A Message from the Chair – April 2021

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On April 27 BAFT’s Board Chair, Mark Garfield, published his monthly communication to the wider BAFT membership.

The recent grounding of a large container vessel in the Suez Canal was a sharp reminder of how disrupted trade upends our way of life. Container vessels moving through the Suez represent 13% of global maritime trade. At one point, over 360 vessels waited in line to pass through the canal. The grounded ship itself carried 20,000 containers. That’s a lot of stuck stuff!

Years ago, I visited the Panama Canal. Like the Suez Canal, its passageway transports a significant percentage of global trade. The original architect of the Panama Canal, Ferdinand De Lesseps, had also led the creation of the Suez Canal. He attempted to build the Panama Canal in the same design as the Suez Canal, as a sea-level canal. The attempt to excavate the massive amount of material and additional challenges from malaria and yellow fever ultimately resulted in the project’s failure. A new and different design was required: a canal with locks.

What I learned this past year from BAFT conferences, workshops, and webinars, is that many past practices are changing quickly and new and distinct ideas are the solutions for the future. We, as the practitioners of trade finance, need to offer our expertise as we advance and advocate for change.

The blockage of the Suez Canal also was a lesson on the collective efforts of engineers, sailors, and officials collaborating with skill and specialized equipment in working to solve the crisis. This effort was coupled with a moment of good fortune. A supermoon, a full moon that passes nearest the earth, allowed the tide to increase 19 inches above the level from when the vessel was grounded. That phenomenon, in combination with tug boats and dredging up to 60 feet, freed the ship.

I have had the very good fortune to work with skilled colleagues throughout the world that keep trade flowing. It gives me a sense of purpose and gratitude that in a small way I may have helped in the delivery of needed goods globally.

May good fortune be with you always!

Mark Garfield
BAFT Chair
Head of Global Financial Institutions
Zions Bancorporation

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BAFT announces publication of whitepaper on conditions necessary for a cross-border faster payments ecosystem.

WASHINGTON – BAFT, the leading global financial services association for international transaction banking, today announced the publication of its whitepaper, Enabling Faster Payments Across Borders.

The paper discusses the cost-benefit analysis involved in moving forward with cross-border faster payments including user expectations and industry readiness for adoption. It also provides recommendations and key considerations to enable the development of a cross-border faster payments ecosystem.

“Baseline standards and processes must be established to address the open issues that make real progress on cross-border faster payments difficult to attain,” said Samantha Pelosi, senior vice president for payments and innovation, BAFT and co-chair of the BAFT Cross-Border Faster Payments Working Group, which produced the paper. “These issues fall into three broad categories of interoperability, business processes and compliance, and are similar to the frictions that the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) have identified as inherent to all cross-border payments.”

The publication of this paper is the first step of BAFT’s larger strategy to facilitate global faster payments by encouraging the designers of national and regional faster payments systems to include the capability at the outset. The paper and ongoing research by BAFT’s Global Payments Industry Council on best practices for the implementation of a faster payments system will serve as reference points for the association’s discussions with regulators, central banks, market infrastructures and system operators.

“To benefit international trade and economic growth, we need to enhance global connectivity by making payment systems in different geographies interoperable,” said Vinayak Prabhu, vice president, global transaction banking, Mashreq Bank and co-chair of the Working Group. “The paper provides recommendations along with potential models for building a seamless, transparent, and faster cross-border payments ecosystem.”

BAFT encourages entities that are currently building or upgrading their faster payments systems to incorporate the functionality and operating rules necessary for processing cross-border payments when the market is ready.

The development of the whitepaper began in the fall of 2019, when BAFT assembled a working group of 24 members based in North America, Europe, MENA, and APAC. A drafting sub-group of BNY Mellon, HSBC, iSoftware4Banks, Mashreq Bank and TD Bank wove the information into an important, future-looking resource.

To read Enabling Faster Payments Across Borders, visit BAFT’s Library of Documents under the BAFT Guidance on Industry Practices section or click here.

About BAFT
BAFT is the leading international financial services association whose membership includes large global and regional banks, service providers, and fintech companies headquartered around the world. BAFT provides advocacy, thought leadership, education, and a global forum for its members in transaction banking, including international trade finance and payments. For nearly a century, BAFT has expanded markets, shaped policy, developed business solutions, and preserved the safety and soundness of the global financial system.

BAFT Media Contact:
Blair Bernstein
[email protected]
+ 1 (202) 663-5468

Follow us on Twitter: @BAFT
Follow us on LinkedIn: BAFT
Follow us on YouTube: BAFT

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On March 19 BAFT’s Board Chair, Mark Garfield, published his monthly communication to the wider BAFT membership.

