"This award is a major and important milestone in our effort to become the trade and corporate banking partner required to secure long-term success in doing business with corporate clients,” says Patrik Zekkar, head of Trade & Supply Chain Financing at SEB in Sweden.
SEB’s success in the trade area is due in part to the bank’s methodology, called the Value Chain., which is a structured way to understand what really is important for clients. Such an approach enables speed, accuracy and flexibility which are accomplished by integrating trade finance with the overall financial system of a company.
By outsourcing a large part of its back-office services, SEB has been able to secure the advantages that the latest technology brings as well as economies of scale. The bank’s specialists can thereby concentrate on advisory, service and innovation.
“We focus on the whole value and supply chain and the working-capital aspects of trade finance, helping our clients to cut costs and reduce the trade cycle by days or even weeks,” Zekkar says.
SEB works closely with its customers to understand their needs but also gives the trade community a possibility to share and learn from each other through the online trade finance community, The Benche.
SEB grew its trade finance business volumes by 70 per cent in 2009 compared to 2008, with growth evenly distributed between Asia, South America and Africa. The bank operates 17 trade finance offices around the world and in addition partners with thousands of correspondent banks.
JP Morgan won the title for Best Trade Bank in the World followed by BNY Mellon.
“This year’s contest was very closely fought, but each and every medal winner is a worthy winner who can be proud that they won their award on merit – and absolutely nothing else,” said Graeme Burton, editor of Trade & Forfaiting Review in a comment.