From Trade Register to Trade Intelligence Report: fifteen years of banking data enter a new chapter

For fifteen years, the ICC Trade Register has been the reference dataset for the actual risk profile of trade finance. Compiled from the books of the participating banks, it has been what ICC has put on the table every time a Basel regulator or a treasury committee has asked the industry to justify the risk weights that trade finance instruments carry. The answer has, year after year, been the same: default rates on documentary credits and short-tenor trade finance are among the lowest of any asset class in banking.

As of August 2026, that dataset has a new name and a wider ambition. The ICC Banking Commission has renamed it the ICC Global Trade Intelligence Report. Twenty-two global banks now contribute to it, with BBVA and Intesa Sanpaolo the two most recent additions. The first edition under the new name is due in late September.

A wider frame

The rebrand is not a marketing decision. It is a shift in scope. The old Trade Register was, by design, a defence file for a specific asset class. The new Report keeps that defence and adds three further layers: the health of trade finance markets year by year, the shift toward digital instruments, and the resilience of supply chain finance in a fragmenting geopolitical environment. The evidence base is built the same way it always has been, with primary data from the participating institutions, but the questions being asked of that data have opened up.

Samuel Mathew, chair of the Report's Steering Group and Global Head of Documentary Trade at Standard Chartered, framed the shift plainly: better data leads to better business and risk decisions. The Report is now designed to inform both.

How Dutch banks fit in

Dutch trade finance activity is already well represented in the underlying data, with both ING and Rabobank among the contributing institutions. As the Report expands its scope, ICC is looking for a broader range of contributors, both to widen coverage and to sharpen sector-level cuts. Banks interested in exploring participation are invited to contact the ICC Netherlands secretariat, which can broker the conversation with the ICC Banking Commission team. National Committees that introduce a new participating institution receive a discount on the annual participation fee.

A short survey, closing 6 September

Alongside the Report, ICC has opened a short survey (5 to 10 minutes) of banking professionals on the trends they see in trade and supply chain finance, both as a live temperature check and as an input into the September publication. The survey is confidential and results are only reported in aggregate. Responses are welcome from ICC members through 6 September. Full announcement here: ICC Trade Register becomes ICC Global Trade Intelligence Report.