Our business line is engaged in financing of short term goods flows between producing and consuming countries. We deal with a very diverse customer base ranging from major international corporates to niche trading companies and in areas as varied as power, metals or soft commodities.

Let’s recall that our role is to provide financial support to trading companies whose activity involves buying the commodities in the countries of origin, shipping them and providing the necessary logistics for delivery to the consumer markets.

Transactional Commodity Finance demands from our colleagues very fast responsiveness and requires keeping at all times an eye on the markets, suppliers, clients and news from all over the world which could impact the environment of commodities.

Our teams must be particularly careful in a sometimes tense political or financial environment. This was the case for example in 2005 when the Katrina hurricane hit the US and more recently in Georgia for the transportation of oil from the Caspian Sea to the Poti port.

The Crédit Agricole Group’s solidity and established name are essential in a business which rests on trust. In view of the amounts involved in the transactions, financial solidity is a major advantage.

Transactional Commodity Finance is a global activity. The support from Calyon’s network reinforces the business line’s scope of action and provides the local teams’intimate knowledge of the domestic commercial and industrial fabric.

 

The successive mergers enabled Calyon to combine the know-how of several teams of experts and to consolidate them in a centre of expertise based in Geneve. As early as 2005, the objective has been to set up a global network. Today, the business line is present in Europe, in Asia (Singapore, Hong Kong and soon Shanghai), in the Middle East (Dubai) and in the Americas (New York and Brazil).

We place a particular emphasis on Asia which has been and remains one of the unquestionable growth vectors of commodities markets and which has already strongly contributed, through its buoyant economy, to the sharp increase in commodities prices.

 

For historical reasons, due to the stability of the Swiss banking system and to the trust placed in it, to the presence of a large international community and of major inspection companies such as Société Générale de Surveillance (SGS).

Many trading companies or the trading arms of major integrated industrial groups have their registered office in Geneve. Geneve is now recognized as one of the leading centres for commodity financing.