INTRODUCING ZEYNO DE VRIES-DAVUTOGLU (CREDIT EUROPE BANK N.V.); ONE OF THE THREE NEW ITFA BOARD MEMBERS

Zeyno de Vries-Davutoglu is Executive Vice President/Division Director for Credit Europe Bank N.V. and is responsible for Financial Institutions and Forfaiting & EM Loan Trading Departments (originating, managing and distributing of trade related bank risk). Zeyno is based in Amsterdam.

She started her banking career at Kocbank A.S. Istanbul in 1991 in the Financial Institutions Department where she worked for eight years. She was then moved to Ireland to assist with the integration of a newly acquired IFSC trading company; Koratrade Dublin where she spent two years. After her return to the head office, Zeyno took over a new role - Group Manager for the foreign subsidiaries of the bank. In 2002 she was then appointed to Kocbank Nederland N.V. in the corporate banking department and later also assumed responsibility on forfaiting activities of the bank. In 2005, she joined Credit Europe Bank N.V. and undertook various roles, until she was eventually appointed to her current role in September 2008 as E.V.P Bank Relations.

Zeyno received her B.A. degree from International Relations Faculty in Ankara and then got an M.A. degree in European Union Studies from Marmara University in Istanbul.

 “During my banking career, I have been in contact with very sophisticated banks in developed countries, but have also dealt with many emerging and developing countries; and also not so sophisticated banks. There were wars, revolutions and too many crises in all these countries. However, I witnessed that trade debts have always been honoured even during the most extraordinary times. Trade finance is an area which keeps evolving; changing faces, developing new products but always going on.  ITFA assumes an important role in providing a platform not only to banks but to all the institutions that are active in trade finance, where we meet and discuss common problems in our industry, get inspired through others experiences and most importantly we all learn/pass on know-hows to each other.

Because of the nature of my work, I have been travelling to various countries. I had the opportunity to notice that in certain geographies, banks are quite familiar with managing and distributing risk, however these are not members of the Association yet.  I also witnessed that in some other countries, even though banks look for ways to finance and distribute trade finance risks, they are not familiar with “managing trade finance risk” concept yet.

I agree with our ITFA Chairman, Sean, as he mentioned in a previous newsletter, that ITFA is at crossroads and we have to evolve and expand together with the industry. I also believe that the association has the opportunity to play an important part in this dynamic sector. We don’t only have great potential to expand, but also great responsibility in passing on the wealth of experience accumulated amongst its members, to be in the centre of the evolvement of the sector.

Prior to my board position I had the privilege to co-chair the Northern European Regional Committee (NERC) together with Dalia Kay from Federated Investors. My period at NERC gave me the chance to get to work closely with very skilled bankers who are eager to work for ITFA and pass on their knowledge to other people.

I am delighted to have been elected to the ITFA Board and have been asked to take over the Educational responsibilities. I will be working closely with Paul Coles and Chris Hall. We have already put together a rather aggressive educational activities calendar. We plan to represent ITFA at various conferences, seminars and ITFA events from Johannesburg to Hong Kong in 2016. We are keen to pass the wealth of experience our members have accumulated throughout the years to new geographies and to new potential members.

I would like to take the opportunity to ask all members of the Association to contact me on zeyno.devries-davutoglu@itfa.org with any educational queries in which ITFA can be of assistance.’’