Shannon Manders

When Sereen Ahmed relocated from Dubai to New York in 2023 to become Americas head of trade and working capital at Barclays, her brief was not simply to grow the business, but to build a more locally anchored trade platform for the region.

Changing trade flows, correspondent banking pressures and rising demands from internationally active clients are reshaping the operating environment for US regional banks. But bankers gathered at a roundtable in Florida argued that closer collaboration, strong client relationships and a willingness to innovate are helping the sector turn disruption into opportunity.

Banks are rapidly accelerating AI experimentation across trade finance and transaction banking operations, but discussions at the Baft (Bankers’ Association for Finance and Trade) Global Annual Meeting in Orlando revealed an industry increasingly torn between excitement over efficiency gains and unease over security, governance and the long-term implications for banking jobs.