The Trade Finance team in 1WEC is a key department within the Group. The ability to both raise liquidity from our financial partners and mitigate credit and performance exposure of our trading counterparties are key responsibilities for any successful company.

The Trade Finance team has many key partners, including but not limited to, our external Banking & Insurance partners, external counterparties, Traders, Operations, Deals Desk, Tax, Treasury, Credit, Compliance.

On a daily basis the Trade Finance team performs a number of tasks, such as:

• The issuance of Letters of Credit and Bank Guarantees for the Company’s purchases of crude and oil products and ensuring that both cargoes and storage facilities are financed and insured in a timely manner.
• Overseeing analysis, monitoring, mitigation and awareness of the Company's financial risks.
• Ensuring compliance with storage and commercial contracts in protecting the Company’s interests.
• Making appropriate finance decisions, including overseeing cost effectiveness, diversity of financing sources, and minimum use of the Company's own liquidity.
• Providing guidance to Finance Officers and Traders in difficult or unfamiliar situations.
• Carrying responsibility for the maintenance of the regional bank lines as well as serving as the Company's main liaison with our Banking partners.
• Overseeing that the Company is not exposed to risks associated with the OFAC regulations in force at any time.
• Working with Deals Desk personnel to ensure any incurred costs agreed by Trade Finance are allocated correctly to the separately maintained deal Profit & Loss accounts.

To fully master the role takes years of training as it requires an in-depth knowledge of every element of physical trading, the counterparties we trade with, and any regional specific issues regarding security and risk. It is essential to maintain a flow of communication with all key partners as deal specifics can change hour by hour, day by day.

1WEC Trade & Structured Finance provides financial solutions that facilitate trade and mitigate trade-related risks for companies doing business in emerging and developed markets. We work closely with customers, often including other 1WEC businesses, to create financing structures that enable the buying and selling of agricultural and other commodities while mitigating risks associated with cross-border transactions.

Our customers include commodity producers and processors, traders of physical goods, importers and end-users, and financial institutions. We help them conduct global trade and mitigate the attendant risks. These include credit risk (nonpayment or delayed payment), documentation risk (non-conformance to specified documentation requirements) and cross-border risk (inconvertibility of a local currency to the currency needed to make payment, or unforeseen political or economic events that may interrupt normal business activity).

Acting as an intermediary, we strive to serve the needs and protections of the parties to a transaction. We offer a broad mix of innovative and customizable funding solutions, including letters of credit, prepayment financing for suppliers, warehouse financing for manufacturers, trade receivables discounting for exporters, trade credit insurance and more.

In addition to serving customers, our business handles 1WEC’s own trade finance and risk mitigation needs. We also optimize the company’s physical trade flows to create trade finance-generated liquidity in emerging markets for customers. In carrying out these activities, we are involved in the proprietary trading of financial products, foreign exchange, credit and money markets.

Since our founding we have been committed to bringing high standards of operational excellence and risk management to our customers. Our understanding of global markets, commodity trade flows, the commercial aspects of international trade, and financial institutions allows us to play a key role in helping our customers and 1WEC serve, grow and thrive in new markets.