Page 47 - Demo Faces

The challenge: When it comes to raising millions of people out of poverty, there is nothing more impactful than trade. Trade nancing—the guarantees and loans that companies use to back their import and export transactions—is extremely important, but there is a $1.5 trillion global gap in this nancing, of which 40% is in Asia. The worst a ected are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), particularly those led by women.
Innovation: ADB’s Trade Finance Program closes that gap. Last year, the program supported over 4,800 transactions, of which 85% were SME related, valued at $5.4 billion. The program operates in some of developing Asia’s toughest markets but it still mobilized $3.5 billion in co nancing from the private sector. In addition to closing gaps through transactions, the program enabled twinning between banks to boost their support for trade. Other cool innovations include creating digital standards for ntech to underpin more support for SMEs, and working with banks and bank regulators to see how to link loan and guarantee pricing to environmental and labor standards. The program also implemented a gender initiative to boost women in nance.
Next steps:
• Expand the program’s gender initiative to more banks and more countries. The initiative centers on enhancing banks’ human resource policies to attract, retain, and promote more women in nance and trade.
• Intensify e orts to streamline and improve anti–money laundering to drive more transparency into the trade and nancial system to avoid it being used by criminals, including human tra ckers.
• Enhance sustainability in trade by developing operational training and tools for banks to assess the environmental and social impact of transactions.
Find out more: Trade Finance Program Follow Trade Finance Program on LinkedIn
“ADB’s Trade Finance Program executes transactions and creates knowledge products that close market gaps, contributing to the growth and jobs that improve peoples’ lives.”
Steven Beck
Head, Trade and Supply Chain
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Financial products and solutions