We all know that trade finance has historically had difficulties in
attracting the attention of school leavers and university graduates. The
reasons for this are numerous, but can be summarised as follows:
- School leavers and university graduates have a negative perception of the industry (less attractive, uninspiring) when compared to more appealing sectors such as capital markets, M&A, hedge funds, etc;
- Complexity of the industry and lack of coverage at school/university level leading to natural barriers of entry (normally new entrants learn on the job);
- “Club” mentality of the industry may mean little effort is put in passing on knowledge;
- Lack of interest from industry players in investing in boosting capacity in what has normally been perceived as being a low earner within the financial industry;
- Lack of opportunities for young professionals to alter their initial career path in the financial services sector (difficulties in embracing a career in trade finance for those who did not embrace one at the outset).
With a view of changing the course of events and reversing the
“inevitable” future where an inverted age pyramid would dominate the industry
(with the necessary consequences in terms of its sustainability), ITFA decided
to take action and created a Young Professionals initiative to empower young
professionals in the industry, as well as to market the industry to those
potentially interested in joining it.
One of the many ways in which we are trying to get more people to take
an interest in trade finance is by going directly to the source, namely to
schools and universities and by developing initiatives that are aimed at
promoting trade finance and allowing aspiring trade financiers to be able to
better understand the trade finance industry, thus empowering them to choose it
as a career path.
The first initiative of this kind post-Edinburgh Conference took place
in Lisbon on the 27th October, when ITFA and IBS (ISCTE Business
School – an ITFA Associate Member) got together and organised a trade finance
seminar. The seminar was not only aimed at the IBS student community but also
at Lisbon-based banks, insurance companies and corporates who are either
already involved in trade finance, or who are keen to learn more about it.
The seminar was very well attended, with a total of 80 people present.
The afternoon started with our good ITFA friend and now Trade and
Export Finance Professor at CUNEF in Madrid, Elvira Bobillo delivering an
engaging 1-hour long presentation, where she focused on explaining what trade
finance is, with a focus on why trade finance is an exciting career choice.
Elvira’s passion for all matters trade-related were the necessary driver to
engage the audience in what was perhaps the critical part of this seminar.
The initial presentation was then followed by ITFA’s Chairman Sean
Edwards and by the ITFA Head of Young Professionals Duarte Pedreira introducing
the association and everything that it can provide to its members, with a focus
on the recent engagement in ensuring continuity through the engagement of new
and aspiring trade financiers.
After a very engaging and extremely well organized networking break,
the room was again filled with curious and engaging minds, who first witnessed
Sean’s enthusiasm for supply chain finance and FinTech as he took the audience
through his presentation on “Contemporary issues in trade finance – Fintech and
the financing of the supply chain”.
The final item on the agenda was a debate on “Trade finance, the oil
that keeps the world trade engine going - current challenges and opportunities”.
The panel was moderated by Duarte Pedreira and had a number of high calibre
panellists. Asides from Sean and Elvira, who were representing the industry as
a whole and the industry’s educational arm respectively, the audience heard
from Maria Jose Melo, Director of the Portuguese ECA Cosec, Angela Dourado,
Head of Trade Finance for Bankinter Portugal, and Paulo Ribeiro, the Chairman
of the Portuguese tomato trading company Unitom. Once introductions to the
panellists and their institutions were completed, the debate moved on to a
lively and rather dynamic stage, with panellists interacting on topics around
the current political and economic cycle (Trump, Brexit and the rest) and its
impact on trade and finance, and the lack of sufficient available trade finance
facilities for the existing levels of demand – where Paulo grabbed the
opportunity to take the user’s perspective and challenge Maria Jose and Angela
in particular on why his company had to endure such great levels of pain when
dealing with its trade finance suppliers. The panel was then concluded with a
number of inspiring remarks from the panellists sharing their experience in
passing on knowledge to younger generations of aspiring trade financiers.
In essence the main objective was attained – both students and
professionals in the audience came out of the seminar with a better
understanding of the trade finance industry and excited with the potential
benefits of following a career in the subject. As for the educational side of
it, IBS is now exploring including trade finance in its existing curriculum and
even linking up with some of the conference participants to achieve it – this
will make trade finance available to hundreds of students in the future!
Definitely an encouraging outcome, which begs for renewed efforts in
this front. If you are interested in developing a similar initiative ad foster
the knowledge of trade finance at school/university level, please contact
Duarte Pedreira to explore further.
Lastly, may we remind you all that photos taken at the event can be viewed here, however these are available only to ITFA members.
Lastly, may we remind you all that photos taken at the event can be viewed here, however these are available only to ITFA members.
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