acts as a

consensus-based organisation to facilitate trade and investment commitments,

but does not negotiate specific agreements between members. The TPP

embodies what is a central objective of APEC since the 2010 summit meeting –

the eventual creation of the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP). In

addition, ASEAN, which has negotiated a free trade area among its members,

specifically ASEAN+3 (ASEAN, China, Japan and South Korea) and another

regional group endeavour, ASEAN+6 (ASEAN+3, Australia, India and New

Zealand), called the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)

represent tremendous prospects for greater global trade liberalisation.

Obstacles and Need for a Trade Finance Index

Despite favourable conditions, opportunities for investor-driven trade finance are

materialising at a very slow pace. The report suggests that the reason is because

the industry has yet to tackle some significant barriers that need to be overcome

before trade finance can emerge as a viable asset class for investors, including a

lack of easily accessible data on pricing and other transaction information, the

lack of standardised documentation on transactions, and a settlement process

that one market participant calls “fiendishly difficult.”

The report adds that the easiest way to overcome the hurdle of trade finance’s

“invisibility” to financial investors would be to get the 20 largest trade finance

banks to commit to posting at least some data for all transactions on Bloomberg.

Although banks will likely resist disclosing certain proprietary aspects of deal

structures, many observers believe that the public disclosure of even rudimentary

deal details would begin to provide a necessary level of transparency and data for

investors.

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Among the additional steps that industry participants and others believe would

promote the development of trade finance as a viable institutional asset class

would be the creation of a trade finance index - even one based on the current

handful of deals that trade regularly - and the assembly of a trade finance primer

that established some standard terminology and definitions for the business.

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New Basel III bank capital requirements are poised to increase pricing on trade

finance, an essential component of international trade. A new report from

Greenwich Associates concludes that such an effect could accelerate the

development of alternative sources of credit – including trade finance funded by

non-bank investors.

In the new report entitled, Global Trade Finance: Basel III Capital Rules Open

Doors For Alternative Sources Of Funding, Greenwich Associates documents

mounting concerns among companies around the world about the possible impact

of Basel III. An increase in trade finance costs would have a particularly large and

negative impact in Asia, where companies’ reliance on trade finance as a critical

source of funding is higher than in developed markets. Already, European banks

that have been major suppliers of trade finance in Asia are pulling back, largely as

a result of the new capital rules. Although local Asian banks and Japanese banks

are stepping in to fill that void, conditions appear to be in place for the emergence

of alternative sources.

One of those sources will likely be trade finance funded by non-bank investors,

with participation facilitated via institutional funds or structured products. “In the

current era of historically low interest rates, investors hungry for sources of

attractive returns could be enticed by the incremental yield, low volatility, low

duration and diversification benefits of trade finance,” says Greenwich Associates

consultant Markus Ohlig.

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Banks and investment management firms have already successfully come to

market with a limited number of trade finance vehicles for investors, including

structured trade finance vehicles designed to provide the banks with capital relief

and investors with attractive returns. Another source of trade finance may be the

burgeoning class of institutional trade finance funds.

Obstacles and Solutions

Despite favorable conditions, opportunities for investor-driven trade finance are

materializing at a very slow pace. The reason: The industry has yet to tackle some

significant barriers that need to be overcome before trade finance can emerge as

a viable asset class for investors, including a lack of easily accessible data on

pricing and other transaction information, the lack of standardized documentation

on transactions, and a settlement process that one market participant calls

“fiendishly difficult.”

The easiest way to overcome the hurdle of trade finance’s “invisibility” to financial

investors: Get the 20 largest trade finance banks to commit to posting at least

some data for all transactions on Bloomberg. Although banks will likely resist

disclosing certain proprietary aspects of deal structures, many observers believe

that the public disclosure of even rudimentary deal details would begin to provide

a necessary level of transparency and data for investors.

Among the additional steps that industry participants and others believe would

promote the development of trade finance as a viable institutional asset class

would be the creation of a trade finance index – even one based on the current

handful of deals that trade regularly – and the assembly of a trade finance primer

that established some standard terminology and definitions for the business.

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Only A Matter of Time

Given the high levels of demand for trade finance among companies around the

world, the new capital pressures on banks and the potential benefits to investors,

it is certain that this market will continue to develop at a steady, albeit slow, pace.

