The many-headed hydra of financial crime

Allianz Trade’s 2026 Risk Barometer identifies the 10 most pressing concerns faced by corporates for the year ahead, encompassing the views of 3,338 risk management experts, spanning 97 countries and territories. Doğa Usanmaz, Reporter at TFG, sat down with Sarah Murrow, President and CEO of Allianz Trade Americas, to discuss these changes. AI’s jump from eighth to second place in the Barometer rankings in just one year draws attention to the possibility of dark horses when it comes to risk. For Murrow, concentration is one of these dark horses.

The exclusion of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) from finance isn’t driven by mere moral neglect, but by systemic infrastructural constraints - amplified by incomplete data. In a recent episode of Trade Finance Global’s (TFG) podcast series, Trade Finance Talks, Silvia Andreoletti, Senior Reporter at TFG, sat down with Adel Meer, Manager of SME Finance, Solutions & Impact, at the World Bank Group (WBG).

The growth of AI in document forgery, the lethargic response of legislation, and the complexity of international commodity transactions all pose significant challenges to combating financial crime. 

Russia has rapidly expanded its “shadow fleet” of ageing, poorly regulated tankers to bypass Western sanctions, now accounting for a significant share of global seaborne oil trade.

Russia has rapidly expanded its “shadow fleet” of ageing, poorly regulated tankers to bypass Western sanctions, now accounting for a significant share of global seaborne oil trade.

Tensions have been high at this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) held in Davos, Switzerland. The tone was set from Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s proclamation on Tuesday, 20 January, that “the rules-based order is fading”, for which he received a standing ovation.

When Russian tanks rolled into the Donbas, Sumy, Kherson and other regions of Ukraine in the early morning of 22 February 2022, the world watched in horror as the familiar story - a small state bullied into submission by a global superpower - repeated once again. Since then, the role of financial institutions both as providers of financing and pillars of the community has grown more firmly entrenched in Ukraine.

As sudden swings, geopolitical shifts, and the erosion of dollar-dominance reshape the market, foreign exchange (FX) — the global market for trading currencies — has become a central concern for businesses trading across borders.

In the second episode of Future of Trade, Trade Finance Global and Standard Chartered explore why digital trade adoption continues to lag behind innovation. TFG’s Mark Abrams speaks with Samuel Mathew, Managing Director and Global Head of Documentary Trade at Standard Chartered, on the difference between digitisation and true digitalisation, the interoperability challenges holding paperless trade back, and the role of legacy infrastructure. The episode also examines the foundations needed for AI in trade finance, the growing relevance of digital assets and tokenisation, and why regulatory progress remains necessary but insufficient for digital trade to scale.

Alternative lenders - non-bank entities that provide financing outside traditional banking channels - are no longer peripheral to the trade finance ecosystem. Their increased presence reflects a structural failure: banks' declining ability to lend to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).