<\/p>\n
Kimura Capital<\/a> is reportedly closing\u00a0its London-based trade finance business and returning money to investors.<\/p>\n The company will continue its ventures in commodity logistics\u00a0and sports management, but a proposed commodity hedge fund will not move forward, Bloomberg\u00a0reported<\/a> Tuesday (Dec. 17), citing unnamed sources.<\/p>\n Kimura Capital did not immediately reply to PYMNTS\u2019 request for comment.<\/p>\n The company became a significant lender to commodity trading companies, according to the report.<\/p>\n Its exit from the market comes at a time when the sector has been facing commodity trading frauds and other challenges, per\u00a0the report.<\/p>\n The International Maritime Bureau (IMB), which is part of the International Chamber of Commerce\u2019s commercial crime division, said in September that a new\u00a0trade finance<\/a> threat is emerging in which logistics\u00a0providers and exporters join forces to manipulate shipping documents and swindle banks.<\/p>\n While the rise in these scams primarily involves importers in West Africa and exporters in China, the use of false or altered shipping information to secure pre-shipment finance and other forms of trade financing is difficult to detect and poses a significant risk to banks everywhere, IMB said.<\/p>\n It was reported last week that\u00a0Stenn<\/a>, a U.K. FinTech that specialized in\u00a0invoice financing<\/a> for small- to medium-sized businesses, was placed into administration \u2014 a type of insolvency procedure \u2014 earlier this month after a reference to it appeared in a U.S. indictment in a money laundering case.<\/p>\n That reference led Stenn\u2019s lenders, including banking giant HSBC, to begin examining potentially suspicious transactions, the Financial Times\u00a0reported<\/a> Wednesday (Dec. 11).<\/p>\n At the same time, the\u00a0trade finance<\/a> sector has seen partnerships, fundraising and the digitization of the processes \u2014 invoicing and documentation \u2014 and payments, including supply chain finance, that seek to help close trade finance gaps, PYMNTS reported in October.<\/p>\n The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (BNY<\/a>) and\u00a0Mizuho Bank<\/a> said in October that they are collaborating to provide\u00a0trade services<\/a> to corporate clients in Asia.<\/p>\n The banks have formed an agreement for correspondent bank network capability for international trade and will collaborate in a way that leverages both institutions\u2019 expanded trade network to provide expanded connectivity to clients.<\/p>\n