“Historically, when demand for a product exists, the industry has shown the ability

to overcome logistical obstacles and make it happen,” says Greenwich Associates

consultant Dr. Tobias Miarka.

Despite some real obstacles to growth, Greenwich Associates believes it is only a

matter of time before trade finance becomes a viable asset class for investors,

and non-bank investor capital becomes an important source of funding for trade

finance around the world. With Basel III capital rules providing banks with an

incentive to make investments in the development of new vehicles and investors

eager for yield opportunities, the stage is set for an eventual boom in non-bank

funded trade finance.

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The Basel III balance-sheet friendly originate to distribute model, was in action

recently when Spanish telecoms operator group Telefonica signed a jumbo export

credit facility (ECA) for US$1bn with a syndicate of four trade banks on 5 March

2012.

Led by Societe Generale Corporate & Investment Banking (SG CIB) which acted

as agent and mandated lead arranger (MLA), the other banks in this syndicate

were Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd, BNP Paribas and Santander.

Swedish ECA EKN supported the facility and the Swedish Export credit

Corporation (SEK) assumed 100% of the funding.

The ten-year door-to-door tenor (i.e. circa five year average life) gives the Spanish

corporate the facility to finance deliveries of network equipment and

commissioning services from Swedish infrastructure vendor Ericsson to

Telefonica subsidiaries, situated in various countries.

SocGen’s export finance group managing director Xavier-Marie Robert explained

that the syndicate had been designing the structure of the deal for around six

months before it was announced. The banks guarantee 5% of the risk and, upon

execution of the loan agreement, the rights and obligations were transferred to

SEK. “For Basel III purposes, this gets it off our balance sheet,” said Robert.

He also commented on how the Swedish government is very supportive of

Ericsson – which does a lot of ECA financing as part of its export strategy – and

the combination of the EKN guarantee and the SEK funding makes it ‘very

attractive’ to structure this sort of deal.

The Swedish ECA has, according to a Reuters report at the time the deal broke,

tended to support big deals that involve exports and provide a boost to local

manufacturing.

Corporate news

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The Spanish operator has announced deals with Ericsson to roll out super fast

fourth generation (4G) networks in Brazil, Chile and the UK.

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JBIC Venezuelan rail carriages

The Japan Bank for International Co-operation (JBIC) signed a buyer’s credit

export loan agreement for ¥10.2bn (US$1.17bn) with the government of the

Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

This is to finance the Venezuelan government’s purchase of Japanese railway

carriages for its state railway, Instituto de Ferrocarriles del Estado (IFE), built by

Japanese corporates for the Tokyo-based Marubeni Corporation (Marubeni). The

loan is co-financed with Mizuho Corporate Bank, bringing the overall co-financing

total to ¥17bn (US$1.83bn).

The carriages are required for a 45km railway operation between Caracas, the

capital city, and Tuy Medio, a neighbouring city. This loan follows earlier buyer’s

credit loans, when an international consortium, including Marubeni, was awarded

a contract by IFE for railway-related equipment, including railway cars, rail tracks,

and signal and communications equipment in 1992.

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After a shaky start to Rosneft seeking a US$10bn PXF facility, the world’s largest

oil producer has closed deal with oil traders Glencore and Vitol.

Long-term crude supply contracts were signed with the two leading commodity

traders on 4 March 2014 comprising a series of supply transactions, the price of

which is set at Rosneft tenders.

The agreement with Glencore envisages supply volumes of up to 46.9 million

tonnes of crude, while the contract with Vitol envisages volumes of up to 20.1

million tonnes.

Before these supplies take place, Rosneft will receive a prepayment from the

traders of up to US$10bn for “corporate-wide and investment purposes.”

However, analysts, according the Financial Times (8 March 2013), have observed

the financing agreement “caps a frenetic half-year of fundraising by Rosneft to

fund the TNK-BP acquisition,” and that it “was clearly part of the US$45bn in cash

needed to complete Rosneft’s US$55bn acquisition of the oil company TNK-BP

agreed in October.”

