ITFA annual meeting returns, this year in Split, Croatia

1. We certainly haven’t seen the “boring twenties” as many people had perhaps hoped at the beginning of the decade.
2. Procurement, logistics, and treasury are increasingly using interrelated KPIs, where as historically they were quite siloed.
3. AI and technology are real things with tangible benefits now, after such a long period of time where they were just a discussion point. But that comes as a double edged sword as it also empowers malicious actors.
4. Rerouted shipping lanes around the globe have considerable knock on impacts for shipping, logistics, and trade finance.

The ITFA 2026 annual meeting is officially underway in Croatia.

In the opening keynote we heard from General Sir Patrick Sanders, KCB CBE DSO, Santander Senior Strategic Advisor about the global geopolitical situation and the impact that it has on Strategic defence priorities, particularly in Europe.

Some of our key takeaways:

1. The resilience of a supply chain is often determined by the smaller firms that can sit several tiers removed from the top layer.
2. Defence has a strategic component that goes well beyond typical procurement
3. There isn’t a single financial solution to defence capacity build up.
4. Deterrence is often built by things that don’t sound dramatic
5. Public finance will play an important role, but can’t do it all. Public finance should be used to crowd on private finance

As the worlds of defence and finance converge more and more, it will be important to heed the General’s reminder that ‘The best weapon is the one you never have to fire.’