2019 Trade Finance Gaps, Growth, and Jobs Survey

This year’s survey found that the global trade finance gap remains at around $1.5 trillion, nearly 60% of respondents expect the gap to increase over the next 2 years. Another key finding was that women-owned firms face greater challenges accessing trade finance than do men-owned firms. Meanwhile, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) also face considerable barriers with more than 40% of SME trade finance applications rejected by banks. However there is growing optimism that fintech and digitization are potential solutions to bridge the trade finance gap, particularly for SMEs.