Tomorrow, March 20, is recognized as the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. Spring is a time of change, and the world is facing changes apart from the change of seasons. In our unique professional discipline, we are often expected to explain and instruct our corporate boards, at conference tables, albeit virtually, and to others about the changing world of trade finance.

It can be difficult to keep up with the latest conventions and standards in finance. Where is a trusted source to go to for those standards? BAFT’s Library of Documents is a great resource to keep you prepared and your expertise up to date.

Supply chain finance has received a substantial amount of press coverage over the last few weeks. It is a finance structure that I needed to understand better, and BAFT’s CEO, Tod Burwell, directed me to several informational resources at baft.org. Within the Library of Documents, under the homepage’s Policy header, if you navigate to the Industry Definitions and Guidelines section there is a BAFT guidance document “Payables Finance Principles,” a cogent and complete summary of supply chain finance. Under the same Industry Definitions and Guidelines section are additional supply chain finance informational resources and pieces.

BAFT’s Library of Documents is a wonderful source for the latest whitepapers, comment letters, practices, procedures, and policies on a variety of topics important to transaction banking. Take advantage of this current and valuable resource for yourself and your organization.

Speaking of spring, this time a year ago, the pandemic began to raise its ugly head resulting in challenges, disruptions, and loss of life. A poet once said, “I rejoice in each new Spring for it’s as if it has never been before.” My hope is just that, that this new season of vaccines will bring renewal and life to our world. After all, the United Nations designated March 20 as the “International Day of Happiness”. May it be for you and yours.

Mark Garfield
BAFT Chair
Head of Global Financial Institutions
Zions Bancorporation

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BAFT would like to congratulate its new officers on their election to the 2021-2022 association year and also welcome new board directors Paul Taylor, Bank of America; Aaron Zynczak, First Citizens Bank; Patrik Havander, Nordea; and George Lee, Standard Chartered Bank.

WASHINGTON — BAFT, an international financial services association, announced Maram Al-Jazireh of Arab Bank will serve as the chair of its board of directors for the 2021-2022 association year.

Al-Jazireh is the senior vice president & global head of financial institutions at Arab Bank, as well as a member of its Financial Institutions Credit Committee.

“I am glad to be a part of the team that drives BAFT’s mission to promote sound financial practices enabling innovation, efficiency and commercial growth, while emphasizing transaction banking’s valuable contribution to the financial services industry and its positive impact on global economies,” said Al-Jazireh.

Prior to joining Arab Bank in 2001, Al-Jazireh worked for financial institutions in Amman and Dubai and has served as co-chair of the BAFT MENA Council for the past two years. She is a member of the Governance Committee for a USAID funded MENA investment initiative in Jordan, a fellow of the Middle East Leadership Initiative (a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network) and founder of Mid The Art Reach Project. Al-Jazireh grew up in Kuwait and graduated from Oklahoma State University with a major in accounting.

BAFT board officers include:

  • Vice Chair: Suresh Subramanian, BNP Paribas
  • Secretary / Treasurer: Amy Sahm, Fulton Bank

Other directors include:

  • Ihunanya Onuoha, Access Bank
  • Tod Burwell (CEO), BAFT
  • Paul Taylor, Bank of America
  • Maurice Iskandar, Banque Libano-Française
  • Miriam Ratkovicova, Deloitte
  • Ulf-Peter Noetzel, Deutsche Bank
  • Robert Mancini, Finastra
  • Aaron Zynczak, First Citizens Bank
  • Patricia Gomes, HSBC
  • Nick Smit, ING
  • Robert Hostler, JPMorgan
  • Andreas Meletiou, Mashreq
  • Steve Lotito, MUFG
  • Mark Borton, National Australia Bank
  • Jonathan Elkins, National Bank of Canada
  • Patrik Havander, Nordea
  • Bart Timmermans, Santander UK
  • Kevin Holmes, Standard Bank
  • George Lee, Standard Chartered Bank
  • Tarik Muzaffar, TD Bank
  • Christian Stolcke, UBS
  • F. H. Ahlborn, US Bank
  • Mark Garfield, Zions Bancorporation

About BAFT

BAFT, the leading global financial services association for international transaction banking, helps bridge solutions across financial institutions, service providers and the regulatory community that promote sound financial practices enabling innovation, efficiency, and commercial growth. BAFT engages on a wide range of topics affecting transaction banking, including trade finance, payments, and compliance.