Commenting on the agreements Igor Sechin, Rosneft president and chairman of

the management board said: “We are happy to start the implementation of the

long-term contracts after having agreed heads of terms late last year. A number of

aspects constitute a landmark approach: on the one hand, we guarantee

predictable supply volumes to our customers based on tender pricing, on the

other – we receive prepayment that can be used for our strategic goals. The

contracts are beneficial for all the parties: they support further development of

Rosneft resource base, guarantee stable supplies to Glencore and Vitol, ensure

energy security for end consumers and in the long term will allow the optimization

of transportation and logistics chains of crude and petroleum products sales.

Commodities

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I would like to note that the opportunity for other partners joining these contracts is

open.”

Ivan Glasenberg, CEO, Glencore, said: “We are pleased to begin this new

agreement with Rosneft, which increases our access to one of the world’s most

important oil markets.”

Ian Taylor, president and CEO of the Vitol Group of companies, said: “We are

pleased to have concluded an important long-term contract with Rosneft, one of

our industry’s leading and most influential global companies.”

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Bangladesh - ITFC supports US$2bn finance for Bangladesh crude oil imports

As a member of the Islamic Development Bank Group, The International Islamic

Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) has signed a US$2bn annual financing plan

with The People’s Republic of Bangladesh (represented by the Ministry of Energy

and Mineral Resources) and Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), for the

import of crude oil and refined petroleum products during the year 2013.

The annual financing plan was signed during a ceremony that took place in

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia between Eng. Hani Salem Sonbol, acting CEO of ITFC and

Mr. Mohammad Mejbahuddin, secretary, Energy and Mineral Resources Division.

The amount of financing was agreed upon during a high level policy dialogue visit

held between 13 and 14 January, 2013 in Jeddah at the ITFC headquarters, with

the aim of meeting the Bangladeshi energy requirements for the year 2013. This

financing is in line with the ITFC's mandate to support member countries' strategic

sectors and to improve their trading capacity, allowing Bangladesh to fulfill its

requirements in financing vital imports of crude oil and refined petroleum products.

Commenting on the signing, Sonbol said that it is the ITFC's mandate to support

member countries' strategic sectors and to improve their trading capacity.

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By financing the energy sector, this agreement will have a major impact in

achieving the country’s socio-economic development.”

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Jean Francios Lambert – Bloomberg Business Week

Commodity trade continues to attract sufficient financing amid instability in the

Middle East and reduced lending by some European banks, said Jean-Francois

Lambert, HSBC Bank Plc’s global head of commodity and structured trade

finance.

“The world is in a complicated situation, but what needs to be financed, is

financed,” Lambert said in an interview in Geneva yesterday. “There is sufficient

liquidity in the market to finance commodities.”

Lambert said the market for commodity-trade finance has become “more normal,”

and he wasn’t aware of any major defaults. Banks in countries that use the euro

reduced their activity “a little” and haven’t pulled out of commodity finance,

according to Lambert.

“The banks of the euro zone during the crisis had less access to dollars,” Lambert

said. “There was a squeeze. They’re still there. They haven’t withdrawn.”

Lambert said HSBC continues to do business in Egypt, where a drop in the

country’s currency has made imports more expensive. Wheat purchases by

Egypt, the world’s largest buyer of the grain, have slowed, and the country had

enough wheat for 109 days of consumption, the government reported March 13,

down from 123 days reported on Feb. 27.

In Egypt, “wheat is still arriving and it’s still being paid,” Lambert said. “The

strategic imports continue to be purchased and are honored.”

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The country’s main sources of foreign currency have been tourism, the Suez

Canal, strategic exports and the U.S., according to the HSBC executive, who was

a moderator at a commodity-industry conference organized by the United Nations

Conference on Trade and Development.

“There is less tourism, there is less Suez, fewer strategic exports, what remains is

the U.S.,” he said. “It’s a country essential to global stability. We have a long-

standing presence there and that’s why we remain active there.”

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Asia misses out on huge trade finance figures

ISLAMABAD: Companies operating in developing Asia lost out on nearly $425

billion in trade finance in 2011 alone, according to a new survey by the Asian

Development Bank (ADB).

“Dramatic shortfalls in meeting financing needs of importing and exporting

companies are exacting a huge toll on job creation and economic growth in the

region,” said Steven Beck, head of Trade Finance at ADB.

