Welcome to Exiled: The Real Assets People, a podcast where we ‘strand’ a guest on a desert island and ask them who from their professional past, present, and future they’d choose to be stranded with. After all, it’s people that make a profession. Our first guest is Catherine Lang Anderson, Partner & Head of Trade & Commodity Finance Practice at A&O Shearman. Recorded live from the Royal Academy of Arts, it will be no surprise to anyone who knows Catherine that her Exile is going to be a party!

Commodity traders reaped substantial profits off the back of market volatility in 2022 and 2023. With their war chests armed, they pursued a policy of diversification – across financing, business lines and investments.

The trade finance industry has suffered a trio of ailments since the end of 2024 with the shuttering of three different non-bank lenders. While the circumstances across the three cases vary, market conditions are posing problems for lenders of all sizes. How can the community reflect on these events, and what options are borrowers left with?