EVEN though more banks have elbowed their way into the commodity trade finance space, especially in Singapore, many are cultivating the same big clients or trading houses in the industry. This gives established players such as ABN Amro the opportunity to finance smaller trading firms, says the bank's new global head of commodities Jan-Maarten Mulder.

"Most of those (new) banks are basically name-lending. They're lending to the big names, which I can really understand because it's easier to participate. If you don't have that trade finance expertise as part of your DNA, it's easier to follow other banks," Mr Mulder said in an interview with The Business Times.

"But as you go down the size in terms of traders, what you see is that for the smaller and medium-sized traders, in the end it's the same banks that are taking the exposure."