TXF spoke with Rachael Anstock, head of UK credit & political risks at Zurich, to discuss the insurer’s product innovations, and to find out whether the private market is competing with ECAs for business, rather than collaborating.

Citi extended its participation in the GTLP this summer almost a decade after its inception. TXF spoke with John Ahearn about the importance of the programme.

In a time of geopolitical uncertainty, how are private insurance underwriters planning ahead for the future and what challenges and opportunities are key risk hot spots presenting to them?

This episode brings you an excerpt from the opening ‘Country Risk Review’ panel discussion at the recent TXF Political Risk & Trade Credit Insurance conference. With a focus on Turkey, Russia, Angola, Zambia, Mexico and Brazil, this panel comprised of insurance underwriters and risk experts provides an in depth analysis of the key global risk trends.

Panellists:

Trade finance is becoming an asset class and there’s an evolving regulatory landscape with Basel IV and PRA changes. Marilyn Blattner-Hoyle, head of supply chain and trade finance at AIG, talks to TXF about the growing pressures for lenders to use the private insurance.

Amid potential changes to PRA regulations, IFRS accounting standards, and sovereign risk exposures, the trade credit insurance landscape will have to evolve. Gary Lowe, head of the credit insurance desk at Standard Chartered, gives his take on these regulatory constraints and what buying trade credit insurance in a post-Brexit world will look like.  

When it takes the same amount of time to underwrite the risks of a power station as a letter of credit, something had to give. Chris Hall, Senior Underwriter, Liberty Specialty Markets discusses Toredo, a web-based platform which moves trade credit insurance underwriting into the digital era.

Robert Frank, global head for insurance and risk mitigation at Gerald Metals, spoke to TXF about the CPRI market, the digitisation myth and how having multiple brokers keeps them on their toes.

Amber Case is author of ‘Calm Technology’, a book about designing for your attention and designing better technology that works with and not against you, that makes good use of your attention. Katharine Morton sits back and chats with the ‘cyborg anthropologist’ about the wider applications of calm technology for finance and trade. Don’t race to digitise.

Getting banks, regulators and investors to understand trade funds better is key to trade evolving as an investible asset class. Aidan Applegarth, owner and managing director of Bankingwise, a trade services consultancy is perturbed by the lack of support from the banks and the fact that the market has potential to grow as long as it’s not viewed as one-size-fits-all.