Trade finance
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Trade finance and the compliance challenge
The availability of trade finance has become an increasingly important issue in the past few years. As international banks have become less willing to provide trade finance guarantees particularly in developing countries this has reduced the capacity of local banks to provide credit to businesses wishing to trade leading to a significant gap between the demand and supply of trade finance. Small and medium-sized enterprises have been especially hard-hit by this trade finance gap. This publication delves into the global trade finance gap and the reasons for the growing reluctance of the global financial sector to engage in this form of financing. It examines the challenges of regulatory compliance and describes the efforts of international organizations such as the World Trade Organization and the International Finance Corporation to respond to this issue. It also presents case studies of the capacity-building programmes organized by multilateral development banks which aim to improve the availability of trade finance.
Trade Finance and SMEs
Trade finance plays a key role in helping developing countries participate in global trade. Easing the supply of credit in regions where trade potential is the greatest could have a big impact in helping small businesses grow and in supporting the development of the poorest countries. This publication takes a detailed look at trade finance and emphasises the importance of multilateral agencies working together.
Trade finance in the Mekong region
Cambodia the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Viet Nam – the so-called Mekong-3 - have experienced rapid trade growth over the last ten years. However growth could be boosted even further by improving access to trade finance such as loans and guarantees for locally owned businesses seeking to trade globally. This publication presents the results of two surveys undertaken by the IFC to determine the level of trade finance available to businesses in the Mekong region. An analysis of the data conducted by the WTO explores the potential impact of an expansion in trade finance and how this could lead to greater integration into world trade and more inclusiveness with increased participation in global supply chains by small businesses and women-owned enterprises. The publication is intended to serve as a guide to how domestic financial sectors can reorient their operations to support cross-border trade and enhanced access to global markets.
Foreword
In 2017 an IFC report1 pinpointed the reductions in the network officorrespondent banks in emerging markets. In emerging markets correspondentfibanking stress and compliance challenges drove some respondent banksfito retrench their own businesses. At the time the trade finance gap wasfiestimated at around US$1.5 trillion.2 It has likely widened since.
Acknowledgements
Many people have contributed to this publication either directly by providing written contributions or by participating in the design editing and reviewing process or more indirectly by actually reporting on the capacity-building activities that they have been organizing in the field. Special acknowledgment should go to the WTO team including in alphabetical order Marc Auboin Anthony Martin Heather Sapey-Pertin Helen Swain and David Tinline; the IFC team including Hyung Ahn Kuntay Celik (World Bank) Emmanuel Mathias (IMF) Samantha Pelosi (BAFT) Susan Starnes Alexei Timofti and Makiko Toyoda; and the EBRD (Kamola Makhmudova Rudolf Putz) ADB (Steven Beck Maria Clarissa A. Laysa Pinky Rose Lustre Can Sutken) and ITFC (Anisse Terai).
Executive summary
Up to 80 per cent of trade is financed by credit or credit insurance but availability of finance varies across regions. A lack of trade finance is a significant barrier to trade particularly (but not exclusively) in developing countries.
Conclusions
Since the heads of multilateral institutions met at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank shared efforts to resolve the challenges of the trade finance gap have been increased significantly – particularly through capacity building. This publication presents best practices as well as a “return from experience” from training already provided by IFC the EBRD ADB and the ITFC on the topic of trade finance and compliance.
Introduction
The availability of trade finance has become an increasingly important issue in the past few years. For merchandise trade flows of over US$ 18 trillion annually to flow smoothly there needs to be a wellfunctioning trade finance market serving the needs of global traders. However the supply of trade finance does not meet demand in many regions. Even before the 2008-09 global financial crisis a significant gap existed between the demand and supply of trade finance in emerging markets; since the crisis this gap has grown with some regions affected more than others.
Estimating total trade finance assets: methodology
The estimation of the total value of trade finance in a country considers the relationship between bank assets in the country based on published data and trade finance assets identified in the survey. This relationship can take the functional forms of either a power law distribution or the asset variables can be proportional to each other.
Counterfactual analysis
The bank survey contains information on the costs of trade finance the share of trade covered by trade finance and the trade finance gap. This information is used to generate projections of the trade effects of changes in the price and availability of trade finance. The WTO Global Trade Model (GTM) a computable general equilibrium model is used to simulate the effects of changes in trade costs because of changes in the price and availability of trade finance. This annex describes the economic model employed explores how the trade costs of financing international trade are modelled and outlines how trade finance shares and the costs of the trade finance instruments are calibrated in the baseline and counterfactuals.
Executive summary
Cambodia the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR) and Viet Nam – referred to here as the Mekong-3 – have established themselves as one of the most dynamic and trade-led regions of the world. In 2022 the value of trade flows surpassed GDP in all three economies. The trade-to-GDP ratio was particularly high in Cambodia and Viet Nam at over 210 and 185 per cent respectively – several times higher than the global average of 62 per cent. The value of total trade flows has tripled in Cambodia and Viet Nam and more than doubled in the Lao PDR in the past decade.
Conclusions
The Mekong-3 – Cambodia the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR) and Viet Nam – are deepening their trade integration increasing the volume and value of their exports and strengthening their participation in global value chains (GVCs). This expansion of opportunities for new traders in new markets generates expectations of growing demand for trade finance in the coming years.