ICC has issued a collection of rapid response measures by trade finance banks to keep trade finance and trade flowing in the face of COVID-19.
Trade and trade finance operations require significant back-office operations to process paper-based transactions. With shipping, in-person contact and travel all increasingly disrupted as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, financial institutions have been putting in place measures to enable transactions and the continuity of trade.
Collating data from ICC, the International Trade and Forfaiting Association (ITFA) and the Bankers Association for Finance and Trade (BAFT), ICC’s Digitalisation Working Group has published a practical reference guide outlining ad hoc practices being implemented by financial institutions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Responding institutions span Asia, Europe, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa. They include the top 10 global trade banks as well as other banks actively engaged in trade and trade finance globally.
The guide can be found here