Deutsche Bank’s Distribution & Credit Solutions has developed and evolved into, said Brooks, “the most innovative and entrepreneurial team anywhere within Trade Finance market, possessing the most diversified de-risking capabilities under the same roof in comparison to any other bank”.

He maintained that not only do they have a “best in class bank syndication team”, but they also have “a trading book that manages all their CDS positions, interacts with the secondary market and fair values large pieces of the trade finance book”.

Six years ago they created their own Securitisation and Repackaging team to structure and place TRAFIN and other structured solutions. These capabilities were added onto to the existing market leading credit insurance team. At the beginning of 2019, the team set up a joint venture with the Institutional Client Group, based in the Investment Bank that now allows them to access the global investor base for institutional and alternative investors. These capabilities make it possible for the team to provide balance sheet optimisation, capital relief, liquidity, and a means of reducing concentration risk all in one place.

In other words while the Bank doesn’t have the largest trade finance balance sheet compared with some of our competitors, these diverse de risking techniques allow us to punch well above our weight and provide our clients market leading solutions in a size and volume that meets their needs.

“The Global Financial Crisis and the subsequent regulatory change forced the trade finance market to be more innovative on risk distribution and balance sheet optimisation, however Deutsche Bank had been effecting change many years before as it needed to compete with peers who had large balance sheets and risk appetite,” reflected Brooks, whose brainchild it was to create a dedicated Distribution function. He concluded, “This puts us in a very strong position when dealing with the financial crisis and the subsequent years since – particularly in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic."