During the recent BAFT Europe Bank to Bank Forum, an esteemed panel of experts led by Lee Braine, Head of Advanced Technology, Barclays; Xiaonan Zou, Head of Innovation and Digital Assets, UBS AG, Group Treasury; and Jürgen Schaaf, Advisor to the Senior Management Market Infrastructure and Payments, European Central Bank (ECB) discussed retail vs wholesale CBDCs, synthetic digital currencies, possible digital euro circulation date and more. Read the full article here.
WASHINGTON — BAFT, the leading global financial services association for international transaction banking, today announced the launch of its new Certificate in Foreign Exchange (CFX), which includes a series of eight courses that offer an overview of a financial institution’s foreign exchange department and services. The certificate is tailored for junior to intermediate level transaction banking professionals, as well as those who have already completed the Certificate in Introductory Transaction Banking.
This course will provide an understanding of the foreign exchange market, what foreign exchange products are most commonly used by financial institutions, and a working knowledge of foreign exchange as it pertains to a client’s business, including global differences and risk and compliance concerns. Participants will also review the importance of complying with local country regulations that restrict payments to certain parties in a transaction.
“As a finance professional with more than 20 years of progressive responsibilities in both banking and corporate treasuries, I know that foreign exchange is a complex business,” said Deepa Sinha, vice president of payments and financial crime, BAFT. “This comprehensive new certification will provide other transaction banking professionals with the skills and expertise necessary to master this important area of industry focus.”
The courses will be led by Matt Porio, a recognized foreign exchange expert who has worked with top international financial institutions within the risk management, investment management and financial products areas. Porio is an adjunct professor of finance at the University of Connecticut and Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn.
The certificate courses will be available through BAFT’s Learning Management System and take about 15 hours of study to complete.
Click here for more information on the Certificate in Foreign Exchange.
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 in a wide range of topics affecting transaction banking, including trade finance, payments, and compliance.
The agreement formalizes an existing relationship with BAFT that supports small business exporters by reducing barriers to accessing capital
WASHINGTON – Today, Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman, head of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and the voice for America’s 33 million small businesses in President Biden’s Cabinet, announced the signing of the Strategic Alliance Memorandum (SAM) with BAFT (Bankers Association for Finance and Trade,) the leading global financial services association for international transaction banking, which will formalize the SBA’s existing relationship with the association. BAFT and SBA strive to tackle challenges both lenders and small businesses face when seeking the trade financing that is essential to international trade. Together, the SBA and BAFT will work to educate small businesses and their lenders on the export financing solutions available in the marketplace.
“SBA’s new agreement with BAFT recognizes the impact and ingenuity of our small business exporters and the important role our lending partners play in funding their growth,” said Administrator Guzman. “Our joint efforts to strengthen resources to BAFT members, and increase the number of lenders offering SBA international trade products, will expand access to capital and help deliver on the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to create opportunities for small businesses and strengthen our economy for all of us.”
“Financing is an important element in helping small businesses expand their customer base internationally and has been a persistent challenge,” said Tod Burwell, President and CEO of BAFT. “SBA is helping to ease that challenge, and with the leverage of the global BAFT network, we hope to collectively make a positive difference.”
Through its Office of International Trade, the SBA works to support small and midsized exporters with a goal of increasing both the number of businesses exporting and the dollar value of those exports. This work is done across the Agency by offering access to education and technical assistance, access to capital, and trade policy to support market access for small businesses.
BAFT serves as a worldwide forum for analysis, discussion, and advocacy in international financial services and provides support to members that are active in trade finance, supply chain finance, credit insurance, and export credits. Specifically, BAFT is the voice of the global trade finance community. In addition to tracking strategic global trade policy developments, BAFT provides practical guidance papers and tools including standardized legal documentation as well as a forum for discussion on topical trade finance challenges.
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About the U.S. Small Business Administration
The U.S. Small Business Administration helps power the American dream of business ownership. As the only go-to resource and voice for small businesses backed by the strength of the federal government, the SBA empowers entrepreneurs and small business owners with the resources and support they need to start, grow, expand their businesses, or recover from a declared disaster. It delivers services through an extensive network of SBA field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations. To learn more, visit www.sba.gov.
