LCI-news

On June 16, 2014 the Prague Club held its Spring Meeting in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The meeting lasted for 3 days along with an excursion to the beautiful Predjama Castle and Skocjane Caves on June 15th, 2014. It was hosted by the Slovenian member, SID.

LCI was represented by Mr. Karim Nasrallah (General Manager), Mrs. Racha Makki (Accounting Manager) and Ms. Diana Loutfy (Project Development). Mr. Nasrallah was also chairing the meeting in his capacity as Chairman of the Prague Club.

The 3-day meeting included a workshop on Bonding presented by Mr. Mario Grillo (Senior Underwriter, Nationale Borg Reinsurance) and Mr. Michiel de Smet (Senior Underwriter, Nationale Borg Reinsurance).

The 2nd and 3rd day of the meeting consisted of sessions on Berne Union and Prague Club business trends, Country Risk and Debt Collection. Mr. Nasrallah also discussed the future and strategy of the Prague Club and with the help of Berne Union Secretariat, led fruitful strategic brainstorming sessions.

LCI, represented by Mr. Karim Nasrallah (General Manager), attended ICIEC’s seminar on June 24th, 2014 in Jeddah, KSA. Mr. Nasrallah was also representing 36 Export Credit Agencies around the world through his role as Chairman of The Prague Club.

The seminar was on the future role of ICIEC in supporting trade and investments in member countries. The half-day seminar brought together experts in the credit and political risk insurance to discuss ICIEC’s future and what it holds in terms of challenges and opportunities.

Mr. Nasrallah was a panelist on the session discussing how ICIEC can best contribute to the development of its Member Countries. The session was moderated by Mr. Peter Jones, Former Secretary General of the Berne Union/Form Deputy CEO of ATI.

The Berne Union – International Union of Credit & Investment Insurers – is pleased to announce the appointment of Kai Preugschat as the new Secretary General of the association.

“We congratulate Kai on his appointment as Secretary General of the Berne Union and also extend our best wishes for the future.We are looking forward to start working with him from mid summer.”, says Karim Nasrallah, Chairman of the Prague Club.

Kai Preugschat, a German national, has a distinguished career in credit insurance and in the banking industry. He is currently Deputy Global Head Structured Trade & Export Finance at UniCredit Bank Group.

Previously, Kai held senior positions at the German ECA, Euler Hermes Kreditversicherungs-AG, ANZ Banking Group, KfW IPEX Bank, Bayerische Landesbank and Hypo-Bank, with assignments in Germany, Asia and Australia. In Sydney, Kai also worked for Australia’s ECA, EFIC.

“We are excited to get Kai on board and I look forward to working with him on advancing the Berne Union as the leading association in credit and investment insurance”, says Dan Riordan, President of the Berne Union.

Kai Preugschat will assume his role with the Berne Union during mid-summer.

Click Here to download the full press release.

Berne Union celebrates 80 years of supporting trade and investment and nears US$ 2 trillion in export cover

Members of the Berne Union – International Union of Credit & Investment Insurers – came together in London on 7 – 9 May 2014 for their annual Spring Meeting. The meeting was an occasion to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Berne Union. The association’s members provide risk mitigation products to exporters and investors, helping companies to safely trade internationally.

The meeting benefited from the participation of academics and experts in the field of country risk, from the banking industry, and from the IFC, leading to productive exchanges with state backed export credit agencies, multilateral institutions and private market insurers.

“As the global economy signals various levels of recovery, our members’ impact on international trade has never been more relevant,” says Berne Union President Dan Riordan. “Specifically since 2008, export credit and investment insurers have proven their ability to respond to the needs of their customers and they will continue to offer innovative solutions for managing commercial and political risks.”

The meeting also launched the Berne Union Annual Yearbook 2014 and a Berne Union application for iPhone and iPad, detailing the business levels and trends as experienced by its members.

Click Here to download the full press release.

LCI is constantly working on improving conditions of Trade Credit Insurance and improvement of claims and recovery conditions of trade credit.

LCI attends the AIDA – HILA Summit in Athens, Greece last week. The Summit took place in King George Hotel on May 7-9, 2014.

Mr. Nasrallah, General Manager of LCI, participated in the working party session titled: “Transfer of Trade Credit/ Debts and Assignment of rights” and moderated by Dr. Louis Habib-Deloncle, President of Garant Assurance-Credit, Switzerland. The panel was composed of Mr. Nasrallah, Dr, Deloncle, Dr. Georgios Psaroudakis (Lecturer at University of Thessaloniki, Greece) and Dr. Samim Unan (Professor, Galatasaray Univerity and FMR President AIDA, Turkey).

Mr. Nasrallah’s presentation addressed subrogation and assignment of receivables and their application in various Middle Eastern countries.

LCI held its 4th annual Partners’ and Reinsurers’ Meeting in Beirut on March 27-29, 2014. The two day conference took place in Sofitiel Beirut Le Gabriel Hotel in Ashrafieh, Beirut. It was followed by an excursion to Byblos on Saturday 29th, 2014.

