Pictured: Alister Bazaz

SFNet's International Lending Conference, held in London on May 12-13, 2025, is attended by a dynamic community of global lenders, innovators, and dealmakers in the heart of London. We sat down with the chair of the International Lending Conference Planning Committee, Alister Bazaz, head of International Asset Based Lending & Asset Based Digital Innovation at Bank of America, to discuss the planning process and the event.

SFNet’s International Lending Conference is now in its 19^th year. How were the panel topics for this year’s International Lending Conference decided on and why are they timely for this year’s Conference?  

Bazaz: This year’s conference is somewhat unique in that we decided to combine the International Lending Conference with the SFNet Cross-Broder Lending Summit that Bill Brewer (now retired from Winston & Strawn) and I used to host in the fall in the U.S. As we approached planning the content, we chose to look at the significant geopolitical changes impacting a lot of global relationships and companies that have complex global supply chains, subsidiaries overseas, and are looking for financing beyond North America. We wanted to create greater awareness of the challenges that would be created from the current uncertainty.

          We thought we should have luminaries such as The Lord Kim Darroch of Kew KCMG, former Ambassador to the United States from the United Kingdom, as a keynote speaker, and other speakers who could give a more global perspective.

This year’s ILC marks its 19^th year. What makes this year’s Conference unique compared to past years?

The ILC has been safely under the stewardship of our good friends Richard Kohn, partner, Goldberg Kohn and David Morse, member, Otterbourg P.C., for a number of years. As the newly appointed chair of the International Finance Committee, I felt with their assistance we could make a bit of a pivot and focus more on pragmatic business issues, in collaboration with a greater involvement from the SFNet Europe Chapter and from our European partners at large.

What can attendees expect to get out of this year’s International Lending Conference?

Those attending the International Lending Conference can get numerous benefits. For lenders, it is a chance to interact with other lenders and share experiences and continue to grow the market from partnering, learning, and financing cross-border business with more insights than they might’ve had before. 

          The industry’s service provider community, such as lawyers and field examiners, will have the opportunity to interact with lenders who are looking to solve financing needs for their customers, whether it be equity, private equity or companies themselves and be up to date with the challenges that those lenders are looking to solve for. There are new challenges that have emerged that must be discussed in person such as in-transit/supply chain changes as well as the new EU21 Directive that impacts where loans are booked after June 2026.

You’re going to be moderating the Covering the World: ABL and the Receivables Purchase Facility panel. Can you provide some details on that particular panel?

My intention is to create conversation between traditional ABL lenders in the cross-border space and the many receivables factoring companies as well as receivables purchase firms in Europe that can solve the financing of receivables in countries that traditional ABL is unable to. It is our ambition that this panel will introduce lenders in different aspects of the secured finance community, who traditionally do not  work with each other to solve a client’s need, but now will have the connectivity to do so for the benefit of all. We are making the ILC “pie” bigger.

Do you have any insight into what Lord Darroch will discuss during his keynote?

The intention is for him to share, from his unique perspective, a global view of how countries, companies, individuals need to be better equipped to cope with an ever-changing global scenario in a constantly changing world, whether politically or economically. 

At the ILC in 2023, we had a Restructuring Review panel, which focused on the key elements of EU Directive. With all of the countries now having completed the EU Directive on Restructuring and Insolvency, what are some key areas of concern that may be addressed in this year’s Restructuring Corner panel?

Restructuring is an ever-moving context, and regardless of what one might have learned in 2023, there is a great deal of change underway globally. This is particularly driven by evolving supply chains and sourcing, and with the backdrop of the tariff narrative, there could be many companies that will become challenged to be successful in the new arena. By attending this year’s event, you will stay current on what has happened recently and what is likely to happen and how to position yourself as it relates to your clients and the challenges they are facing.

The Lender Roundtable features senior members of secured lending institutions discussing some of the challenges their portfolios may face.  What are some of the common challenges that you’re seeing?

In today’s world we’re seeing more M&A activity, with or without private equity participation, where countries that have not traditionally been ABL friendly countries are seeking financing within a global company. This creates either opportunities or challenges for traditional participants, and it also means that new entrants to the market, such as private credit, might have an impact because they may be more flexible than traditional ABL has been historically.

Are there any panels that you predict will be more anticipated than others for this event?

I think what we have achieved this year is a nice balance of topics, panel participants, and thought leadership to give a holistic perspective of secured finance in 2025 and beyond.  I think we have a very good composition amongst the panels and the panelists and the topics. This year will be a landmark ILC.

For more information on the International Lending Conference or to register, please click here.