International expert on trade finance Gary Collyer back in Sri Lanka

Tuesday, 17 October 2017 00:15 -     - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The International Chamber of Commerce Sri Lanka (ICCSL) will be hosting an international trade finance seminar on ‘Past Challenges and Future Opportunities in Trade Finance’. 

The one-day workshop will be held at the Kingsbury Hotel on 22 November. The workshop will be conducted by international trade finance professional Garry Collyer. 

Traditional trade finance settlement methods are currently facing a difficult time. Falling volumes, mainly through the movement of buyers and sellers to open account-based solutions, has led to reduced revenues that are impacting banks’ development and delivery channels on a global scale. 

Talk of digitalisation of trade finance has led to some confusion in the market as to the products that will be available, how such transactions will be completed and who will offer these services e.g. will it continue to be banks or will logistics companies including carriers and FinTech companies enter this space?

The development of ICC rules such as eUCP and URBPO, which were both identified as being necessary in 2002 and 2013 respectively, have not had any great impact in changing the trade finance mindset of moving from paper to electronic documents or data. The seminar will look at what is necessary to move from paper to electronic documents or data and identify some of the inhibitors that exist today.

The remainder of the workshop is primarily case study driven. The content of the case studies will focus upon the problems that have led to challenges for banks in the past, today and no doubt into the near future. The workshop will look at the different aspects of the main traditional trade finance products and offer solutions as well as best practice ideas. To complete the workshop, an overview will be provided of the ICC’s Uniform Rules for Forfaiting (URF800).

In addition to identifying the current issues that are being experienced globally, ICCSL will look at best practices that should be adopted by banks and corporates alike. There will be ample time for workshop participants to raise any issues that they have and get the answers from the Chairman of the ICC Drafting Groups for UCP 600 and ISBP 745. 

The target audience for the workshop includes professionals in the field of trade finance, bankers, importers, exporters, brokers, accountants, lawyers, logistics and export and import control managers, shipping agents, professionals from trade-related government and private institutions and all other interested groups interlinked in trade finance operations locally and internationally. A certificate of participation will be awarded to all participants of the workshop. 

Collyer is a trade finance professional of international repute. From November 1996 until 30 June 2013, Collyer was a Technical Adviser and then Senior Technical Adviser to the Banking Commission of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), where he was instrumental in drafting hundreds of opinions related to ICC rules.

 

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