Author: Digital Trade Outlook

Banco Santander Brazil is the first bank in Brazil to implement Komgo’s Konsole, giving corporate clients a platform to manage foreign trade operations.

OakNorth has selected Wise Platform to give its UK business customers international payments in more than 20 currencies at the mid market exchange rate.

Beyon and KFH Bahrain have activated a digital Supply Chain Finance programme giving Beyon’s suppliers, especially SMEs, access to early payment.

OpenFX has launched OpenFX Ventures to back early stage cross border payments founders with capital, market connectivity and early product access.

The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has put foreign banks on notice. In an alert issued under what Treasury calls “Operation Economic Outcast,” it says foreign financial institutions that keep doing business with Iran or its financial sector may be sanctioned, and could be targeted at any time without advance notification. The Treasury says foreign financial institutions should act immediately to end that activity and those relationships. The alert also points to Iranian “shadow banking” networks that use front and shell companies to move funds and hide the link to Iran. A Warning Without a Grace Period…

Mayer Brown has hired Michelle Herman, a structured finance lawyer, for its global trade finance practice in New York. According to the firm, she advises borrowers and lenders on trade receivables, commercial loans and instalment sales contracts. Her particular strength is trade receivables securitisations, along with the “bankruptcy, accounting and commercial considerations that arise in sophisticated financing structures.” She comes from Jones Day, where she had worked since mid-2010, and was earlier an associate at Weil Gotshal & Manges and Dewey Ballantine. Zachary Carrier, a Mayer Brown trade finance partner, said the firm has been “across the table from Michelle…

U.S. Bank has recruited a payments leader from Citi to run sales for four industries. Calvert Lange is now senior vice president and Payments: Merchant and Institutional (PMI) Sales Group Head for the Technology, Transportation, Consumer and Hospitality sectors in the Institutional Client Group. Her team provides payment and treasury management solutions to technology, media, telecom, automotive, transportation, consumer and hospitality companies. Lange has more than 18 years in payments and treasury services. At Citi she led the Payments & Liquidity Product Sales group, advising Fortune 500 and multinational companies on payments, liquidity and working capital, and held leadership roles…

FCI has finished a succession it announced in February. Betül Kurtuluş is now secretary general of the factoring industry association, replacing Neal Harm after an eight-month transition. Harm said in February he would retire in September, and she became deputy secretary general that same month. Kurtuluş has more than three decades of experience in factoring and receivables finance. She joined FCI in 2018 as regional director, covering Central and Eastern Europe, South-Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Europe, and later became director of strategic marketing and business development. Before that she spent over 14 years as general manager and board…

BAFT has a new head of trade, and he comes from outside the banks. Alexander Malaket succeeds Craig Weeks, who has retired after 43 years in the industry. Weeks held senior leadership roles at global banks, insurance companies and trading companies. Malaket will lead BAFT’s trade policy, practices and education work and support its trade councils and committees. He will work with industry stakeholders to define best practices and shape policy recommendations on trade and supply chain finance. He founded Opus Advisory Services and has more than 35 years in banking and consulting across trade, supply chain, trade financing, trade…

Mercore Capital has a new chief executive with three decades in structured trade finance. Anne-Marie Woolley joins the lending arm of Mercore Group, and Johnny Ohgrøn Hansen comes in as deputy CEO. The report does not say who Woolley replaces. Woolley left Africa Global Trade Finance (AGTF) in February 2026. AGTF is a London-based boutique lender to African SMEs, backed by Zebu Investment Partners, and she had led it since 2021, after almost four years as an independent consultant. Her earlier senior roles include Standard Bank, Nedbank, Standard Chartered and Barclays, mostly in Africa and other emerging markets. Hansen has…