This year, the conference was attended by LCI’s reinsurers as well as partners and clients. The conference included presentations and discussions about LCI’s current business, operations, future trends and strategy. The conference also opened up an opportunity for all stakeholders involved to discuss matters relating to market potentials, trends and economies.

LCI, represented by Mr. Karim Nasrallah (General Manager) attended GTR’s Libya Trade & Infrastructure Finance on the 6th of February 2014. The conference took place at the Swissôtel, the Bosphorus Conference in Istanbul, Turkey.

The Conference was composed of various panel sessions that discussed the rising opportunities on offer in Libya following the overhaul of its public institutions and private sector in preparation for full participation in the global economy.

Mr. Nasrallah was the moderator for the panel titled: “Meeting the need for trade and infrastructure development: Foundations for further growth”.

Topics discussed in the panel:
• Extensive need for infrastructural development across various sectors: Contract tender time lines and external funding
• Support and sources available for longer tenor funding.
• Export Finance Sector in Libyan Market – foreign banks & ECAs
• Support available for investment in smaller projetcs.
• Impact of anticipated political and regulatory reform on practicalities of trade and infrastructure development
• Key challenges for investors

In December 2013, the Berne Union Prague Club held its semi-annual meeting in Queenstown, New Zealand, hosted by the Export Credit Agency of New Zealand, NZECO. During the meeting, Mr. Karim Nasrallah, General Manager of LCI, was elected as Chairman of the Club to serve for the next two years.

In his new capacity as the Chairman of this membership union, Mr. Nasrallah is committed to focus on strengthening the Prague Club’s position, improving communication and transparency amongst its members and raising the profile of the trade credit insurance industry.

The Prague Club brings together 36 insurers from around the globe, to further the development of the export credit and investment insurance industry. Credit and investment insurers provide risk mitigation products to exporters and investors, allowing them to trade safely in a volatile international context. In 2012, Prague Club members provided an important support to global trade by insuring USD 26.5 billion worth of exports and paid claims to their insured the amount of USD 150.9 million. LCI, who joined the Prague Club in 2009, is the only private member of the group. The commitment of LCI to the Prague Club confirms its pledge to offer its clients the most innovative approaches in the industry by granting them access to an international and diversified network.

About the Prague Club

The Berne Union Prague Club is an information exchange network for new and maturing insurers of export credit and investment. It supports its members in developing their export credit and investment insurance schemes and facilities, through hosting technical discussions at bi-annual meetings, as well as by facilitating ad-hoc information exchanges.

For more information about the Prague Club, kindly visit: www.berneunion.org

LCI attended GTR’s 12th Annual Middle East Trade & Export Finance Conference in Dubai, UAE. The conference took place over 3 days at the Jumeirah Emirates Tower. The conference brought together different stakeholders of supply chain and trade finance to discuss and share best practices in the industry in addition to the current situation in various regional markets. LCI was represented by Mr. Karim Nasrallah (General Manager, LCI), Mr. Michael McPhilimey (Advisor to the Board, LCI) and Mr. Naser Abu Ghazaleh (Head of Business Development, LCI).

Mr. Nasrallah took part and was moderator of the panel titled: Expanding Lebanon’s trade and export potential: What is needed? Amongst the panelists were representatives of well-established Lebanese financial institutions and Industry leaders. The panel discussion tackled the current economic and financial situation with focus on trade import and export. The discussion covered investor sentiment in Lebanon, the impact of neighboring Syria when it comes to transporting goods and maintaining export flows and the impact of the recent discovery of oil & gas reserves in the Levant basic. The panelists also discussed whether Lebanon is taking any steps to achieve export diversification and broaden its presence in prime emerging markets such as China and Africa. They concluded the panel with evaluating whether increased trade facilitation measures are required to maintain Lebanon’s export competitiveness.

Mr. McPhilimey took part in the panel titled: Egypt: What is needed to get it back on track? This panel was moderated by Mr. Bassam Azab (Regional Head of Business Development, Menafactors). The sessions provided insight into the role of regional support in driving through fiscal reform, political violence and its impact on investor sentiment, balancing investment in production against paying down debt, experiences in managing receivables and structural challenges in sectors such as energy, health & education, and underwriter appetite for trade credit, political and security risk.

LCI attended the 4th Annual AMAN UNION Meeting, represented by General Manager, Mr. Karim Nasrallah. The meeting took place in Doha, Qatar between the 9th and 11th of December 2013. The meeting was held at the Renaissance Doha City Centre Hotel.

In addition to the Union members, experts from various industries such as credit and political risk insurance, reinsurance, banking and credit information, were in attendance.

The topics presented covered the commercial and non-commercial risk insurance industry in member countries. In addition to that, discussions took place regarding the strengthening of mutual relationships and resulting ventures.

Mr. Karim Nasrallah moderated the 3rd session of the meeting where two topics were discussed:
– Country focus in the MENA region
– Africa as a new destination for Trade Finance and Investment.