PRIMARY AUTHOR: ALEXANDER R. MALAKET, CITP
President, OPUS Advisory Services International Inc.

Alexander Malaket is a recognized specialist in international trade and trade finance, with over 25 years of professional experience in Canada and internationally. Alexander is Deputy Head of the Executive Committee of the ICC Banking Commission (Paris), a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors, World Trade Centre (Winnipeg) and a member of the Board of the Forum for International Trade Training (Ottawa).

Alexander is a member of the B20 Task Forces for 2015, the International Affairs Committee of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, and a “Nominated Expert” in trade finance at the UN/CEFACT, as well as a member of the ICTSD/World Economic Forum E15 Initiative. Author of “Financing Trade and International Supply Chains” published by Gower, UK in 2014, Mr. Malaket is a frequent speaker, panel chair and participant at leading industry events around the world.

ASSOCIATE AUTHOR: VIJAY VASHIST
Global Head of Trade & Supply Chain Finance and Trade Asset
Management in Global Transaction Services, DBS

Vijay Vashist is the Global Head of Trade & Supply Chain Finance and Trade Asset Management in DBS’ Global Transaction Services, based at the head office in Singapore. He is responsible for developing product innovation, guiding market expansion and the investment agenda to drive growth across the bank’s extensive client base in Asia, as well as integrating the bank’s trade product offering in order to seamlessly serve its customers across all segments, from large corporate to SMEs.

Vijay joined DBS in April 2011 from Standard Chartered Bank, where he was previously Managing Director and Global Head of Open Account Trade Finance. He has had over 20 years of experience within Institutional Banking covering areas of corporate relationship banking, Supply Chain, Leasing, Open Account and traditional trade business lines, working at Standard Chartered, HSBC and GE Capital.

In addition to his appointment as a member of the ICC Banking Commission ExCo, Vijay is also associated with the BAFT-IFSA Asia Financial Supply Chain Committee, spearheading a project to design industry standard open account trade documentation. He has also previously served on the marketing committee of Factors Chain International, Amsterdam.