Global Finance was pleased to host a ceremony honoring the Best Trade and Supply Chain Finance providers during the first major trade finance event of the year: BAFT’s Europe Bank to Bank Forum in Frankfurt on January 17. Key topics engaging global trade finance leaders at this year’s forum included the usual technology-grounded issues such as future of cross-border payments, trade and supply chain finance digitalisation, data and AI, and revolutionising the banking Industry. An addional hot topic, given the past few years of geopolitical turmoil, was transaction banking in times of frequent crises. These winners have navigated all these challenges with determination, innovation and flexibity. Congratulations to all.
1 Gunther Blum, Vice President at BNY Mellon accepting the World’s Best Trade Finance Bank award.
2 Citi’s Katherine Earl, Director, Trade and Working Capital Solutions Head Germany, Austria & Benelux and Global Sector Lead for Mobility collecting the World’s Best Supply Chain Finance Bank award.
3 Wendy Ravensbergen, Director of Major Accounts Europe at Finastra receiving the World’s Best Trade Finance Provider Non-Bank award.
4. Credit Agricole’s Roland Schlich (left), Head of International Trade and Transaction Banking Germany/Austria and Guido Berning (right), Director Trade & Export Finance, Germany & Austria accepting the World’s Best Bank for Export Finance award.
5 Pablo Ballesteros (left), Global Head of Trade Solutions and Maria Alvarez (right), Executive Director and Global Head of Europe Financial Institutions at Santander collecting the World’s Most Innovative Bank for Trade Finance award.
6 Bank ABC’s Jeroen Reyes, VP, Regional Trade Finance, Group Transaction Banking accepting the Best Trade Finance Provider in the Middle East award.
7 Esther Galiana, Global Head of Financial Institutions at BBVA receiving the Best Trade Finance Provider in Latin America award.
8 Martina Zimmerl-Egger, Head of Trade Finance at Raiffeisen Bank International collecting the Best Trade Finance Provider in Central and Eastern Europe award.
9 Arab Bank’s Rula Refai, Financial Institutions Area Head, accepting the Best Trade Finance Provider in Jordan award.
10 Jerzy Kwiecinski (left), Vice President of the Management Board and Piotr Stolarczyk (right), Director of International Banking and Trade Finance Department for Bank Pekao accepting the Best Trade Finance Provider in Poland award.
11 Peter Grevendonk, Head of Trade Finance at Belfius receiving the Best Trade Finance Provider in Belgium award.
12 (Left to right) Hana Bank’s Alexander Frey, Member of the Management Board, Okhee Ha, Assistant Manager, Richard Scholtz, Managing Director EMEA (Global Finance), Jongbae Lee, Relationship Manager and Soojin Lee, Assistant Manager collecting the Best Trade Finance in South Korea award.
13 Standard Chartered’s team collecting multiple country awards at the Best Trade Finance and Supply Chain Finance awards ceremony.
14 Kaylee Karumanchi, Vice President, Product Manager, Global Trade at Bank of America accepting the Best Supply Chain Finance Provider in North America.
15 PNC’s Kristin Francis (left), Vice President and Angel Spanos (right), Advisor collecting two U.S. Regional awards as the Best Trade Finance Provider in Mid-Atlantic and Southwest regions.
16 Dimitrios Ntalianis, Managing Director at LiquidX receiving the World’s Best Trade Document Management award.
17 Srimanta Bhuyan, Director Application Development at Surecomp accepting the World’s Best Trade Finance Software Provider award.