International financiers may perceive that new technologies and ever more sophisticated global networks of banks are making export finance easier to obtain. But perceptions of US exporters based outside major banking centres are very different.

Participants at an export financing conference in March organised by the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission (JEDC) in Florida (US) heard bankers and exporters bemoan a lack of local banks with international financing expertise.

One exporter based in the city in northern Florida said she used a Seattle bank to finance exports of food products to Asia and Latin America.

Local advice in short supply

While the distance between exporter and banker is no real impediment to the establishment and maintenance of export finance facilities, access to expert advice on international finance was said to be hard to come by at a local level. Consequently, exporters felt it was difficult for them to make informed decisions when choosing products and services to finance their overseas sales.

Local banker Graham Martin said that when he started work in the area in 1982 "a number of banks ... had full international departments where they were processing letters of credit and wire transfers. Now I am the only international banker in Jacksonville," he said.

Bank consolidation to blame

A vice president of international banking services for AmSouth Bank, Martin reckoned that bank consolidations during the 1990s were part of the reason why expertise and export financing services had migrated out of local banks, towards major banking centres which in Florida are based in the south of the state.

As a result of consolidation, "banks were not allowed to have branches throughout the state," said Martin. Even though export finance remains available via local branches, the concentration of expertise in southern Florida "does hurt Jacksonville business", he concluded.

The conference was organised in response to a survey undertaken by JEDC that revealed that exporters wanted more information on export finance.