Global crisis drives new ITFA initiative in Southern Europe

The new chairman of ITFA’s Southern Europe Regional Committee (SERC), Demetris Zouzoukis, is leading an initiative to share information and common concerns for the good of all members in the region during the current financial crisis.

Zouzoukis, Deputy General Manager and Head of Forfaiting at Athens based Marfin Factors & Forfaiters, is currently convening a meeting that is likely to take place during the second half of February. The aim of the meeting, to be held in Italy or in Greece, is firstly to complete the SERC itself. A second objective is to recognize that ITFA members in the region have common cultural characteristics and experiences.

“We want to exchange ideas about how we see things happening,” he explains. “We also need to think about what we do to prevent things from happening as well… We have seen lately that the outlook is changing rapidly from day to day and so we want to create a platform for exchanging information across the region.”

He adds that SERC is aiming to make a joint effort in the region to stage educational events to cover risk management issues and how to operate effectively in the current circumstances.