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Description

Alternative & Receivables Finance Forum tracks the transformation of receivables and invoice finance; showcasing the most successful new entrants to the market, examining the future of technology-enabled funding models, and driving the conversation on alternative finance for SMEs.

This is a unique gathering, where you can network with established receivables finance providers and ‘alternative’ SME funders and find out how the competitive landscape for commercial finance is changing.

The comprehensive programme provides insights into the priorities influencing SMEs’ financial choices and showcases the latest technology-enabled distribution models.

Industry investors and corporates attend for FREE*

*limited spaces available -email events@bcrpub.com to apply

Speakers
Marc Bajer
Senior Advisor to the Board, PetraTrade Finance

Marc has over 42 years of experience in DCM, SCM, alternative lending, syndicated lending, leveraged lending, insurance, asset management, trading and sales. His responsibilities have included Global Head of Debt and Structured Capital Markets, Global Head of Syndicated Loans and Leveraged Loans and Global Head of Conduits/SIVs. He has also founded non-bank lending platforms and has been the CEO of a global insurance business.

Marc currently advises non-bank and next-gen lenders in the development of their fundamental strategy and direction, the assessment of their strategic risk and the evaluation of market opportunities.

Glenn Blackman
Editor, FundingVoice, Managing Partner, FundInvoice

Glenn Blackman MBA is the Editor of FundingVoice magazine, a free monthly e-publication for SMEs, about business funding and growth. He is the managing partner at FundInvoice LLP, a multi-award-winning business finance quotation search and support service. Having been involved with the business finance sector since 1988, he has worked with a spectrum of lenders from small independent providers to high street banks. He has extensive experience both inside and outside of the finance sector, having been a business strategy and marketing consultant. Glenn is the author of several books, and lives in East Sussex with his wife and young children. He can be contacted at info@fundinvoice.co.uk

Stephane Blanchoz
Head of SME Alternative Financing, BNP Paribas Asset Management

Stéphane Blanchoz is Head of SME Alternative Financing within BNP Paribas Asset Management’s Private Debt & Real Assets investment group. He was appointed to his current role in November 2017, having previously headed BNP Paribas Asset Management’s structured finance team. He joined the BNP Paribas group’s asset management arm in 2004 after four years as an auditor in the group’s ‘Inspection Générale’ department. He joined Banque Nationale de Paris in 1997 (prior to its merger with Paribas in 2000) as a risk manager in Tokyo, having previously held the same role at Pechiney, where he began his career in 1994 in the finance department in Sydney. Stéphane holds a master’s degree in finance from the University of Lyon II.

Andrew Bowden-Brown
Partner and Head of Banking and Finance, Francis Wilks & Jones Solicitors

Andrew is a Partner in our Litigation and Dispute Resolution team and Head of our Banking and Finance department. Andrew is a litigation and civil fraud specialist who has over 20 years’ experience of advising banks, asset based lenders and other financial institutions on all issues relating to their current, prospective and former clients, including security and facility documentation, policies and procedures and recoveries processes.

Harold Brako Harold Brako
Partner, Addleshaw Goddard

Harold is an experienced commercial litigator and a Finance Litigation and Disputes Partner at Addleshaw Goddard. He advises clients in relation to all aspects of dispute resolution including claims for and against lenders, fraud claims and asset recovery involving urgent injunctive processes, contractual / commercial disputes, reviews and enforcement of security and insolvency proceedings. With a particular expertise in banking, asset based lending and receivables financing disputes, Harold and his team provide advice to the major UK clearing banks, international banks and a wide range of finance sector clients (which include Private Equity and other independent funders). Harold is consistently noted as a leading individual in both Legal 500 and Chambers directories. His team are also distinguished by both directories as Tier 1 Banking Litigators.

