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Nick Tostivin

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Nick leads the London Banking team, focusing on cross-border syndicated lending transactions including in relation to emerging markets, governmental authorities, trade finance (including ECA-backed export finance) and funds finance. He is listed as a Leading Individual in Legal 500 and similarly commended for his work in Chambers & Partners.

The European Commission has published practical advice in the form of recommendations explaining that the EU Taxonomy can be used not only to disclose taxonomy-aligned activities and capital expenditures, but to define transition targets and to identify the finance needed to meet them. In this way, the Commission considers that the EU Taxonomy can be used as “forward-looking tool using its criteria as reference points for setting targets.”
In this latest instalment of our Demystifying ESG series, besides considering the Commission’s recommendations generally, we’ll discuss how this “tool” will work in practice across a range of economic activities and how it can be used to compare current with planned environmental performance, as well as a communication tool to articulate transition finance needs.

As background, green and sustainability-linked bonds and loans have been the pioneer products in this space. Following their evolution over a number of recent years, they are now well-established financing products commonly used to finance the energy transition. However, transition finance is emerging as the requirements for green and sustainability-linked financing products are often not met in the context of high-emitting, hard-to-abate sectors looking to reduce emissions

Welcome to this edition of the Trade Finance Insight. In this edition, we lead with an in-depth interview with Dr George Elombi, Executive Vice President and Member of the Board at African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), on the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). The interview will discuss the challenges of implementing the AfCFTA, the successes it has experienced so far, the anticipated opportunities it will bring to the region in mid to long term and the role Afreximbank is playing to contribute to its success.

Baker McKenzie’s newest sustainability briefing focuses on the hot topic of transition finance, which is relevant to lenders and borrowers in commercial and syndicated lending. In the context of publications by industry and standard setting bodies such as the Glasgow Financial Alliance for net zero and experience in the market, the briefing discusses: transition finance, credible transition plans, risks and challenges and market progress.

Our latest sustainability guide, ESG Policy Guide – The Future of Sustainability Legislation for Luxury, has been developed in collaboration with Positive Luxury, the company behind the Butterfly Mark, a unique mark awarded to luxury lifestyle brands, retailers and suppliers in recognition of their commitment and verified actions to creating a positive impact on our world. It features recent and upcoming developments in ESG legislation and policies in the US, UK and the EU and explains how these impact the luxury, fashion, and cosmetics industries.

Welcome to the June edition of this publication that includes a variety of legal and market focused articles on current topics of interest in the world of trade finance.
In this issue, we feature:
• Trade finance and the efforts to boost intra-African trade
• Developments in the digitization of trade in Singapore
• Lombard North Central Plc v European Skyjets Ltd
• Baker McKenzie partners with the LMA
• Sanctions & Export Control Update

In our previous article, ‘Commodity Finance: the complete security package’ (2021) 5 JIBFL 351, we touched upon how disruption to commodity transactions, as a consequence of lockdowns, has led to the uncovering of fraudulent activities due to enhanced oversight of borrowers’ businesses and how a well-constructed security package can mitigate this risk to a degree. In this follow-up article we examine in detail the different ways in which fraud can manifest itself in commodity finance transactions, the actions lenders can take to try and mitigate against such frauds occurring in the first place and the possible resolutions avail