Understanding International Trade Finance

Book excerpt: My desire to be of positive impact to my generation and to give back to the profession that has been of tremendous blessings to my career has inspired me to write this book Understanding International Trade Finance. Of my twenty-eight years in banking, I have been remarkably involved in Trade Finance in the last twenty years and I have identified the knowledge gap that exists in this specialized area of financial services and global trade at large. This book is based on my practical experiences of the last eighteen years across different geographies that has culminated in writing of this book in your hand. One intriguing personal experience in this field was that of a friend that travelled abroad and bought a car at an ex-works price and thought he had made a good bargain until about six months of waiting for the car to arrive from abroad but nothing turned up and he complained to me; I examined the documents and noticed that the invoice reads "ex-works." I told him that the price he paid for the car does not cover the cost of shipping the car and that it is his responsibility to arrange for this, then he realised it wasn't really a good bargain after all. Are you a importer, exporter, banker, students, trade finance practitioners, etc.? This book, Understanding International Trade Finance is a must read book for you. I would like to specially express my profound gratitude to my family for their love and supports in the course of writing this book. Also my colleagues and friends for their encouragements in the actualization of this project. Above all, I am sincerely thankful to God for the grace, courage, and strength for writing this book. Akorede Mark Badmus (FCA) United Kingdom March 2018