The leading international transaction banking association

BAFT submitted a statement for the record in respect of a hearing held by the House Financial Services Committee on “When Banks Leave: The Impacts of De-Risking on the Caribbean and Strategies for Ensuring Financial Access". The statement included several recommendations including establishing a licensing framework for respondent banks, establishing a designated correspondent for de-risked banks, and clarifying the acceptability of hub banking/downstream banking by regional respondent banks. BAFT will follow up with the committee to discuss interest in the recommendations.

BAFT's President & CEO was invited to participate on a panel at the T20 Summit in Indonesia. The panel focused on driving digitalization to close the trade and supply chain finance gap for SMEs. The T20 Summit 2022 gathers world-leading thinkers, policy makers, and experts to discuss the latest research-based policy recommendations and matters of global importance. It is one of the streams that feed into the G20, which will meet in Indonesia in November.

BAFT hosted a meeting with members of the U.S. Department of the Treasury and member banks based in Singapore. The meeting was part of a pre-G20 U.S. Treasury visit to Singapore and Indonesia and introduced a proposal to revise sanctions and introduce a cap on the price of Russian oil. The discussion was aimed at fielding reactions from banks on the proposal, which has since been made public by the G7. Most banks are still not actively involved in financing Russian oil trade and did not expect the new proposal would change their banks’ appetite.

BAFT's President & CEO spoke at GTR Asia 2022 on a panel discussing deep-tier supply chain finance and how this new technology-led approach can help close the $1.7 trillion trade finance gap for SMEs. BAFT expects to launch a working group to further address this topic.