“These trade finance gaps need to be addressed to give developing Asia a boost

to create jobs and alleviate poverty,” Beck said, adding trade finance is lending

and guaranteeing that supports import and export transactions and is critical to

international trade.

In the survey, conducted in the fourth quarter of 2012, 138 companies said that a

five percent increase in trade finance support would result in an increase of

production levels by two percent, and staffing by another two percent,

underscoring the strong links between trade finance, economic growth, and job

creation.

According to the 106 banks surveyed, almost $2.1 trillion worth of trade finance

proposals were received in Asia, but $425 billion in trade finance requests were

not approved.

Reasons cited by the surveyed banks include the poor payment records of their

correspondent banks, low country ratings in developing countries, and weak

banking systems. At the global level, $1.6 trillion out of the $4.6 trillion proposed

trade finance was not met.

ADB’s trade finance program (TFP) fills market gaps for trade finance by providing

guarantees and loans to banks to support trade.

Asia

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About US$1.6tn out of the US$4.6tn global trade finance demand was not met in

2011, an Asian Development Bank (ADB) survey reveals.

Of the US$1.6tn gap, nearly US$425bn was on trade finance transactions in

developing Asia, where total demand reached US$2.6tn.

The 106 banks surveyed mentioned that reasons for rejecting trade finance

proposals could include the poor payment records of their correspondent banks,

low country ratings in developing countries, and weak banking systems. They also

indicated that if fully implemented, Basel III could reduce bank support further, by

an average of 13%.

Steven Beck, head of trade finance at the ADB, tells GTR: “The survey was

conducted at the end of 2012, just prior to the Basel committee loosening liquidity

requirements for banks, which I suspect will help them in general support more

economic growth.

“But the main concern in the trade finance community has always been that if

there isn’t enough of a distinction between trade finance and other forms of

finance, then there may be a natural inclination for banks to move away from low-

margin trade finance transactions and into higher-margin higher-risk type

transactions.”

He hopes that initiatives by the ADB and the International Chamber of Commerce

(ICC) – such as the trade finance register – will help educate banks, but also

regulators, on the asset class that is trade finance.

“The initial impetus for us in creating the trade finance register was to substantiate

our argument to Basel to treat trade finance as a unique asset class, and that

continues.”

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In the survey, 138 companies said a 5% increase in trade finance support would

result in an increase of production levels by 2%, and staffing by another 2%,

highlighting the strong links between trade finance, economic growth, and job

creation.

“This survey is the first ever attempt at quantifying gaps and linking those gaps to

growth and jobs. We really didn’t know what to expect in terms of the results. We

created the trade finance programme because we knew there were gaps, and we

focused on the most challenging markets. In 2012 we did US$4bn in turnover

through over 2,032 transactions, so we’ve always known that there were gaps, but

had no idea to what extent. In that context this has been a very interesting

exercise for us,” says Beck.

In order to fill that gap and make development banks’ trade finance programmes

redundant, he recommends an industry-wide effort to produce broader and more

statistically significant data to disseminate knowledge and encourage private

sector players to get involved in transactions.

The ICC will be releasing the third trade finance register report at its next meeting

in Lisbon on April 15-18.

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Hochberg nominated to stay at US Ex-Im

US President Barack Obama has announced his intent to nominate Fred

Hochberg to stay on as Chairman and President of the Export-Import Bank of the

United States (US Ex-Im).

Under his leadership in FY 2012, Ex-Im Bank for the fourth-straight year set

export finance records in a number of key areas. Overall financing for the first time

exceeded $35.7 billion and supported $50 billion in exports and approximately

255,000 export-related American jobs at more than 3,400 U.S. companies. Small

business financing rose over 70 percent from $3.3 billion in FY 2008 to $6.1 billion

in FY 2012. There was an increase of 16.5 percent in authorizations for minority-

and woman-owned businesses.

Hochberg’s previous government experience includes time as Deputy

Administrator, then as Acting Administrator, of the Small Business Administration

from 1998 to 2001 during the Clinton presidency. He is also former President of

the Villian Vernon Corporation, a mail order service founded by his mother, which

he grew into a publicly traded corporation.