André Casterman
Managing Director, Casterman Advisory, Chair of Fintech Committee, ITFA

André Casterman is an independent consultant, advising financial institution and fintech clients on data management, trade finance, and capital markets innovations. André spent 20+ years at SWIFT, leading various innovations in the inter-bank payments, corporate treasury, and trade finance markets. During that time, he established an institutional partnership between SWIFT and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), and created the first digital trade settlement instrument. André chairs the Fintech Committee of the International Trade and Forfaiting Association (ITFA), with a focus on helping banks take advantage of fintech innovations to automate trade finance operations and establish the business as an investable asset class through use of data analytics and artificial intelligence. André holds a Master’s degree in Applied Economics from ICHEC Brussels Management School, and two Master’s degrees in Computer Sciences and Management from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).

Andrew Churchill Andrew Churchill
Security Consultant and Researcher, Technology Strategy

Andrew Churchill has over 20 years experience working in security within Government, Industry and Academia, in particular cyber security and financial crime. He has led the cyber crime task force and co-ordinated security technology requirements for HMG, acted as subject matter expert on a European Union cyber crime and terrorism programme, sits on the Federal Reserve’s Secure Payments Task Force, has recently completed the UK’s Open Banking Threat Assessment Exercises, and is providing guidance on mitigating actions to Regulators to prevent vulnerabilities being exploited. In addition to his consultancy work, he is also currently lead author of the British Standards Institution’s ‘Digital Identification & Authentication Code of Practice’, adopted by UK Finance as meeting their regulatory obligations, and is developing technology benchmarking in this regard in partnership with GCHQ’s Academic Centre of Excellence, Royal Holloway. He acts as a cyber/financial fraud adviser to numerous institutions and associations, including the Emerging Payments Association, Kompli-Global, Huntswood, inter alia, In addition to his first degree he holds Masters in Defence & Security Analysis (MA, Lancaster) and Information Security (MSc, Royal Holloway).

Pedro Pinto Coelho
Executive Chairman, Banco BNI Europa

Pedro is an innovative, agile and multi-award winning banking leader with over 25 years' international financial services experience with leading blue-chip institutions across three continents in progressive leadership roles, both executive and NED, in Investment Banking, Wealth Management, general management, business development, strategy and latterly in FinTech.

John Davies
Founder and Chairman, Kompli-Global

As a victim of significant orporate fraud in 2014 (the perpetrators have just been jailed), John Davies, Founder and Chairman of Kompli-Global PLC, was motivated to build a business that exposed potential wrongdoing of corporates and their officers that is simply not easily identifiable with the naked or untrained eye. The insight reports provided by Kompli-Global are commissioned by Magic Circle Law Firms, award-winning corporate advisors and compliance teams globally to help them combat financial crime. He is also heavily involved in a wide range of industry initiatives and is Chairman of the Association of Alternative Business Finance. For example, during the Covid-19 crisis he was asked to join a panel of sector experts, that included the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, for Q&A sessions organised for a wide range of parliamentarians by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Fair Business Banking. Topics discussed included the CBILS/BBLS and post-Covid recovery. John is also a member of the CBI’s SME Council and a member of the Financial Ombudsman SME Advisory Group.

Shiona Davies
Director BDRC Continental & Editor, SME Finance

Shiona Davies is an acknowledged expert on SME finance and the author of the SME Finance Monitor, a half-yearly report looking into SMEs and their access to finance. This independent report, published by BVA BDRC since 2011, is used by government, banks and business groups to inform the debate around lending to SMEs. It has been quoted widely in the national and international press and Shiona regularly presents its findings at events and conferences. Shiona’s background is in financial services: having started her career with NatWest, she moved to the research agency in 2000 and has been involved in a number of major assignments for financial and public sector clients, including the SME Finance Monitor and the new Independent Service Quality Survey for business current accounts, with results published online and in all major bank branches.

Andy Davis
Leading Researcher & Journalist in Alternative Finance

Andy Davis is a UK-based writer on investment, finance and business. He spent 15 years as a journalist on the Financial Times, where he held a series of senior roles including Development Editor and most recently editor of FT Weekend. Andy writes for a range of newspapers and magazines and is the author of several research reports on alternative sources of finance for small businesses including the first Beyond the Banks report, published by the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts in September 2011; Seeds of Change, published by the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation in July 2012; and Crowdfund Investing Platforms, an edition of the US Online Banking Report published by Finovate in May 2013, which examines 16 platforms from the UK and US, and Innovations in Access to Finance for SMEs, published by the Assocation of Chartered Certified Accountants’ Global Forum for SMEs in February 2014. He is associate editor and investment columnist for Prospect, the monthly current affairs magazine, and in May 2012 was named Personal Financial Journalist of the year in the Wincott Awards.

