🌟 Editor's note

Editor’s Note | Week of 19 January 2025

By Carter Hoffman

Another week, another set of developments across trade, treasury, and payments!

This past week, we covered fresh data from the ADB pointing to rising demand for trade finance as supply chains continue to shift, progress on eBL interoperability in Thailand and China, and a UK Export Finance-backed deal supporting a growing exporter. On the treasury and payments side, we looked at the trends shaping the year ahead, the next phase of digitisation in cross-border finance, and renewed calls for deeper capital markets in Europe.

We also released some new podcast conversations this week, including a deeper dive into women-led SME finance in Asia and a discussion on transparency and trade-based money laundering.

As for the TTP team? We’ve busy beavering away in preparation for our awards, which are coming up at the beginning of February. We can’t wait to share the winners and highlight some of the incredible work that has been going on around the industry. Plus, we have a few other launches that we’re preparing for in the next few weeks. It’s always buzzing here at TTP HQ!

As always, thank you for reading. We hope this week’s coverage gives you a few useful takeaways for the days ahead.

Until next time - keep beavering away!

— The TTP Editorial Team

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Expanding access to trade finance for women-led SMEs across Asia

At a time when small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are being asked to compete in increasingly international markets, women-led firms continue to face disproportionate barriers in accessing trade finance across Asia. In the latest podcast episode from the Asian Development Bank’s Trade and Supply Chain Finance Program (ADB TSCFP), Eleanor Hill, Treasury Editor at Trade Treasury Payments, spoke with Lyda Vannak, Senior Manager, Trade, Sale and Transaction Banking Office of FTB Bank (Cambodia) and Unengerel Chuluunbat, Director of Trade and Structured Finance Department, Golomt Bank (Mongolia).

Chuluunbat said the most common barrier remains a lack of familiarity with trade finance tools. “Many SMEs engaged in international trade have limited knowledge and experience with instruments such as letters of credit and bank guarantees. They rarely use them, which makes them vulnerable to cash flow pressure,” she said.

As a result of this and other barriers, many women-led businesses find themselves at a persistent disadvantage. Without the ability to leverage receivables or negotiate stronger terms, many women-led SMEs often rely on unfavourable prepayment structures that strain their access to liquidity and restrict their growth potential. 

Vannak sees this firsthand in Cambodia. She said, “Many business owners are not well prepared in terms of financial protection or claims, and this becomes a challenge when seeking funding from a bank.”

Despite industry efforts to promote financial literacy, adoption has continued to remain uneven, with trade finance tools (from letters of credit to standby instruments) viewed by many practitioners as too complex and document-heavy. How is an SME that is already stretched for time and resources supposed to handle this added complexity? Unfortunately, too often the answer is that they don’t even bother. In their minds, those instruments are only meant for larger corporations. 

Lyda hopes to change that perception. “By meeting these requirements, SMEs can reduce payment and performance risks, ease cash constraints, and increase their security,” she said. It seems that what is needed is better education.

The role of education

Education is the single most effective lever for closing capability gaps across SMEs and among frontline banking staff.

In Mongolia, Golomt Bank has made training the centrepiece of its SME engagement strategy, hosting trade finance workshops twice a year for clients involved in import or export activities, and using that time to guide them through the use cases, documentation, and the advantages of core trade instruments. In parallel, sales teams receive ongoing case-based training and on-demand access to materials through the bank’s internal learning platform.

The results of these efforts seem to be speaking for themself. Unengerel said, “Our SME trade finance portfolio grew by 5% compared to last year, and our women-led business trade finance portfolio increased by 4%.” The most encouraging cases, she added, come from SMEs that attended workshops with little prior knowledge of trade products and began using letters of credit or standby instruments only months later.

In Cambodia, FTB Bank has taken a similar approach. Training is delivered both to SME clients and internally across its lending and transaction banking teams. Lyda said, “A solid understanding of financial literacy related to trade utilisation is essential for supporting clients effectively.” That is because confident staff are much better able to make tailored recommendations for clients. 

Trade finance today requires an understanding of regulation, pricing, risk allocation, and increasingly, digital systems — not always the most intuitive aspects of business. This is why building awareness needs to be a central aspect of unlocking growth for women entrepreneurs. 

Innovation in practice

Training alone, however, is not enough to close the gender financing gap. Both Golomt Bank and FTB Bank have rolled out new products and partnerships designed to expand access for women-led enterprises.

One initiative that Golomt Bank has undertaken is its women-owned business trademark, which the bank launched in conjunction with the Mongolian Chamber of Commerce in 2023. The trademark allows companies to place a women-owned label directly on their products, making ownership immediately visible to consumers, retailers, lenders, and other partners. “This helps consumers and lenders easily recognise and support women enterprises,” Unengerel said. The programme has already attracted interest from five countries within the ITC SheTrades network, all exploring similar models.

Alongside this, the bank has introduced dedicated women’s business loans with terms that are up to 10% more favourable than standard SME loans. The program has helped expand the bank’s women-owned business loan portfolio by 15% and increased the number of women business clients by 6%, year-on-year.

In Cambodia, FTB Bank has deepened its participation in national and regional guarantee schemes in an effort to soften collateral requirements, which have been identified as one of the most persistent obstacles for women-led SMEs. Under the Women Entrepreneurs Guarantee Scheme (a government-backed credit guarantee programme), women-led SMEs may only be required to put up partial collateral (because the guarantee covers part of the bank’s risk), which can suddenly make loans a viable option for businesses with strong potential but limited assets to pledge.

The bank’s collaboration with ADB’s TSCFP has further enabled clients to access instruments such as letters of credit, guarantees, and supply chain finance solutions with reduced perceived risk. Lyda said, “The goal is to transform the traditional lending process into a more flexible approach that supports investment with acceptable risk.”

Building a more inclusive trade ecosystem

Despite the progress seen across both markets, closing the financing gap will not be possible with individual programmes alone. 

There is and always will be a need for coordinated action across development institutions, commercial banks, chambers of commerce, and policymakers to ensure that women-led firms can access the tools and support they need. 

As banks continue to innovate and development actors deepen their partnerships, the region has a chance to reshape how women entrepreneurs participate in global trade. Hopefully, in due time, we will be able to point to a successful and replicable case study for promoting financing access for underserved businesses of any kind.

Trade digest

Treasury, payment and global banking digest

🗓️ Upcoming events

Multimedia from Trade Treasury Payments

🚀 Our latest edition

Did You Know? 

More than 70% of rejected trade finance applications globally are linked not to credit risk, but to documentation, compliance, or process gaps.

As supply chains fragment and cross border activity becomes more complex, banks are increasingly constrained not by balance sheet capacity, but by operational friction, from inconsistent data standards to manual checks and jurisdictional mismatches. This is why interoperability, digitisation, and smarter risk assessment tools are becoming critical enablers of trade finance growth, rather than optional enhancements.

In today’s environment, the institutions that scale trade finance successfully will be those that can reduce friction without compromising control.

Till next time,

Trade Treasury Payments (TTP)