Global trade rarely stands still, but the speed and scale of recent events have made the landscape feel especially unsettled. It is now almost impossible to engage in trade industry forums or in the media without encountering: ‘supply chain disruption’, ‘geopolitics and geoeconomics ’, ‘chokepoints’, ‘digitalisation’, ‘derisking’, ‘weaponisation’ and ‘resilience’, to name but a few. The attention given to these themes is understandable: they hold tangible threats, but also new opportunities. Amid all this change, one question matters most: what does it really mean to be resilient?
From the outset it is important to have a clear understanding of events. It is not given that the global trade order is being overturned. In its recent Global Connectedness Report – 2026, DHL points out that except for the trade flows related to the US, Russia and China, global trade flows have remained strong and as extensive as ever. “The resilience of international flows stands in stark contrast to the widespread narrative that globalisation is going into reverse. This gap between the globalisation data and the globalisation headlines, is largely due to the fact that much of the deglobalisation discourse is driven not by actual cross border flows but by shifts in politics and public opinion…” (DHL 2026 page 11). Instead, in the face of disruptive events, “globalisation is not reversing. It is reshaping and rebalancing while remaining at a historical high level. Countries and companies continue to adapt with remarkable resilience.” (DHL 2026: 4)
What then for the banks that support these clients who maintain supplier and buyer relationships across the globe? What must trade finance providers get right to match this dynamism, and to remain resilient themselves?
We believe that trade finance banks, such as Commerzbank, must continually strengthen three related capabilities. The first is innovation – encompassing digitalisation, the integration of artificial intelligence into processes and decision-making, and the development of products that respond to evolving client needs. The second is partnerships – including collaboration with industry forums and advocacy groups, as well as digital platform providers that improve connectivity and efficiency between banks and their clients. The third is risk management, which combines robust bank and country risk assessment with the ability to evaluate and support opportunities in new markets. Together, these capabilities enable banks to respond effectively to a rapidly changing trade landscape.
To understand how this works in practice, let us look more closely at each one.
On innovation
Digitalisation. Imagine a trade transaction moving from buyer to seller, bank to bank and across borders without producing a single sheet of paper. That is the goal of digitalisation: trade documents are created, exchanged and checked electronically from the outset. The industry has already made significant progress in bringing banks, clients and regulators together to build the channels and legal frameworks needed to support this shift. The benefits are practical and immediate. Digital processes can accelerate workflows, improve transparency and strengthen the application of transactional compliance and anti-money-laundering controls. Progress will not be uniform, and hybrid processes combining paper and digital elements will remain in some markets for a time. Even so, these differences should not slow the wider journey towards a fully digital trade infrastructure.
Commerzbank has already started this journey with first ePresentations of documents linked to the adoption of the eUCP and digital compliance checks using artificial intelligence.
Artificial intelligence. The next step is to make the digital transaction more intelligent. AI is already helping banks to manage workflows, review documents against the terms of a letter of credit, and support sanctions and anti-money-laundering controls. Its analytical capacity may go further still, helping institutions identify emerging patterns of financial crime and circumvention earlier and respond more proactively. The introduction of AI will give banks greater confidence and speed when supporting importers and exporters entering unfamiliar markets or industries.
Product development. Innovation is not confined to the technology behind a transaction; it also changes the products clients can use. Documentary trade is sometimes described as a mature, commoditised product set with little room for refinement. Yet changing patterns of international trade are challenging that assumption. At Commerzbank, we are currently working to improve six existing products and introduce two new ones within the documentary trade suite. Each initiative begins in the same place: a market development or a client need that existing solutions no longer address fully.
On partnerships
No bank builds resilience alone. Trade finance depends on networks: relationships with peer banks around the world, dialogue with regulators, collaboration through advocacy institutions and connections with intermediaries that are transforming the way corporate clients reach their finance providers.
Advocacy. Industry bodies give banks a collective voice in conversations with regulators. Used well, this dialogue helps regulation strengthen trade rather than unintentionally impede it. These organisations also watch the legislative and regulatory horizon and alert their members to changes before they take effect, giving banks valuable time to prepare. Relevant bodies include, among many others, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the Bankers Association for Finance and Trade (BAFT) and the International Trade & Forfaiting Association (ITFA).
Third-party platforms. A second kind of partnership is changing the route between banks and their corporate customers. Digital platforms do more than connect the two sides. They may help prepare documents and may even allow a transaction to be presented to several trade finance banks at once. When banks connect their own systems to these platforms, they can extend their reach and often accelerate processing. Documents arrive digitally and may already have been reviewed and corrected, reducing friction before the bank begins its own work.
On risk
Bank and country risk. Over the past 25 years, managing such risks has become significantly more complex. Banks must respond to expanding sanctions, financial-crime and anti-money-laundering regimes, while also meeting changing requirements for assessing counterparty risk and reflecting it on their balance sheets. As these demands grew, many institutions withdrew from markets or relationships considered too risky or too resource-intensive to review. The environment is now shifting again. As clients reconsider and sometimes realign their supply chains, banks may need to broaden their correspondent relationships so that they can accompany those clients into new markets. Resilience therefore depends on being able to evaluate a new market or correspondent quickly and give clients a clear, well-founded credit decision – whether the answer is yes or no.
None of these undertakings is easy to implement. Yet they form an essential resilience toolkit for an international environment that is increasingly fluid and shaped more by Realpolitik than consensus. Joseph Schumpeter described capitalism as a process of ‘creative destruction’: new markets and forms of organisation continually reshape the economic structure from within, replacing the old while creating the new. Trade finance banks are living through that process now. Those that can adapt how they operate, incorporate new technologies and assess new risks with both speed and discipline will be best placed to retain their competitive edge. In this story, resilience is not simply the ability to withstand disruption. It is the ability to learn from it, respond to it and continue moving forward.
