Page 38 - Buy Russia - bne IntelliNews monthly magazine April 2017

38 I Special report bne April 2017
Best Trade Finance Bank in the Czech Republic
Komercni Banka
“Based on recent reports provided by SWIFT, we observe that Komercni Banka is ranked stably in the top rankings in the Czech Republic in terms of both volume and value of issued letters of credit,” says Marketa Kryslova, manager of global transaction banking of Komercni Banka/ Societe Generale, our 2017 Trade Finance Award winner in the Czech Republic.
“Compared to 2015, 2016 has an even better performance, with a significant increase in numbers of issued import letters of credit (covering over 1/4 of the whole market, compared to 1/5 in 2015). What we are also doing more is cooperating with big institutional banks on markets that we don’t know very well, for example in Asia or Africa,” Kryslova adds, noting that Komercni Banka is also developing its trade finance products for deals within the Czech Republic.
“Domestic bank guarantees are very popular in CEE, people are surprised that there are so many domestic guarantees,” the global transaction banking manager says. “When we talk about trade finance, people think of interna- tional deals, but people use trade finance products in these countries to deal locally, for example two Czech compa- nies will decide to use bank guarantees in a Czech deal,
Marketa Kryslova, manager of global transaction banking
typically in construction. It’s simple, it’s covered by local legislation, and that makes it practical in the context of a transitional economy. What we are also seeing is a strong rise of deals done electronically, and this will only go up.”
“The core principles have not changed – customer, trans- action, payment and document screening – nor have the responsibilities of the financial institutions involved in international trade transactions,” adds Gabriela Kostkova, head of trade finance: “It is apparent that everyone involved in trade finance must understand thoroughly the compli- ance risks and apply all the measures that banks adopted to minimise the same.”
“Domestic bank guarantees are very popular in the CEE”
Best Trade Finance Bank in Poland
mBank
“mBank is the leading bank for Polish corporate clients in the areas of guarantees, documentary business and work- ing capital needs,” says Tomasz Wojtowicz, head of trade finance. “Our working capital approach has focused on pre- shipment financing (or pre-financing of the contract), trade receivables purchase and discounting, payables financing (payment on behalf of the debtor, suppliers financing). We aim at developing tools which enable corporate clients to increase sales level and to enhance portfolio of the buyers, like distributor financing and export finance. One of the most important issues in the trade finance sales cycle is to optimise and improve balance sheet structure of the client. Market demand for these solutions is constantly growing.
“Additionally I expect increasing needs in the guarantees area due to infrastructure projects which have been just announced by the Polish government. Our key advantages are client centricity and unique client approach. More than
Tomasz Wojtowicz, head of trade finance
55% of the existing trade programmes for the clients were established on a non-standard basis. These are tailor- made solutions,” Wojtowicz adds.
“mBank is well recognised on the Polish market both in the traditional corporate business and in the trade finance area especially due to the wide product range and the professional, experienced sales team and its flexibility.”
“Increasing needs in guarantees are expected due to announced infrastructure projects”
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