Structured Commodity Finance for Banks and Traders Training Course

Course Overview

Learning Objectives

• Analyze physical commodity value chains in energy, metals, and agriculture and identify where structured finance adds value by the end of the course.
• Distinguish transactional, self-liquidating commodity lending from balance-sheet lending to traders and producers.
• Structure pre-export and prepayment facilities secured on offtake contracts, assigned receivables, and controlled collection accounts.
• Design borrowing-base facilities with clear eligibility criteria, advance rates, concentration limits, and reporting requirements.
• Evaluate inventory and warehouse receipt finance, including the role of collateral managers and stock monitoring agreements.
• Compare tolling, repo, and sale-and-buyback structures and select the right structure for each client situation.
• Apply haircuts, marking to market, and margin call mechanisms to protect the lender against commodity price movements.
• Assess performance, country, legal, and fraud risks and build appropriate mitigants into the facility documentation.
• Prepare credit proposals for commodity facilities that present the structure, security package, and key risks clearly to credit committees.
• Implement monitoring, early warning, and workout procedures that keep commodity portfolios sound before course completion.

Who Should Attend

Learning Outcomes

• By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
• Explain how structured commodity finance differs from general trade and corporate lending.
• Map commodity flows, title transfer, and cash flows to identify the lender's control points.
• Structure pre-export and prepayment facilities with sound offtake, assignment, and collection arrangements.
• Calculate a borrowing base using eligibility criteria, advance rates, haircuts, and concentration limits.
• Evaluate warehouse receipt and inventory finance and the reliability of collateral management arrangements.
• Select between tolling, repo, and sale-and-buyback structures for a given client and commodity.
• Apply margin call and hedging requirements to protect facilities against commodity price movements.
• Identify performance, country, legal, and fraud risks and the documentation that mitigates them.
• Present commodity facility proposals clearly and convincingly to credit committees.
• Monitor commodity exposures through reporting, early warning indicators, and timely corrective action.

Course Outline