Global and domestic economies depend upon trade and related trade finance. For centuries, trade and trade finance transactions have been recorded in paper documents. Cross-border trade transactions (totalling more than US$18 trillion annually) involve vast numbers of these paper documents that must pass through the hands of many parties. This process is slow, inefficient, costly, error and fraud prone, environmentally unsound and contributes to a trade finance gap of up to US$2.5 trillion affecting mainly SMEs, prompting the ICCUK-C4DTI to observe: “[T]he trading system suffers from antiquated laws and a lack of standardisation.”Recent decades have witnessed a remarkable digital transformation in the conduct of commerce, with a phenomenal shift from paper-based to electronic processes. That shift is now accelerating in trade and trade finance, supported by law reform. Our two expert presenters will illustrate the immense benefits that proven digital technologies, like blockchain DLT, offer trade and trade finance. They will highlight recent developments in industry, and in legal reforms, as key trade and finance participants - and government entities - hasten to implement simpler, more efficient, secure, sustainable and inclusive digital trade and trade finance processes.

Financial crime is a global threat, costing businesses and consumers trillions annually. But what if we could leverage the very technology that fuels these crimes – Artificial Intelligence – to fight back?Join us for a webinar exploring the power of AI for Good in fraud and financial crime prevention. We'll delve into Featurespace's decade-long journey as an industry leader in AI-native fraud detection solutions for banks and financial institutions.Martina will unpack topics including:

The built environment, be it in the form of town halls, schools, shops, pubs, pavements, bridges, makes up the background to our lives and our most tangible experience of our cultural heritage. This talk will discuss the importance of preserving the best examples of our built heritage , and will suggest an alternative to over scale, mono cultural development.Mixed use, human scale development has an important place in our management of property. As has ownership and balanced vision.

The Global Financial Centres Index has been tracking the development of the world’s financial centres since 2007 and is the authoritative guide to financial centre success.In this webinar, Z/Yen will formally launch the 35th edition of the index.

Concrete production and steelmaking currently account for a staggering 8% and 11% of global annual carbon emissions, respectively. Having been overlooked for far too long, attention on how to swiftly and equitably decarbonise both sectors is growing.There are enabling technologies to clean up production. Demand from businesses for net zero steel and concrete grows ever louder. Yet, volumes are not coming to market at the speed or scale we need. We’re at a critical juncture where decisions on purchasing, investment and policy must be laser focused on driving decarbonisation.In this session, Climate Group will present their global ConcreteZero and SteelZero initiatives, which are bringing together leading businesses to signal their demand for net zero steel and concrete by 2050 or earlier, and will highlight the critical role of finance in diverting capital flows toward clean steel and concrete production.

Z/Yen's "Focus On" series highlights key business and financial centres from around the world. Here, we look at Busan, South Korea's second largest city at 3.4 million and a burgeoning centre for maritime industry, finance, and digital finance. Busan's ambitious plans for expanding their digital finance ecosystem include the creation of a urban blockchain and digital asset exchange, unifying services offered by the likes of Ethereum and Cosmos onto one platform. Moreover, we'll look at the work of Busan International Finance Centre, the incentives being offered to the international business community as well as the prospective ecosystem.

In October 2010 the UK Government gave the green light to eight new nuclear reactors. It would see the UK push forward with the most ambitious fleet of new nuclear power stations in Europe. On 11 March 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster occurred and nuclear power plant investment in the UK was put on hold. It was not until September 2016 the Government approved the construction of Hinkley C Power Station, with work actually commencing in March 2017 and scheduled to finish in 2025.Originally estimated to cost £26bn latest cost estimates are £36bn with forecast completion dates ranging from 2027 to 2036.The level of investment in these large power stations has led many to consider Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). Typically generating 300MW compared to the 1600 MW of the Hinkley C units they can be largely factory built, require lower investment and as the numbers produced are much larger manufacturing time and costs would benefit from the "learning curve” associated with building multiple units.To meet its carbon commitment the UK Government is now considering around seven SMR designs and is predicted to reduce this to two or three by the end of 2023. The ambition was to have SMRs operational by 2030 but latest announcements suggest a final investment decision by 2030 with construction starting around 2035. In the meantime renewable energy is becoming more attractive and new SMR designs are starting to appear and different power generation scenarios are being considered.As time slips by the dilemma facing the Government is: Should it invest in nuclear power? should it invest in SMRs? and if so... When should it make the investment? As time passes the decision becomes ever more complex.

The speed of change in the global energy mix is occurring at a historically rapid pace. TerraPower President and CEO Chris Levesque will discuss how the growing need for electricity and the urgency to address climate change have increased the need for advanced nuclear technologies to be part of the suite of solutions to meet the energy needs of the future. The Natrium reactor and energy storage system that TerraPower is demonstrating near a retiring coal facility in the U.S. is an innovative combination the provides both clean, baseload power and gigawatt-scale energy storage to support the energy transition.

In this 45-minute webinar, David Craddock discusses the historical contribution from the USA and Europe on the development of direct employee share ownership in the context of market economics; the capacity of employee share schemes to respond to the creative instincts of human nature; the interaction between business competition and business cooperation; and the mindset of entrepreneurship through employee shares participation.

The current UK funding mechanism for critical private sector ESG initiatives is clearly unsustainable. Current ESG objectives are at great risk unless one of the following occurs: