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Legal warning: Trade finance in 2010

19 January 2010

Dickon Harris approaches the sharpest legal minds in Trade Finance to find out what to expect in 2010.

Read more: [trade finance law] [restructurings] [Watson Farley Williams] [Denton Wilde Sapte] [Norton Rose]

Trade Finance asked the following four senior lawyers at leading trade finance law firms what to expect in 2010.:


Nick Grandage, partner at Denton Wilde Sapte

      
Celia Gardiner and Michael Kenny, partners at Watson Farley Williams


Jake Howard, senior associate at Norton Rose


Trade Finance: What lessons have been learnt from the various restructurings that have taken place last year?

DWS:  "As a general response, always expect the unexpected. I think that trade and commodity finance structures have held up relatively well."

WFW:  "Clearly that the lessons learned from restructurings go well beyond trade finance. The key issue which has marked this recession has been the fact that it was triggered by a banking crisis, and the finance market has had to adjust to a position in which the creditworthiness of lenders has become an issue. For example, we have...


Poll

Will Russia’s recent ban on grain exports result in a significant rise in private risk insurance claims from grain traders unable to fulfil their contracts?

Yes – there will be more claims. The government’s actions allow traders, with PRI cover, to make claims through contract frustration.
8%
No - the majority of Russia’s wheat production, some 70%-80%, is used for domestic consumption so the contracts represent only a small portion of the total wheat market, limiting the amount of potential claims.
23%
No - traders had a week’s notice before the ban allowing them to secure alternative supplies to fulfil contracts stated as optional origin.
23%
Maybe - but claims are likely to be limited to traders dealing in soft wheat whose contracts demand they source wheat only from Russia.
46%