The Wolfsberg Group, which focuses on financial crime risks, together with BAFT and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) have announced the publication of appendices to its 2017 Trade Finance Principles guidance document.

The document addresses the due diligence required by global and regional financial institutions of all sizes in the financing of international trade and will now feature information on open account trade and financial institutions’ trade loans.

Supply chain focus

The appendices provide guidance on the specific application of controls by banks in the context of open account trade transactions.

Specifically, the guidance elaborates on receivables purchase techniques as defined by the Global Supply Chain Finance Forum.

Trade loans

The appendices also provide guidance on the application of controls by banks in the context of financial institutions’ trade loans, also called bank-to-bank trade loans.

The publication of this additional guidance is the culmination of more than two years of work undertaken by the organisations and their members.

International organisations

The Wolfsberg Group is an association of thirteen global banks that aims to develop frameworks and guidance for the management of financial crime risks particularly in respect of know your customer, anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing policies.

The ICC is the world’s largest business organisation and BAFT is the leading global financial services association for international transaction banking.

The Wolfsberg Group, ICC and BAFT Trade Finance Principles 2019 can be found here.