As the global economy develops and new trade paths emerge, banks and their clients can benefit from increased engagement with multi-lateral agencies, writes FX-MM’s Peter Garnham.
For banks, engaging with the world’s multi-lateral agencies, (MLAs), and development banks is not an act of charity.
Certainly, there are development benefits for some of the world’s most economically deprived regions, but as David Scola, Head of Banks in the Corporate Banking Financial Institutions Group at Barclays explains, first and foremost it makes good business sense.
Barclays is placing increasing emphasis on the sector – despite the regulatory and compliance headwinds involved. To that end, it has recently announced it is increasing its support for MLAs with the introduction of a dedicated relationship team covering every continent across the globe, while the bank has also assigned credit – and credit research – to institutions with which it did not previously have lines.
Scola says the push fits in nicely with Barclays’ Citizenship agenda, through which the bank is actively trying to foster economic progress in the developing countries in which it operates, but adds that the move extends further than just citizenship: “The reason why we are doing this is because it is good business,” he says. “There are markets and clients that we can access through MLAs that we might not otherwise be able to.”