Several winners of the recently announced 2021 Global Trade Review (GTR) Leaders in Trade awards are credited for their achievements in the provision of letter of credit (L/C) services.

GTR's annual rewards highlight excellence in the trade, commodity, supply chain and export finance, and fintech markets, recognising pioneering institutions and top performers from around the world.

Ecobank

Winner of the best trade finance bank in West Africa, Ecobank, was awarded for its widespread presence across the region together with its volume of trade finance activity.

Ecobank Nigeria processed more than US$1 billion in L/Cs last year, up nearly 60 per cent from US$617 million in the previous year. The bank told GTR the total value of L/Cs it sent within West Africa also grew significantly, increasing by nearly 60 per cent year-on-year in Guinea Bissau, 18 per cent in Sierra Leone and 20 per cent in Cape Verde.

ADCB

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) won the best trade finance bank in the Middle East award for its commitment to remaining stable and supportive to clients despite unprecedented disruption to supply chains, shipping and logistics caused by the pandemic.

The judges noted that amongst the bank's achievements in 2021, ADCB agreed an L/C programme running into the hundreds of millions of dollars to support the supply of petroleum products to markets in Asia.

BACB

The only British bank operating in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, BACB won the award for the best trade finance bank in North Africa.

The bank is the only UK issuer of L/Cs for corporates operating in Libya's oil sector. It has played a vital role supporting Libya's economic reconstruction efforts, including by issuing L/Cs for importing supplies used to repair factories damaged by conflict. The bank handled L/Cs worth £840 million (US$1 billion) from North Africa last year.

Mizuho and Crédit Agricole

Mizuho won the best trade finance bank in Asia award. It supported the first live trade transactions using blockchain platform Skuchain's distributed ledger payment commitment, facilitating a series of metals purchases by Mitsubishi's trading arm. The transactions are designed to replace most L/C functions.

Crédit Agricole CIB won the best trade finance bank in Western Europe award, with the judges noting its support for clients to achieve their sustainability goals through comprehensive trade finance green products, developing green documentary (L/Cs and green guarantee facilities) and financing products.

Trade and Development Bank

The Trade and Development Bank (TDB) won the best development bank in trade award for providing vital liquidity to member countries across eastern and southern Africa.

With L/C volumes up by 15 per cent to US$480 million in the first half of 2021 compared with the previous year, TDB confirmed and discounted over US$200 million in L/Cs in Zambia via private banks.

Contour

The best fintech in trade award went to blockchain trade finance network, Contour. Its central offering is the digital L/C, for which the network has managed to reduce processing time by as much as 90 per cent during testing, from an average of 10 days to under 24 hours end-to-end.

In 2021, Contour onboarded over 100 members to its network, which includes its 16 member banks, spanning over 51 countries.

Full details of Global Trade Review's Leaders in Trade awards can be found here.

This article represents the views of the author and not necessarily those of the ICC or Coastline Solutions.