About the Bankers Association for Finance and Trade
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 over 100 years, BAFT has expanded markets, shaped policy, developed business solutions, and preserved the safety and soundness of the global financial system. Learn more at www.baft.org.
WASHINGTON — BAFT, the leading global financial services association for international transaction banking, today announced the launch of its new Certificate in Advanced Cash Management (CACM), which includes a series of nine courses designed for individuals seeking to learn more about payments and treasury management. The certificate is tailored to those interested in expanding their careers in transaction banking, who have three or more years of cash management experience or have already completed the Certificate in Introductory Transaction Banking.
CACM will provide an in-depth understanding of cash management tools, techniques and best practices needed to be successful in various cash management disciplines. Learners will gain a deep understanding of treasury management and its impact on the financial ecosystem. The courses will also cover topics like liquidity management, information reporting, foreign exchange, correspondent banking and innovation.
“As someone with more than 20 years of experience in cash management and treasury, I believe this is an essential certification for Treasury professionals at both banks and mid-to-large-sized companies,” said Deepa Sinha, Vice President of Payments and Financial Crime, BAFT. “Transaction banking is a complex business, and it takes demonstrated expertise to master it. This course can help professionals reach the next level.”
The courses will be led by Barry Tooker, a recognized expert in wholesale banking who has been involved in payment operations and treasury services for global banks for more than 45 years.
The certificate courses will be available through BAFT’s Learning Management System and are expected to take 10 hours to complete. The final assessment will include 80 multiple choice questions and students must answer 80% correctly to pass and receive the certificate.
Click here for more information on the Certificate in Advanced Cash Management.
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
Senior Director, Public Relations
[email protected]
+1 (202) 663-5468
At the end of April 2022, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) released their “Draft Model Law on the Use of Cross-border Recognition of Identity Management (IdM) and Trust Services“. BAFT received a Request for Comment, with a May 27, 2022 submission deadline.
The need for the establishment of the IdM cuts across numerous facets of international transaction banking including trade finance, supply chain finance, payments, and areas of compliance such as Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML). The process of establishing standards in the universal acceptability of the IdM is also at the core of the digitization of trade initiatives. Accordingly, BAFT fully endorses UNCITRAL’s efforts in formulation of the Draft Model Law.
The Draft Model Law confirms that the international dimension is essential to the use of identity management and trust services and more generally, of electronic services. However, the text confirms that there are two obstacles: i) technical incompatibility leading to a lack of interoperability, and ii) legal obstacles to cross boarder recognition.
To provide direction on overcoming these two obstacles, BAFT advocates for the implementation of the work already done by the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) in the establishment of the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI). The LEI is a global ISO 17442 standard that connects key reference information and enables clear and unique identification of legal entities.
Digital transformation in global transaction banking is capable of reducing costs, improving efficiency, better regulatory control with less risk and collaborative opportunities for stakeholders in the global economy. The LEI is the only global standard for legal identity identification which is why BAFT has endorsed its inclusion in the Draft Model Law.
Via Trade Finance Global (TFG)
In April 2022, BAFT named Deepa Sinha as its new Vice President of Payments and Financial Crime. TFG’s Deepesh Patel interviewed Sinha to learn what led her to the association, her view on fighting financial crime, and her insights into the progress made in the payments space.
Deepa Sinha has been in the finance and treasury space for more than 25 years now, in both corporate and bank settings, accumulating a perspective on what’s needed from both.
During that time, she has worked for large banks such as Capital One and been on the advisory councils for J.P. Morgan, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Citi.
She also spent some time working for large corporates like the Carlyle Group and Caliburn International (now Acuity International), as well as non-profits like AARP.
Much of her experience lies with the implementation of treasury management systems and enterprise resource planning systems integrations, leading internal IT and business teams, and working with various internal and external stakeholders to build consensus and accomplish objectives.
PATEL: What led you to join BAFT and head up payments and financial crime?
SINHA: BAFT is the organization that international banks active in transaction banking look to for industry best practices, solutions, advocacy, policymaking, and knowledge-sharing.
I have been in the finance and treasury space for more than 25 years now and BAFT will provide me with an opportunity to fill an advisory role to our members on not only what their clients are looking for, but what is developing in the space, and how it can affect them and their business.
As technology advances and various international policies and regulations evolve, BAFT offers the knowledge and capabilities in this space to be ahead of those evolutions and advancements.
