Reels | Resilience, defence, and the future of trade finance - Trade Treasury Payments

At the International Trade and Forfaiting Association (ITFA) 51st Annual Conference in Singapore, Trade Treasury Payments (TTP) spoke with Sean Edwards, Chairman of ITFA, to reflect on the association’s priorities and the themes shaping trade finance today.

Edwards said, “Banks, trade finance banks are very good at resilience.” That quality is being tested across multiple fronts, from shifting ESG regulation to heightened geopolitical risk.

On sustainability, Edwards pointed to ITFA’s work on developing a cost-effective way to measure impact. “We’ve been doing a lot on the SROI model – social return on investment. ESG is not going away, but it is changing. Regulation is being diluted, deferred, delayed, but none of it is disappearing.”

Defence is another area where Edwards sees supply chain finance playing a growing role. With NATO countries ramping up spending, the pressure to rebuild Europe’s defence production base is intensifying. “The scale of what we need to do is so huge that you’re going to have those classic situations where supply chain finance makes sense,” Edwards said. “Big buyers, small fragile suppliers – it’s critical from a security point of view that those suppliers remain in operation.”

Partnership is also at the forefront. ITFA’s Trade Finance COP initiative, launched in Washington last year, will reconvene in both DC and London this autumn. “It’s really about partnership between public and private – MDBs, DFIs, insurers, banks – to come up with the most effective approach to reducing the trade finance gap,” Edwards explained.

Another form of resilience front and centre at the conference, especially with bottlenecks and new trade corridors reshaping flows, is supply chain resilience. “These shocks are unexpected but predictable,” Edwards said. “We need to make sure those chains are resilient, that they’re properly financed.”

To round out the conversation, Edwards spoke on the ITFA Emerging Leaders initiative, a programme designed to support and showcase the next generation of trade finance professionals through mentorship, networking, and recognition, including its annual Emerging Leader Award. “It’s the leading programme of all the trade associations,” he said, noting the award ceremony as one of the highlights of the conference.