Alex Dell
Partner, Mayer Brown

Alex Dell is the co-head of asset based lending (ABL) and a partner in the Banking & Finance practice of the London office. His practice is particularly focussed on highly structured receivables financing and ABL transactions, often with a cross-border element. Alex is equally experienced advising on mid-market opportunities as well as investment grade corporate structures, both from a lender and borrower perspective. He also has an in-depth knowledge of supply chain finance, transit finance and vendor and title finance. Alex represents banks, financial institutions, sponsors and corporates, and advises on cross-border transactions for some of the world’s largest financial institutions and companies. He is widely-recognised as a leading ABL and receivables finance lawyer in the UK. Prior to joining Mayer Brown in 2015, Alex led the Structured Trade & Receivables Finance team with another leading international law firm.

Sean Edwards
Managing Director, Head of Legal – EMEA, Special Adviser – Global Trade Finance Department, SMBC Bank International, Chairman, ITFA

Sean Edwards is Head of Legal at SMBC Bank International plc, part of the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group. He is a Special Adviser to the Trade Finance Department of the bank and in the Trade Innovation Unit. Sean is Chairman of the International Trade & Forfaiting Association (ITFA). He helped draft the Uniform Rules for Forfaiting (URF) and the Standard Definitions for Techniques of Supply Chain Finance published by ITFA, ICC, FCI, BAFT and the EBA. He is a former member of the Executive Committee of the ICC Banking Commission and the ICC Working Group on Digitalisation in Trade Finance. Sean is a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Trade Finance Expert Group. He is a non-executive director of KomGo S.A. Sean has written for all the major trade finance magazines and is on the editorial board of Global Trade Review (GTR). He has presented at many conferences.

Ryan Edwards-Pritchard
Independent Expert in Alternative Finance

Ryan was Managing Director of Funding Options. Previously, Ryan was Partner and Head of Business Development at management consultancy firm DBFS, where he successfully built out the advisory division as well as the delivery division.

Max Firth Max Firth
Managing Director, Funding Xchange

Max is Managing Director of Funding Xchange, having previously run Business Information in the UK at Experian for 7 years. Previous to Experian he worked at The pH Group, an SME specialising in data and analytics. The challenge of helping SMEs to get funding is something that has run through his career: first at pH trying to help banks identify those SMEs with the most need, and then at Experian where he focused on helping SMEs understand their credit profile in order to increase the likelihood of successfully applying for credit. Funding Xchange’s goal, of enabling SMEs to get access to finance in minutes through the use of data, intelligence, but with a personal touch, brings together these different strands into a business that can transform UK business access to credit.

Iain Gunn
Account Executive - TradeRisks Solutions, PIB Group

Iain has over 35 years’ experience as a trade credit insurance broker, helping protect businesses from SME’s through global corporates to banks and financial institutions. Policy structures range from traditional whole turnover, to principal customer and single situation, placed with specialist insurers in both the company market and Lloyd’s of London.

Chris Hall Chris Hall
Senior Underwriter, Liberty Specialty Markets

Chris Hall is Senior Underwriter for Liberty Specialty Markets, focusing on short-term structured trade credit insurance. Chris is based in London and joined Liberty in January 2018 to lead the Toredo initiative, an online platform for single situation non-payment insurance. His previous role was as Head of Trade Asset Management for Lloyds Bank’s Global Transaction Banking, responsible for the development of the secondary market trade finance offering, whilst before this, he spent 9 years at the Royal Bank of Scotland in a variety of roles across trade finance, international cash management and change management. Chris holds an LLB in Law from the University of Bristol and is a serving board member of the International Trade and Forfaiting Association (ITFA).