That’s why I wanted to join BAFT.
PATEL: What has been the impact of the pandemic on financial crime?
SINHA: The pandemic has been a time for both challenges and opportunities, with regard to financial crime, and associated regulatory compliance.
If we look at the data behind financial crime patterns, there is an uptick in cybercrime, which corresponds to an increase in electronic commerce and payments. The efficiency of newer payment methods presents an opportunity and a challenge for banks, regulators, and organizations like BAFT to strengthen regulatory compliance.
There is much work to be done, but the incredible team at BAFT is positioned well and has the ability to work closely with our members, partners, and policymakers in continually striving for success in these areas.
PATEL: The trade industry has suffered some serious fallbacks due to fraudsters and issues around money laundering. Do you expect to see this increase moving forwards?
SINHA: We see trade-based money laundering and fraud as two distinct problems that require different solutions.
In most instances, trade-based money laundering is separate from trade financing and takes advance of fragmentation in the value and payment chains. Banks alone cannot solve this – it requires collaboration with customs, shipping companies and other stakeholders. Banks are using artificial intelligence and other tools to get better at mitigating money laundering, but it remains a stubborn problem.
As payments get faster and more frictionless, the risk increases. Fraud, however, is heavily driven by paper-based processes and we are seeing improvements in mitigating fraud as technology solutions are increasingly implemented.
As digital identity becomes more widespread, and duplicate financing solutions gain more traction, fraud mitigation will improve even further. However, we know that criminals constantly find new ways to evade the law, so we have to remain diligent.
PATEL: Although within the industry there is a general consensus that regulation, reporting on and fighting financial crime are important, it’s also time-consuming, costly, and potentially at the cost of serving smaller MSMEs. How do we tread the line?
SINHA: As in everything, balance is the key. In order to protect assets and interests, and prevent financial crime, regulations, compliance, and due diligence are quite necessary.
However, in finding that balance, we also want to make sure that those same regulations, compliance, and due diligence responsibilities are not overwhelming, especially for smaller and medium-sized companies.
There still has to be some collaborative work between banks and regulators to fine-tune the “risk-based approach” to compliance. BAFT is committed to working with our international banks to understand and lessen the challenges associated with compliance, and also working with regulators to advise how ineffective regulations pose a hindrance to conducting business and actually increase overall risk.
PATEL: Has the pandemic accelerated the need for FIs to speed up and innovate in the payments space (real-time 24-7-365)?
SINHA: Not only did the pandemic accelerate the need for financial institutions to speed up innovation in the payments space, but it also accelerated the deployment of innovative solutions and adoption by corporate clients.
Across the board, the name of the game is digitization. How we interact with the world as a populace is primarily online now, from shopping to groceries to paying our bills and both the banks and the clients they serve have responded accordingly.
With the advent of real-time payments from customer to customer, now business to business and between businesses and their customers, we are seeing an acceleration of the real-time-payment revolution.
Various markets in Asia were early adopters followed by Europe, but we’ve seen an acceleration in Latin American and North America on the domestic level. The next major innovations will be in real-time cross border payments.
PATEL: Where is the payments space in terms of adopting best practices and standards?
SINHA: Some elements of best practices – such as straight-through rates, payment times, reporting, and digital deployment, offer competitive advantages, so firms are constantly driving towards what they believe is best practice.
At BAFT, we focus more on standards and best practices for functions that are common and necessary for a healthier ecosystem, such as interbank transactions and risk management.
In that regard, our members are very active in collaborating through our committees and working groups. The community is very engaged in driving towards new standards such as ISO 20022 and working with providers such as SWIFT and other payment service providers that offer technology solutions that improve on current practices.
PATEL: What are your missions and objectives at BAFT over the coming months?
SINHA: First on my list, as well as an ongoing goal, is to be at the forefront of new payments capabilities as they develop, as well as the policies and regulations that guide them, and be able to disseminate that to our members as quickly as possible.
My goal is to assist our members in achieving optimum productivity by leveraging technology and industry best practices in operational efficiency.
I also want to entrench myself as a subject matter expert on the challenges that our members are facing in the area of financial crimes, policies and regulations that govern them, and how to tackle those challenges head-on, with new developments and solutions in technology to prevent financial crimes before they happen, and to solve for them when they do.