BAFT Media Contact:

Blair Bernstein
[email protected]
+ 1 (202) 663-5468

Follow us on Twitter: @BAFT
Follow us on LinkedIn: BAFT
Follow us on YouTube: BAFT

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On February 18 BAFT’s Board Chair, Mark Garfield, published his monthly communication to the wider BAFT membership.

The advance notification for BAFT’s 2021 Virtual Global Payments Conference mentions “the unrelenting pace of change in payments” and “the realities of a continuous 7x24x365 day.” These statements emphasize that payments tomorrow will be substantially different than payments today. It also reminds me how payments today are significantly different from payments yesterday.

I faintly recall the process to send cross-border payments at the beginning of my career. The steps to calculate a series of codes and numbers were complicated and time-consuming. First, one would input the numerical code for the receiving test bank, add the remitting bank’s unique number, and then add digits corresponding to the month, day of the week, currency, amount, and settlement date. The sum of these numbers would then be sent by Telex and confirmed by the receiving bank. If the key was aligned and accepted, the payment went out. The Telex machine itself seems to be an artifact from a previous era. Yet at the time, communicating throughout the world with codes and messages was new and exciting. It reminded me of learning Morse code as a Boy Scout, sending and decoding messages using flags and mirrors from mountain tops to fellow Scouts below. Fun, but not very effective. As usual, the erroneously decoded message meant the scout troop followed bad coordinates and got lost somewhere!

While there may be some romanticism in sending overseas payments this old-fashioned way, I am glad those days are gone. The efficiency, safety, and management of payments are much better today than they were yesterday. And, I certainly don’t miss the rows of file cabinets holding paper documentation, microfiche, microfilm, and signatures lists. No one wants those old metal cabinets back.

Real-time payments, cloud adoption, ISO 20022, digital currencies…so much to discuss and learn. There is a payment revolution and evolution taking place in transaction banking today. Join me next week for BAFT’s Crystal Ball Series: Revolutionary Banking, and BAFT’s 2021 Virtual Global Payment Conference March 2 – 4 for more timely insights. To my banking friends, if we ever have a chance to go on a hike in the mountains together (which I have done with some of you, loads of fun); I promise you that you will not get lost. Why? Technology…a GPS device!  But just in case I’ll bring my trusty old scout compass with me.

Happy trails and happy payment rails,

Mark Garfield
BAFT Chair
Head of Global Financial Institutions

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On January 21 BAFT’s Board Chair, Mark Garfield, published his monthly communication to the wider BAFT membership.

After eating far too many treats and goodies each holiday season, I tend to make a New Year’s resolve to abstain from sweets for a defined amount of time. No ice cream, candy, cookies for one month. Well, I made it until January 5th this year when a neighbor brought over some chocolate-covered macadamia nuts from Hawaii. Who can resist that?

I have to laugh at my many failed attempts to change. What I’ve come to realize, though, is that change inevitably happens, whether I’ve planned for it or not. My first memories of using a bank as a youth are of standing in very long lines in a bank lobby waiting to deposit cash. The teller would use a typewriter to record the transaction in a passbook. I remember sitting in a non-air-conditioned car on a hot summer day waiting in what seemed like a big traffic jam to finally cash a check at the bank drive-through window. Now I shout hurray for the convenience of making a deposit on my mobile phone and I never ever write a check…hurray! Think of all the changes that have happened in the financial services industry in the past year alone, such as the increase of contactless payments and the shift to remote work.

The next two events in the Around the Globe: The Crystal Ball Series will give us key insight into what the future may hold for the financial services industry. During this month’s event, ‘View From The Top‘, on January 26, three banking CEO’s will share their insight from different geographic perspectives: MENA, Europe, and the U.S. In February, the ‘Revolutionary Banking’ event will address topics that may be…revolutionary, such as central banks’ use of cryptocurrency.

I appreciate how BAFT provides us with webinars, conferences, briefings, industry papers and best practices that give a vision of what the future may become. Through BAFT, we glean insight into how banking is evolving in different geographies. Each year, participants in the BAFT Future Leaders Program review and assess current developments and potential opportunities in the transaction banking industry. We then become prepared to not just react to changes but to become agents of change and innovation.

I expect to celebrate all the future transaction banking innovations (paperless bills of lading!) that have yet to be developed…and if I happen to receive your gift of Turkish Delight next January, I’m certain that once again I’ll break my yearly resolution and eat it (yum)……hurray!

Mark Garfield
BAFT Chair
Head of Global Financial Institutions
Zions Bancorporation