Hochberg’s name had been connected with vacant cabinet positions, including

Secretary of Commerce and US Trade Representative…

During Hochberg's tenure, the Bank has increased its focus on customers, both

foreign buyers and U.S. exporters. It is seeking new markets for U.S. goods and

services in emerging economies with growing infrastructure needs, including

Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Turkey, India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Nigeria and South

Africa. Hochberg has also worked to expand the global footprint of key domestic

industries in which U.S. exporters have a comparative advantage. These include

renewable energy, construction and farm machinery, medical technology,

People

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agriculture, and avionics. In addition, he has streamlined processes, cut

transaction times and introduced innovative new financial products.

Lloyds builds out UK Trade Team

Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking has strengthened their specialist Trade Finance

team in the South East of England with the appointment of David Weatherhead.

Weatherhead was appointed as Regional Trade Director for London and the

South East, with particular focus on medium-sized businesses and corporate with

turn-over’s of up to £500 million.

Weatherhead has more than 24 years experience in banking, 14 of which were at

RBS, working in international trade for SME’s to large corporates.

BNP Paribas names Global Head of Export Finance

Amongst the global reorganization of the BNP, sees the hire of Yasser Henda, as

the new Global Head of Export Finance for the French power house.

Henda has been with the institution for over 14 years where he has acted as

Deputy Global Head, Export Finance and before that also Head of Export

Finance, Middle East / Africa. Henda takes over from Olivier Paul, who is now the

COO of Corporate Banking Europe. Under the reorganization of the bank much

more emphasis is now being placed on regionalization. Part of this structure sees

the establishment of the bank corporate banks division on a regional basis.

Paul will now report into the newly appointed Global Head of Corporate Banking

Europe, Dominique Remy. However the reorganization doesn’t change the rest of

the set up of the export finance department. Henda reports directly to Christophe

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Rousseau, Head of Specialized Finance Europe, which is part of CBE. Rousseau,

in turn, reports directly to Remy.

Paul will also remain as the chairman of the export finance committee of French

bankers for the next year.

Societe Generale appoints Global Head of Export Finance

SGCIB has appointed Frederic Surdon as its new Global Head of Export Finance.

Surdon was previously COO for the banks global finance division, where he

worked since 2008. Based out of Paris, he started the role at the beginning of

March.

Surdon takes over from Denis Stas de Richelle, who has helmed the highly

successful business line 2007. De Richelle now moves into the, newly created

role, of Global Head of Infrastructure and Asset-based Finance.

Both Surdon and De Richelle report to Matthew Vickerstaff (global head of the

structured finance department in the global finance division).

Deutsche Appoints new Head of Structured Trade Export Finance Asia

After Paul Gardner holding this position since 2010 in the banks Singapore office.

Deutsche Bank has now appointed Evert-Jan Zondag . He is based in Hong Kong

and has been with Deutsche since April 2010, when he joined from the Project

Export Group in RBS/ABN AMRO. Zondag reports to Kaushik Shaparia, the MD

who acts as Regional Head of Trade Finance and Cash Management, Corporates

- Asia Pacific.

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New Export Finance Head at JPM

Clarine Sternfert has been appointed Head of Non-Aviation Export Finance in

EMEA at JP Morgan. Sternfert joins from Citi she was most recently Head of the

bank’s African trade finance business. Based in London she will be based in

London and will report to Andreas Mehl, Head of EMEA Export Finance.

In her own words (taken from an E-Financial interview) Clarines role entails:

“I will be heading origination for export credit agency financing on the non-aviation

side for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. I will be working on long-term

financing projects that have a large capital expenditure, anything from $50m to

$5bn across a number of sectors, including telecoms, oil and gas and cement

projects. These projects could be public sector or private corporate initiatives.”

Standard Chartered’s senior Structured Commodity Finance hire

Standard Chartered appointed a new Global Head of Commodity Structured

Finance. Michael Jakubik is the man charged with controlling the banks SCF

business based out of Asia, who will report directly to Arun Murthy (Global Head

of Commodities).

Jakubik joins the bank StanChart from Standard Bank in London, where he was

Head of Commodity Structured Solutions.

Barclays expands trade and working capital team

Based out of London, Payman Jassim appointed as a Trade and Working Capital

Director, brings wealth of experience and knowledge to the bank. Jassim joins the

bank from JPM where he was a Structured Trade Advisor. He has also worked as

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a trade finance lawyer for RBS, SNR Denton and White & Case. Within these

roles he has experience developing and executing a number of structured trade

finance products across a number of jurisdictions and industries.