Hilmar Hauer Hilmar Hauer
Head of Debt Products, Channel Capital Advisors LLP

Hilmar is focused on the structuring of transactions to offer investors lower risk investment opportunities, while providing clients with a financing framework that provides value to their businesses. Hilmar has led the structuring efforts for rated, un-rated, insured and un-insured invoice, receivables and inventory financings for leading issuers. Prior to joining Channel in 2007, Hilmar was a Quantitative Analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort. Hilmar holds a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Nottingham.

Matt Hicks Matt Hicks
Commercial Director, Codat

Matt Hicks is the commercial director at Codat. Codat provides a universal API for integrating with small business accounting platforms. Leading financial services companies like Natwest, Euler Hermes, Paypal and Experian have integrated with Codat's API helping them to digitise their small business customers experience using Codat's open data technology platform. Matt has 10 years experience in small business financial services working in both large institutions like Euler Hermes and fintechs like Marketinvoice and Crowdcube.

Marilena Ioannidou
Director, British Business Investments

Marilena joined British Business Investments in December 2013. She is the team lead on FinTech and regional angel investments.

Michel Kilzi Michel Kilzi
Fineon Exchange

A seasoned entrepreneur Michael has launched Fineon as his 4th technology venture. Prior to this Michael acquired extensive experience in Fintech and working capital optimization through his diversified advisory and Business development roles with major banks in the middle east. Michael led a Fintech Trade Finance business in Turkey between 2014 & 2017 , with a Portfolio of US $5B.

Dr. Gabriella Kindert
Board Member and Non-Executive Director, Alternative Credit Expert

Dr Gabriella Kindert is a senior banking and investment professional specialising in alternative credit and private markets. She gained over 20 years of international experience in managing investment portfolios over the cycle for leading institutional investors and global investment teams of alternative and fixed income strategies. She held various managerial positions at Fortis Investments Structured Credit, BNP Paribas Asset Management as Global Head of Loans and at NN IP as Head of Alternative Credit. She is currently a Non Executive Director, advisor and board member at several companies focusing on private credit markets (CVI, Neptune Leasing, SME Finance, EG, VER Capital, Dot Investing, ThirdSphere). She holds an M.A. in History, Economics, MBA in Accounting and Finance and a Ph.D. in Finance.

Jeremy Levy Jeremy Levy
Partner, Baker Mckenzie

Jeremy Levy is a Partner in Baker McKenzie’s Structured Capital Markets Team in London, working in the areas of securitisation and structured finance. Jeremy regularly advises sponsors, originators, arrangers and trustees on securitisation and other structured finance transactions across multiple jurisdictions and involving various asset classes (including trade receivables, residential mortgages, auto loans and consumer loans). Jeremy also regularly advises buyers, suppliers and platform providers on all types of supply chain finance transactions. Jeremy has considerable experience in establishing new structures and vehicles and has been named a Next Generation Lawyer and a Next Generation Partner by the Legal 500.

Angus McFayden
Technology Lawyer & Partner, Pinsent Masons

Angus is an experienced technology lawyer advising on a range of sourcing and contracting matters, with a particular focus on data assets and emerging technologies. He regularly advises clients within regulated industries, in particular the financial services industry, to deliver on strategic cross-border projects. Angus has particular expertise in relation to payments and the related regulatory framework. In relation to this, he has worked with both suppliers and customers, and engaged with regulators, on a number of high-profile transactions. Angus regularly writes and speaks at industry events on sourcing, data protection and payments.

Martin McTague Martin McTague
Chairman, Policy and Advocacy, Federation of Small Businesses

Martin is the Policy and Advocacy Chairman for the Federation of Small Businesses. He has been a member of the FSB for over 20 years, promoting the interests of our local members through the Darlington Branch Committee, as Vice Chairman of the Regional Committee, and as Chairman of the Local Government Policy Unit. He currently owns and manages three businesses offering public policy, engineering and IT consultancy services. Martin leads the policy team to make sure small business issues are understood and represented in Westminster, Whitehall and Brussels.

