BAFT Issues a Statement on the Senate Hearings on “Oversight and Reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank of the United States.”

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On June 27, 2019, the Senate Banking Committee met in an open session to conduct a hearing on the Oversight and Reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

The Honorable Kimberly Reed, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Export-Import Bank of the United States offered testimony. BAFT has issued a Statement for the Record urging for the committee to move swiftly to pass a long-term reauthorization, prevent unnecessary disruptions to its activities by permanently resolving the quorum issue; increase EXIM’s statutory lending authority to align with market demands, and avoid unnecessary administrative roadblocks that will negatively affect the competitiveness of U.S. companies.

Read the Statement for the Record here. For additional information, please email [email protected].

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BAFT releases much anticipated Guidance Paper for Auto Extension thanks to the effort of the BAFT North America Standby LC Committee – Auto Extension working group.

Convened in November of 2015, by the members of the North America Standby LC Committee who put together a working group to study the use of auto-extension clauses in standby letters of credit and demand guarantees in the United States as applicable. The objective was to produce a white aper to be used as guidance for banks within the United States reflecting Auto Extension Best Practices as it relates to language suggestions, accounting practices and identification of “problem language.” This paper outlines the good, the bad and the ugly as it relates to auto-extension clauses and the challenges faced by banks in managing the associated risks.

BAFT’s Guidance Paper for Auto Extension is available for free to the global transaction banking community and can be found here.

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In case you missed it during the Global Annual Meeting – The Americas, two of BAFT’s 2019 Future Leader presentations on Current Trade Dynamics and Building Collaboration between GTB and Other Bank Divisions were re-conducted as webinars for the broader membership.

You may replay the webinar here. To review all four of the Future Leader projects you may do so by visiting https://baft.org/committees/future-leaders-program/.

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The Global Supply Chain Finance Forum announced today the release of its new guidance document, Market Practices in Supply Chain Finance: Receivables Discounting Technique.

The Global Supply Chain Finance Forum announced today the release of its new guidance document, Market Practices in Supply Chain Finance: Receivables Discounting Technique. The paper is the first in a series of industry guidance documents intended to provide clarity and consistency to the world of supply chain finance.

Supply chain finance is one of the fastest growing trade products, however, financial institutions often don’t use similar terminology or accounting techniques. The Forum, comprised of BAFT (Bankers Association for Finance & Trade), Euro Banking Association (EBA), Factors Chain International (FCI), International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), and International Trade and Forfaiting Association (ITFA), is issuing a series of guidance documents based on its 2016 Standard Definitions for Techniques of Supply Chain Finance to get all industry stakeholders on the same page.

The paper released today focuses on receivables discounting – a technique and form of receivables purchase, flexibly applied, in which sellers of goods and services sell individual or multiple receivables (represented by outstanding invoices) to a finance provider at a discount.

“Our hope is that this guidance will lead to an industry-wide, uniform adoption of the receivable discounting technique,” said Christian Hausherr, European product head of supply chain finance at Deutsche Bank and chair of the Global Supply Chain Finance Forum. “When all parties use similar techniques and terminology, it makes for a more streamlined and efficient process.”

The Forum will continue to issue guidance on individual techniques within supply chain finance including payables finance and plans to study the market evolution and develop relevant statistics.

To view Market Practices in Supply Chain Finance: Receivables Discounting Technique, please visit supplychainfinanceforum.org.

About the Global Supply Chain Finance Forum
The Global Supply Chain Finance Forum was established in January 2014, as an initiative of industry associations to address what has been recognized as a need to develop, publish and champion a set of commonly agreed standard market definitions for Supply Chain Finance and for SCF-related techniques.

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BAFT joined with others in the Industry to file a letter supporting the Corporate Transparency Act.

You can read the letter here.

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The class of 2019 delivered its final projects on four main themes – building collaboration in GTB, current trade dynamics, the future of correspondent banking, and the role of humans in transaction banking during the BAFT Global Annual Meeting in San Diego.

In now its fourth year, the batch of 2019 Future Leaders successfully completed a five-month program which kicked off last January at BAFT’s Annual meeting in London.  This year’s class of 32 individuals from 14 countries and a variety of disciplines within transaction banking, tackled some of our industry’s most relevant issues we face today. Each of the participants engaged in a [virtual] group project with a final report presented to a room-full of 400+ transaction banking senior executives and industry experts during the BAFT Global Annual Meeting – the Americas in San Diego, CA this May.

The mission of the BAFT Future Leaders Program is to engage future leaders in solving common industry challenges. Program objectives include:

  1. Recognizing rising talent in the transaction banking industry
  2. Forming guidance on industry issues from the perspective of future leaders
  3. Building a network of young leaders that will lead the next generation
  4. Providing future leaders exposure to current transaction banking industry leaders
  5. Creating a pipeline of talent that will contribute to industry issues through BAFT

With the support of the BAFT Board of Directors, program sponsors and mentors, the class of 2019 delivered its final projects on four main themes – building collaboration in GTB, current trade dynamics, the future of correspondent banking, and the role of humans in transaction banking.  The papers listed below may be found here.