News and events

2012

May
TFP Event & Annual Award Ceremony

April
Financing foreign trade with Egypt

March
Trade Exchange Issue two published
TFP awarded environmental and social accolade
6th Annual Turkey Trade & Export Finance Conference

2011

October
TFP Trade Finance Forum in Istanbul

June
TFP gives NBD Bank trade finance award

May
Head of the TFP Rudolf Putz Q&A in Trade & Forfeiting Review
TFP presentation and awards take place at the EBRD Annual Meeting and Business Forum

February
EBRD Trade Finance e-Learning Programme Graduation Ceremony in Moscow

March 2012

Trade Exchange Issue two published

Following the successful first issue of EBRD’s Trade Exchange Magazine, the new quarterly publication dedicated to the activities of the Trade Facilitation Programme (TFP), March issue has now been published. The magazine features the latest TFP news, events and articles as well as latest developments in the Trade Finance industry.

The Trade Exchange March 2012 edition focuses on TFP’s activities in the Power and Energy sector, where the team have supported hundreds of transactions. The issue also features the recent e-Learning graduation ceremony in Moscow and feedback from some of the students.

To read the full story and stay in the loop with the Trade Exchange, please subscribe.

All issues of the magazine

October 2011 

TFP Trade Finance Forum

The Trade Facilitation Programme team organised another successful Trade Finance Forum in Istanbul on 5-7 October. Originally designed as a crisis response conference for TFP issuing and confirming banks, over the past three years the Forum has developed into a trade finance hub which fosters trust through information sharing and direct communication.

The event attracted more than 200 bankers and trade finance specialists from various areas including the International Chambers of Commerce of Paris and Istanbul, factoring associations and trade finance consultancies.

“It is the ideal platform to network and to get up to date information for trade finance purposes,” Commerzbank’s Axel Bommersheim said of the two and a half day forum. Participants came from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Austria, Belarus, Georgia, Germany, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Turkey, the UAE and Ukraine, among others.

The forum featured sessions covering international trade issues and provided opportunities for bilateral meetings to discuss correspondent banking relationships, the availability of counterparty and country banking limits, cooperation on different transactions, pricing, tenors and other topics.

This year’s event drew sponsorship from Isbank, Bank of Georgia, Commerzbank and Landesbank Baden-Württemberg and was also supported by the EBRD Shareholder Special Fund. The sponsors have already asked the Bank to host the event again in future and have offered their generous support.

June 2011

EBRD gives NDB Bank trade finance award

The Trade Finance Facilitation programme awards NBD Bank its 2010 Trade Finance Import Deal of the Year. This award is a working example of how the Trade Facilitation Programme is able to support local banks and their SME importers.

Read more

The NBD Bank story

In the town of Balakhna in Russia’s Nizhniy Novgorod region, car-parts maker Ruskomtrans employs around 100 people in the production of components for vans, ambulances, camping cars and other vehicles.

It’s exactly the kind of medium-sized regional business that local banking house NBD Bank has been supporting for nearly two decades. Just last year, NBD Bank issued a letter of credit that allowed Ruskomtrans to import machinery from Turkey which it then used to increase profitability by 70 per cent.

That transaction saw NBD Bank pick up the EBRD’s award for Trade Finance Import Deal of 2010 at the Annual Meeting in Astana.

EBRD support

NBD Bank’s €103,750 tranched letter of credit – for the import of construction machinery from Dener Makina San in Turkey – was supported by an EBRD Trade Facilitation Programme guarantee.

That guarantee was confirmed and risk-shared by Commerzbank, while Dutch development bank FMO and private market insurers led by ACE Global Markets also shared the EBRD’s risk.

“For the last 19 years, NBD Bank’s work has been aimed at the development of small and medium businesses in the Russian regions,” said Alexander Sharonov, Chairman of NBD Bank’s Management Board.

“The EBRD has been one of our strategically important partners for 17 years. With the support of EBRD programmes, we have financed over 20,000 projects in the area of micro, small and medium business worth a total of over US$ 150 million,” Mr Sharonov added.

Expanded product range

Alexey Shic, Executive Director of Ruskomtrans, said the transaction guaranteed by NBD Bank was an important part of its development programme.

“The purchased plasma cutting and press brakes machines not only allowed us to optimise and modernise our production cycle, but also gave us the opportunity to create absolutely new models in our range of products which we are now able to offer to our clients,” Mr Shic said.

“The Trade Finance Import Deal of 2010 award to NBD Bank is a perfect example of how the EBRD’s Trade Facilitation Programme is able to support local banks and their SME importers, especially as a majority of TFP transactions are for less than €500,000 and many are for less than €100,000,” said Rudolf Putz, Head of the TFP team.

“What makes the transaction special is also the cooperation of NBD Bank with Commerzbank acting as confirming bank and the fact that Commerzbank took part of the direct risk along with other risk participants,” he added.

May 2011 

TFP in the news

Rudolf Putz, Head of the EBRD Trade Facilitation Programme, takes part in a Trade & Forfaiting Review Q&A on the role of Developmental Financial Institutions in containing the impact of global financial crisis on emerging markets. 

Q&A (490KB - PDF)

TFP presentation and awards take place at the EBRD Annual Meeting and Business Forum 

The Trade Facilitation event at the EBRD Annual Meeting and Business Forum focusing on trends and developments in, as well as outlook for, trade finance banking and also including the awards ceremony for the TFP most active banks in 2010. 

The event is a trade finance bankers and specialists information and networking hub, covering the topic of trade throughout the EBRD region. 

Event sponsored by the Taipai China Business-EBRD Technical Cooperation Fund

February 2011

EBRD Trade Finance e-Learning Programme Graduation Ceremony in Moscow

The EBRD trade finance e-Learning Programme graduation ceremony was held as part of the 4th Annual Russia & Eurasia Trade & Investment Forum in partnership with Exporta.

The achievements of the e-Learning Programme students who successfully completed the e-learning programme were formally recognised at the ceremony as they were awarded their certificates. 

The certificates are recognised by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). 

The student with the highest score in all 4 modules was awarded scholarship and training opportunities with a leading international confirming bank.

For more information, please contact Kamola Makhmudova at the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD). 

Last updated 22 March 2012