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2016 Trade Finance Gaps, Growth, and Jobs Survey

2016 Trade Finance Gaps, Growth, and Jobs Survey

The ADB trade finance survey quantifies market gaps for trade finance and explores their impact on growth and jobs.

The inability of financial institutions to provide $1.6 trillion to support buyers and sellers of goods across countries resulted in forgone growth and job creation in 2015. Developing Asia’s share of the global trade finance gap was $692 billion.

The 2016 survey also introduced new detail about the impact of financial technology on market gaps, and how woman-led firms are impacted by unmet demand.

Key Points

  • The estimated global trade finance gap is $1.6 trillion.
  • $692 billion of the gap is in developing Asia (including India and the People’s Republic of China).
  • 56% of SME trade finance proposals are rejected, while large corporates face rejection rates of 34% and multinational corporations are rejected only 10% of the time.
  • Firms report that 25% more trade finance would enable them to hire 20% more people.
  • Woman-owned firms face higher than average rejection rates.
  • 70% of surveyed firms are unfamiliar with digital finance, uptake rates highest in peer-to-peer lending.

Trade Finance

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