Standby Letters of Credit: A Comprehensive Guide 2008th Edition

Commercial/Financial fraud detection and prevention is an issue that is decisively addressed in Chapter 15 which tackles the types of fraud the bank frequently encounters whilst conducting its trade finance operations. The Author quotes several examples of fraudulent transactions and pinpoints the operational gaps the fraudsters often use to penetrate the bank’s safeguards and execute their crimes. The Author also tackles “organized crime” in banking operations whilst precisely explaining the techniques the banks must follow and safeguards they must place in order to detect and prevent these destructive fraud crimes.

Risk Management in trade finance operations is another major concern of the international banking community. This concern is comprehensively addressed in Chapter 14 which warns that the methods commonly used by banks to effectively manage risks vary from one country to another according to the specificities of the socio-political environment; methods of trade finance risk mitigation described in general texts could turn to be invariably useless and any attempt to apply abstract theories and academic discussion can be not only a value destroyer but also a dangerous process. The chapter then proceeds to emphasize the importance of understanding the bank’s specific operational environment and base its risk management approach on the operational history of the bank and its working environment. It continues by identifying the exact risks the bank faces in a standby letter of credit transaction and finally, the Chapter tackles the three approaches banks follow in managing their operational trade finance risks, namely “Operational Risks Correlated to Volume”, “Value at Risk Analysis (VAR)” and “The Distribution of Loss Measure”.