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Quantitative Finance · Glossary

What is Trade finance?

Definition 13.7 Markets III: Commodities, Energy and Crypto · Chapter 13 — Getting Access: Commodities and Power

Trade finance is the bank credit that funds physical commodity trade: letters of credit, borrowing against specific cargoes or inventory, and the credit facilities from which trading houses draw them.

Examples

Example 13.8 (What a letter of credit must cover)

A seller has delivered EUR 3 million of energy not yet paid, and the remaining deliveries under its contract would cost EUR 1 million less to replace today than their contract price, so the buyer’s default would cost the seller nothing on them. With a letter of credit of EUR 2 million, EUR 1 million is uncovered. Had the replacement cost been EUR 0.5 million more than the contract price, the uncovered exposure would be EUR 1.5 million.

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