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Having just returned from the 6th Global Conference on Letters of Credit in Vienna (hosted by ICC Austria), I feel almost compelled to share some take-aways.

The 2 day session I attended was as inspiring as it was intense. Topics were changing with a speed of lighting: one second you hear about internal Algerian regulations on the L/C issuance, the second – you are following on an exciting discussion about risk distribution of trade assets. Such variety as general (with some very few exceptions to my personal taste) a very high level of presenters made it both challenging and inspiring to be a part of it. Speakers were extremely cunning in not letting the audience fall asleep by throwing questions into the auditorium and demanding answers.

An Austrian bank hosting the conference really showed the best of Austrian cuisine; famous pastries were offered in what seems a non-ending flow at each break… Very few could show courage and resist the temptation (you pay back for your weakness at home once the weights start shaking under you….) I think that we should pass a proposal to ICC to host the next conference in some developing country and serve us one banana wrapped in a palm-tree leaf per day, while making us do some community work at breaks. Sorry for digression...

An integral and extremely important part of conferences is of course socializing. I easily found out that being a Russian-born working for a Swedish bank in Norway is just a normal thing in these cosmopolite-sans-frontier days. My acquaintances at the conference included an American working for an Italian bank in Austria, a Turkish citizen working in London for the Austrian bank to name a few. So the more colorful the better - our business of financing international trade only welcomes different backgrounds. Being a Norwegian representative also yielded an unexpected but positive result: a lovely lady from Portugal having studied my badge for quiet some time said: “Norway…mmm.. cod! We love bacalao!" I felt nice to represent a country bringing the world more than much needed but boring oil. Providing our Portuguese friends with not less needed fish to make their favorite dish is a good thing.

On more LC-related issues later… need to burn all sacher cakes by plunging into hard work.

The ICC Banking Commission held its spring meeting 27-28 March 2012 at La Cigale Hotel in Doha, Qatar.

The meeting was subtitled “Reframing the future of trade finance” and was attended by close to 300 people from some 50 countries.

The first day of the meeting focused on discussions on trade and trade finance market/regulatory constraints, including demand, risks, pricing, availability of trade finance, currency exposure and US liquidity issues.

Especially financial regulations and the impact of Basel III on industry were of critical concern to the participants.

We know that Basel III is largely a response to the financial crisis. However, global trade was hardly the reason for the financial crisis 2008. The ICC report “Global Risks – Trade Finance 2011” (October 2011) shows that trade finance is a relatively low-risk asset class. The banking experts recommended that regulation of trade finance should be based on facts and an objective assessment of the trade finance’s low risk, self-liquidating character. The rules set by regulators impose too strict capital requirements to trade finance and some of the unintended consequences mentioned were: Banks to move away from trade finance; Increase in cost of capital/pricing; SME’s in developing countries mostly impacted; Trade assets to gravitate toward non-regulated sectors. For instance, banks may decide to securitize their trade assets – pushing them into higher-risk, unregulated markets – contrary to the purpose of Basel III.

The concern amongst participants was that the implementation of Basel III might choke trade and have adverse impacts on growth.

The second meeting day mainly focused on updates on key ICC projects and the rule-making parts of the Banking Commission.

Five drafted opinions were discussed at the meeting, one of them being a query regarding sanction-related matters and withdrawn at the fall Beijing meeting for further review. Unfortunately, this query once again was held over for further revision. The other four queries addressed alleged discrepancies relating to: copies; goods descriptions; corrections; payment obligation of issuer and impact of amendment; and the consequence of differing on board date and shipping date.

In addition to these interpretational issues resulting in official ICC opinions we also heard about the ongoing BPO (Bank Payment Obligation) project and the drafting of the new ICC URBPO (Uniform Rules for Bank Payment Obligation). Draft 3 of the Uniform Rules for Forfaiting was discussed and the members of the ISBP drafting group presented the main characteristics of the third ISBP draft (International Standard Banking Practice for the Examination of Documents under Documentary Credits) and the key milestones to be accomplished until release of the revised standards.

Some important issues for discussion and matters to be resolved regarding the ISBP revision are: language issues; original documents; mathematical calculations; endorsements of drafts; how to deal with “all risk” coverage; and should the ISBP be the tool to add credibility or interpretation to terminology that should not be used without further clarification of its intent, i.e. shipping company, documents acceptable as presented, stale documents acceptable etc.

