What Happened
European Defence Expansion Requires Trade Finance Support
European states’ plans to accelerate defence spending will require significant support from trade finance lenders and insurers, particularly for hard-to-reach parts of supply chains. According to experts, defence contracts are not typical supply chains, with thousands of individual components required for sophisticated systems. This creates an unusual industrial problem, where the resilience of the system is determined by the health of the weakest, strategically important suppliers. As reported by Global Trade Review, trade finance instruments, including working capital finance guarantees and export credit, have strategic significance for the sector.