Changing corporate needs means that corporates are starting to focus more on banks that can provide global network, innovative digital platforms, and comprehensive Corporate Banking offerings. In 2020, 23% of large corporates used at least one global bank for trade finance. By 2025, that share had increased to 26%- well ahead of the market penetration levels of Europe’s regional and domestic banks.

“Given the maturity of the European large corporate trade finance market, competitive gains by one bank come at the expense of another,” says Dr. Tobias Miarka, Head of Corporate Banking at Crisil Coalition Greenwich and coauthor of European trade finance: Evolving needs of European corporates.

To date, both regional and domestic providers have managed to maintain their market penetration levels. However, proprietary data from Crisil Coalition Greenwich suggests Europe’s domestic banks could emerge as the losers in what is largely a zero-sum game.

Every year, more than 500 large European corporates participate in the annual research to name the banks they use for trade finance, rate the service they receive from each bank, break down the share of wallet allocated to each provider, and project which banks are likely to win more or less business in the future.

In 2025, corporates in Europe provide positive “business momentum” for all 10 of the leading regional and global trade finance players. Those positive scores indicate that corporates are positioning to allocate more transaction volumes to regional and global banks in the future, thus putting the domestic banks’ and foreign specialist banks’ trade finance franchises at risk.

Changing Needs of Corporate Treasurers

Historically, Europe’s domestic banks have maintained a solid position in trade finance by providing a level of intensive, high-quality service to corporate treasury departments that larger competitors found tough to match. Proprietary data from Crisil Coalition Greenwich shows that quality gap has narrowed significantly. This contraction was caused mainly by a drop in quality ratings for domestic banks, which lag in areas that are becoming increasingly important to corporate treasurers, including international networks, product and relationship breadth, and digital capabilities.

“Meanwhile, Europe’s largest regional banks and global providers are wooing companies with holistic corporate banking and transaction banking propositions that check more boxes for corporate treasurers,” says Dr. Tobias Miarka. “And small service quality advantages for some domestic providers are often outweighed by the aggregate benefits corporates can derive from relationships with large regional and global providers.”

European trade finance: Evolving needs of European corporates analyzes the competitive positioning of banks in the large corporate trade finance business by identifying key criteria used by European corporates when selecting providers, and comparing product offerings and service quality among key groups of competitors. The report also assesses the impact of tariffs on large European corporates, tracks industry digitization, and examines the role of sustainability in trade finance and supply chain management.