The ISBP Drafting Group hope to conclude most of their work by the end of 2012, but this is dependent on an agreement to keep to a revision of the existing ISBP text only. As ICC Banking Commission Senior Technical Advisor Gary Collier commented: “it must be remembered that by 2013 UCP 600 will have been in existence for 6 years. The new ISBP publication needs to be available sooner rather than later”.

The next Banking Commission meeting was announced to be held in Mexico City in November 2012 – hope to see you there.

I would like to thank all of you that have been so very kind to send me Seasons Greetings either by electronic media or by postal service.

This year when I was about to start thinking about sending the usual Christmas cards I was informed that we do not have any cards in the company this year but I could send an electronic Greeting.

For me that created a bit of an emotional conflict as I do believe in the physical card with a beautiful picture on it. It can be a picture of a mountain, a city skyline, the sky or sometimes it can be more related to Santa Claus. In general cards are very beautiful and make you feel happy. The beautiful cards arrives in envelopes with stamps on and just by that you can see from which country the greeting comes, sometimes the stamp is also a special Christmas stamp that has been created by the postal service just for this time of the year. You open the envelope and by then you can see who the kind person is that have sent you this greeting for the season.

As you might have gathered by now I’m a favorite of cards sent by postal service but as I mentioned in the beginning we did not have any this year so I was trying to adjust my mind to send the electronic version but just as I had come to grips with this for me very revolutionary thoughts I heard that we might be able to find some old fashioned cards after all. The cards arrived eventually but a bit late for me to be able to have them in the post in time for the holidays.

My Seasons Greetings have been stuck somewhere in space this year and it is not even cyber space, I will now save the physical cards for next year when I will once again be able to send a card in a envelope with a stamp on.

I believe that I’m quite good at using modern technology as well as social media but I strongly believe in some of the traditional ways of communication as well. We must not forget the joy of getting a real letter in these days of emails, facebook, twitter etc.

The ironic bit of this is that after making a speech about physical cards I will end up wishing you all happy holidays through a community!

Seasons Greetings and a Happy New Year

Hello all BB users and others!

My recent blog was about the extensive use of tools to be online all time, this blog will be along the same topic but from a very serious angle; Blackberry crise!

For the last few days everyone that use a Blackberry have been in great despair on and of. No emails have reached the little device and it has been difficult to send emails. Then all of sudden you get a whole bunch of emails and you think that the problem is over but that was not be trusted! A few hours later the problem is back again!

Personally I have been enormously worried about this behaviour from my little blackberry! And I do depend a lot on a well running flow of emails.

I have now realized that this is global problem, 30-40 million blackberry user have problems right now all over the world. That is about 50% of all blackberry users!
My conclusion of this is of course that the problems with Blackberrys have negative effects on the global business environment!

Maybe it is about time that we realize that Blackberrys are part of the systemically important infrastructures of the world, do the authorities realize that the have to take measures to make the situation stable? Or is this a chance for me as a addicted Blackberry user to realize that I have a chance to take a break from the constant urge to always read emails.....

Dear friends,

Have you noticed how we all have changed during recent years and I do not mean that we have got more grey hair, at least some of us, or that we actually are older. I'm thinking of how we act during meetings. 20 years ago or even 10 years ago we paid attention during meetings. We took a break when it what scheduled and we normally took care of whatever telephone call or other matter during that break.

How about now? If you look around a meeting or conference hall today you can see most attendees busy on their Blackberrys, IPads, lap-tops or other devices.

Is this showing that you are interested or that you contribute to the meeting?
What is more important, is that respect to the person or persons that are talking??!!

I have seen participants that do not let go of the Blackberry for one single moment during a meeting, I have seen the use of IPads being used constantly during meetings. What is also becoming more and more frequent especially in larger meetings is that independent discussions start amongst the delegates resulting in everyone getting disturbed.
Now you will most likely say that I do the same which I have to agree is true. I do act the same way during meetings and I think this is showing how bad it has become. I have advocated for a long time that this is a very bad habit and I very clearly have the view that all these devices should be left alone during meeting, still I act the same way!
It is now my clear view that we should respect the meeting, this would benefit all of us!
The next meeting I attend my Blackberry will stay in my pocket