We have seen a lot of interest throughout the trade finance sector for experienced

trade finance lawyers. Clearly they bring a different view point to the business

along with in depth knowledge of deal intricacies.

Matrixes names Commodities Head

Dominique Fraise has been appointed Head of Global Energy and Commodities

at Matrixes, where he will report to Pierre Debary, Head of Structured and Asset

Finance.

Fraise, who holds a masters degree in international trade law from University

Paris, started his career at Banquet Françoise did Commerce Exterieur in 1989,

where he was an account officer in the commercial banking department in

Bordeaux. He later became the head of South-East Asia at the international

department, before being appointed Head of Commodities, South America at

Natixis (San Paulo) in 1997. Since 2007, he has held the position of Deputy Head

of Global Energy and Commodities at the French bank.

New Chief SCF at JP Morgan

Michael McDonough is the man who will steer JPM’s Supply Chain Finance (SCF)

at the American bank. Reporting directly to Danni Cotti McDonough, based out of

NYC, leads the global function working with multinational corporates around the

world. Working with reams across the JPM network, the SCF business structures

and puts in place funded solutions for working capital optimization and risk

mitigation.

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McDonough was previously Global Product Director for the SCF business. He had

worked in Global SCF positions at RBS and ABN AMRO in London and

Amsterdam.

Euler Hermes appoints CEO

Ronald van het Hof has been appointed CEO, World Agency at Euler Hermes.

World Agency is a team within Hermes that provides trade related credit

insurance to clients with turnovers above €500 mn.

Since 2007 van het Hof has served as chief executive officer of Allianz Nederland

Group, with responsibility for non-life and life insurance activities and EUR 5.6

billion in assets under management. In parallel, he was a member of the

supervisory board of Mondial Assistance Europe from 2008 -2010, and chairman

of the supervisory board of several Allianz insurance entities in The Netherlands.

Prior to that he was a member of the management boards of several subsidiaries

of Cologne-based Gothaer Insurance Group.

Van het Hof brings to Euler Hermes more than 20 years experience in the

insurance sector, including multiple management and supervisory board positions

and responsibilities for distribution, marketing, restructuring and sales activities.

Jayant Rikhye appointed as head of international Asia Pacific at Hong Kong

and Shanghai Banking Corporation

With effect from 18 March, Rikhye replaces Guy Harvey-Samuel, who has been

appointed chief executive officer (CEO) for HSBC Singapore

Rikhye is currently head of strategy and planning Asia Pacific, overseeing

strategic planning and working closely with country CEOs and business heads in

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all markets across the Asia Pacific region. In his new role he will have direct

responsibility over 12 markets in Asia, comprising Bangladesh, Brunei, Indonesia,

Japan, Korea, Mauritius, New Zealand, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand

and Vietnam. In this capacity, he will be a key source of support and guidance to

country CEOs.

At the same time, Rikhye will maintain his responsibilities as head of strategy and

planning Asia Pacific until a successor is appointed.

Rikhye joined the HSBC Group in 1989 in India and has worked in a number of

countries in a variety of functions including operations in India, internal control and

securities services in the Philippines, corporate banking in Taiwan and financial

institutions (FI) group and institutional fund services in Hong Kong. His more

recent appointments include acting chief operating officer (COO) for The Saudi

British Bank in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and head of securities services for the

Middle East and North Africa (MENA) based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Bank of Communications UK appoints Keith Dixey to head its trade finance

origination business

Dixey joins from ANZ, where he was director of transaction banking, Europe,

since 2008. Before that he held the positions of director, structured trade and

commodity finance at Barclays and head of commercial banking at Belgolaise

Bank.

Bank of Communications UK’s CEO, John Liu, says: “The bank needed a veteran

business originator in the trade finance field and therefore Keith was appointed.

We welcome Keith’s joining and believe he will help build a good foundation for

Bank of Communications’ long term trade finance related business strategy in

London.”

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Bank of Communications UK was established in 2011 as the first overseas

commercial banking subsidiary of the parent bank in Shanghai. It aims to support

China-UK bilateral trade relations.