Page 39 - Buy Russia - bne IntelliNews monthly magazine April 2017

bne April 2017 Special report I 39
Best Trade Finance Bank in Romania
BRD
“For BRD, the most important events of 2016 in trade finance were led by its integration in the international busi- ness line of Societe Generale, which shows an alignment to the standards of SG group regarding the commercial and operational organisation of the activity, the product range and services offered to our clients, the professional- ism of our team and the quality of our services,” says Anca Dogaru, deputy director of global transaction banking.
The year also saw the launch of an innovative product, FINASIA, to meet the needs of customers importing from Central and Eastern Asia, offering longer payment terms and more safety in international trade. The success of this product also inspired the launch of a “twin” product for companies that import from Turkey.
But the bank continues to keep its focus on markets
closer to Romania. “Around 75% of Romania’s exports and imports are concentrated in the EU and forecasts show that this process will continue in 2017 as well,” adds Dogaru, noting other steps to improve the sophistication of the domestic trade finance activity, such as strengthening the bank’s team by allocating some business experts in deal-
Anca Dogaru, deputy director of global transaction banking ing with trade finance (factoring and trade) to three large
regions of the country.
“The [Romanian] market is quite small and concentrated, small and medium companies do not have enough infor- mation and expertise, there is a lack of culture in this field and a lack of a coherent strategy in terms of exports and imports in Romania,” she says.
“Other new products were also launched to combine the advantages offered by the letter of credit with the pay- ment term and the benefits of domestic factoring without recourse, our client being safe in terms of cashing the debts from its domestic partners and having a good man- agement of the company’s cash flow, based on the ‘cash fast pay slow’ principle.
“Considering the current global economic context, one can see an increased preoccupation of companies to diminish trade risks, but at a general level, the volumes carried out via letters of credit for imports or exports represent around 1.37% of Romania’s total exports and imports in 2016,” says Dogaru.
tion, the industry will experience the growth of digital trade before the end of the year and acceleration towards digitisation in the years to come.
Although the numbers were too dispersed to assess take-up of digiti- sation by region, it was evident that banks with trade finance functions with a global reach were far more likely to report that they had digi- tised their trade finance processes “somewhat” or “to a great extent”.
Customised solutions
So how are banks adapting to the changing environment? As well as offering classic trade finance products, a growing number are offering customised solutions, tailored to the customer’s context, such as BRD, our Romanian 2017 Award Winner. “The market [in Romania] is quite small and concentrated, small and medium-sized companies do not have enough information and expertise, there is a lack of culture in this field and a lack
of a coherent strategy in terms of exports and imports in Romania,” says BRD’s Anca Dogaru, deputy director of Global Transaction Banking.
So to cater to the regional growth aspirations of its clients, BRD came up with FINASIA – a solution for the Romanian market that meets the needs of customers importing from Central and Eastern Asia, offering
But trade finance is not only evolving due to international conditions. Many banks are faced with a turbulent envi- ronment at home too, requiring them to increasingly think outside the box.
“2016 was a year that was outside of normal practices in the Turkish economy and the business world, not only due
to the effects of global developments like Brexit, and the EU and US markets,
“Trade finance is silently dying, to some extent”
more safety in international trade the longer payment terms, as exporters can benefit from advantageous local financing thanks to the collaboration between BRD and another bank
from the SG group in the exporter country. The popularity of the product inspired BRD to launch a twin for companies importing from Turkey.
but also local economic developments that made 2016 a more fragile year
for companies in terms of managing their foreign trade activities,” said Yapi Kredi, our 2017 winner from Turkey. “High fluctuation in FX rates during the year and flat GDP growth were
the main Turkish economy challenges encountered in 2016 by the compa-
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