Robert Meters
Director, SCHUMANN International

Robert Meters is Director Global Business at SCHUMANN and Director at SCHUMANN International Limited in London. He studied Business Administration and International Management at the University for Economics and Management. He has been in the credit risk management industry since 1993 and has worked for leading information service providers as well as in the telecommunications industry. At SCHUMANN, he advises and takes care of customers in the automation of credit decisions and the implementation of a fully integrated credit management workflow system that also supports onboarding and ESG KYBP processes. SCHUMANN offers the leading credit risk management solution for the financial services sector covering leasing, factoring, banking and trade credit insurance.

Yoana Miltenova Yoana Miltenova
Business and Application Expert, CODIX

Yoana Miltenova is a business expert with CODIX, with a special focus on the commercial finance and software industry. CODIX is a French commercial finance software company which has developed iMX – the event-driven enterprise management system supporting all product flavors (Traditional factoring, Reverse, SCF, SIF and etc.) With a staff of 700+ business and technical experts located in 10 locations/countries, CODIX delivers its iMX solution to clients worldwide. Yoana has focused her career in the world of finance, starting with a degree in international finance and trade from the University of Portsmouth, followed by practical experience in the banking sector and currently with a lead role as business expert at CODIX.

Suzie Neuwirth Suzie Neuwirth
Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Peer 2 Peer Finance News

Suzie Neuwirth founded Peer2Peer Finance News in 2016, having seen a gap in the market for good quality, focused coverage of such an innovative and fast-growing sector. She is an experienced journalist who has edited the business sections of two national newspapers and worked at London freesheet City AM. She has been interviewed on various broadcasting outlets including Sky News and Share Radio. Earlier in her career, she worked for a number of trade magazines and edited a Middle East-focused insurance publication for two years.

Lanre Oloniniyi Lanre Oloniniyi
Co-Founder, Orbitt

Lanre has over 15 years' investment experience doing business between Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Prior to co-founding Orbitt, Lanre was involved in originating investment ideas and raising the required capital to grow start-ups in Africa, including Sankuru, First African Gold and Tranergy Capital. He also worked at BP, Subsea 7 and Citi in the UK. Lanre holds a BSc in Economics from the University of Ado, an MSc degree in Energy Economics from the University of Dundee, UK and an MBA from University of Cambridge, UK.

Martin Olsson Martin Olsson
Owner and Founder, Culpis

Martin is the founder of Culpis, a Stockholm based advisory firm with focus on working capital related financing such as trade receivables financing and supply chain finance. He has spent the last 20 years supporting corporates, from start-ups to multinationals, as well as investors implementing financing transactions globally. Prior to starting Culpis, Martin was one of the partners at ABB Financial Consulting responsible for corporate and structured finance. Martin holds a Master of Science in Business and Economics from the University of Lund.

Martin Opfermann
CFA, Director, Lead Portfolio Manager Trade Finance, Allianz Global Investors

Martin Opfermann is a senior Portfolio Manager within the Alternative Asset Management team at Allianz Global Investors and is leading the firm’s trade finance activities. Martin joined the firm in 2017 from Allianz Investment Management SE, where he was Head of Credit and in charge of Allianz Group’s credit allocation. In 2009, he spearheaded Allianz’s strategic shift into private markets and executed several debt investment strategies. Prior to that, Martin worked in the Fixed Income team of Allianz Lebensversicherungs-AG. Martin graduated from University of Mannheim as a Diplom-Kaufmann in 2002. He is also a CFA charterholder.

Marko Rant
Co-founder and CEO, Invoice Exchange

Marko Rant is a co-founder and CEO of Invoice Exchange, a Ljubljana-based fintech startup that operates a peer-to-peer banking platform for businesses. He has actively held this position since 2015. Prior to Invoice Exchange, Marko worked as senior manager for two large-scale real estate development projects and also gained experience as a financial advisor in multiple corporate restructuring cases during the 2008 financial crisis. He finished his graduate studies at the University of Ljubljana and holds a master's degree in real estate finance from Henley Business School.

Paul Rolles
CEO and Founder, AgFe
Dror Shapira Dror Shapira
CEO & Co-Founder, INVIOU

Dror is a financing and risk expert and the co-founder and CEO of INVIOU. INVIOU is a financial records and charges registry based on distributed ledger technology (Hyperledger Fabric). It is disrupting the SME financing industry by enabling financial institutions to provide instant, competitive safe and simple receivables financing to SMEs. Using the using INVIOU’s registry to verify invoice ownership and availability for financing, it greatly diminishes the costs associated with the fraud and friction which results from faulty, inflated, fictitious and double invoicing. Formerly, Dror served as Head of Finance at Shlomo Holdings Ltd leading billions of NIS capital issuing and cash flow management. He has over 15 years of extensive experience in the banking systems, rating agencies and risk management.

Renaud Simons Renaud Simons
Executive Director, Mitigram

Renaud Bertrand Simons is Executive Director of the Swedish digital trade finance platform Mitigram. He has a 30 years of experience in the financial industry first in Fortis Bank then in GE Capital in various business such as commercial banking, leasing, factoring, merchant banking, private banking, asset management, covering different top management functions. In addition to his current role in Mitigram Renaud is also an independent financial advisor involved in numerous projects such as Italian NPLs, M&A, receivable finance, corporate debt and general consulting. He is also the official Advisor for Economic and Foreign Trade matters of the Belgian embassy in Roma and Economic Ambassador for the Wallonia region in Italy. Renaud holds a Master’s degree in Economics and Finance from the University of Namur, Belgium and speaks English, Italian, French and Dutch.

Julien Tavener Julien Taverner
Chief Operating Officer, Alternative Business Funding

Julien has spent the last 15 years working with specialist SME finance provider Clifton Asset Management Plc. In 2016 he became the Chief operating officer of designated bank referrals platform Alternative Business Funding Ltd (www.alternativebusinessfunding.co.uk). ABF through their ‘Drive For Success’ programme are committed to providing SMEs with high quality information about finance products and pricing, to enable the platform users to make informed choices about the type of finance they require and the availability of that finance.

Cédric Teissier
Co Founder & CEO, Finexkap

Cédric is co-founder and CEO of Finexkap an alternative financing platform (receivables financing and B2B BNPL) service based in France and with operations in Western Europe. Since launching in 2015, over 20,000 companies have become clients of Finexkap. Prior to that, Cédric was co-founder and Deputy CEO of Palico.In an earlier life, he was a private equity attorney with Debevoise & Plimpton LLC in New York and a placement agent for private equity funds. Cédric is widely recognised as a leader of the French Fintech ecosystem. He is A co-founding member and Vice President of France Fintech, a Fintech advisory member to the World Economic Forum, Vice President of the Fintech Commission of the French Association of Treasuries, and a member of the Forum Fintech of the French financial and prudential regulatory authorities. Cédric is a graduate of Cornell University. He is a member of the French and New York Bar, and a mentor at accelerators Wilco, The Family, and Numa.

Andrew Whelan
CEO, Sancus Group

Andrew has over 25 years investment experience and is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment. Prior to founding Sancus in 2013, Andrew was a founding partner of Ermitage Group following its MBO in 2006 from Liberty Life, backed by Caledonia Investments. He left Ermitage following its successful sale to Nexar Capital Group in July 2011 and after a period of gardening leave joined International Asset Monitor as Managing Director to create a new Jersey Branch. Andrew joined Liberty Ermitage in 2001 and was a Group Executive Director and Managing Director of Ermitage Global Wealth Management Jersey Limited. He was also CIO of Ermitage’s Wealth Management business and products and during his 10 year tenure won multiple investment awards. Prior to Liberty Ermitage Andrew worked for Kleinwort Benson part of the Dresdner Private Banking Group and started his career with Morgan Grenfell in 1987. He has been recognised in the Citywealth Leaders List since 2007 and is also a member of the Retained Global Speaker programme for the CFA Society.

Venue

Mayer Brown International LLP

201 Bishopsgate
EC2M London
United Kingdom
Webcast
Contact Us

Sponsorship

Georgina Jelly: georgina.jelley@bcrpub.com

Daniel Huszar: dh@bcrpub.com

 

Speaking

Noreen Meehan: noreen.meehan@bcrpub.com

 

Booking

Yongmei He: yongmei.he@bcrpub.com

 

Other enquiries:

info@bcrpub.com

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