Interview with Brian French, Senior Vice President of International Banking at Stock Yards Bank

Episode 32:  Brian French, Senior Vice President of International Banking at Stockyards Bank and Trust, brings over 25 years of financial experience to the discussion of how businesses can successfully get paid during global transactions. He highlights that many companies often fail to recognize their business as "international" when dealing with neighboring countries like Mexico or Canada, which still requires navigating specific nuances and risks. French emphasizes that his primary goals when onboarding a client are to improve the cost-efficiency of transactions and enhance payment security. To achieve this, the bank offers diverse services including international wire transfers in over 70 currencies, exchange rate hedging, and clearing foreign checks. For securing payments, he discusses the trade-offs between the guaranteed protection of letters of credit and the more cost-effective but less restrictive documentary collections.

A recurring theme in the interview is the necessity of involving banking experts early in the negotiation process to avoid complications after contracts are already signed. French prides himself on the "personal touch" his institution provides, often visiting manufacturing plants in person rather than relying on automated call centers. He also provides practical advice for exporters, such as understanding Incoterms and requesting invoices in both U.S. dollars and foreign currency to avoid hidden markups. Ultimately, the conversation underscores that a strong network of advisors—including bankers, freight forwarders, and the World Trade Center Kentucky—is vital for navigating the "ebb and flow" of global trade.

Chapters

00:24   Welcome and Guest Introduction

01:56   The Journey from Lending to International Banking

04:58   International Banking Services Offered by Stock Yards Band and Trust

08:32   Unpacking the “Hidden” World of Foreign Transactions with our Neighbors

12:48   Securing the Transaction: Letters of Credit vs. Documentary Collections

16:16   The Importance of Early Expert Involvement in Contract Negotiations

25:25   Practical Tips: Incoterms, Dual-Currency Invoicing, and Local Resources

26:55   Conclusion

 

Episode Transcript

Welcome and Guest Introduction

Jim Ray:

Welcome to this Global Trade Adventure, a World Trade Center, Kentucky podcast. We'll provide interviews, stories, tips, and advice for professionals actively engaged in global business or those ready to begin that journey at the World Trade Center, Kentucky. Simply put, we grow trade. Let's join today's conversation.  I'm very happy to have Dr. Omar Ayyash, the President and CEO of the World Trade Center Kentucky in the studio today. Omar, how are you guy?

Omar Ayyash:

Good, Jim, how about you?

Jim Ray:

I'm doing well, and I'm very happy to welcome our guest, Mr. Brian French, Senior Vice President of International Banking at Stock Yards Bank and Trust, right here in Louisville. Brian, welcome to the studio. Welcome to the podcast.

Omar Ayyash:

Thank you, Jim. Appreciate it.

Jim Ray:

Always glad to have you here. And I think we're going to have a great conversation.  Today, we're going to talk about how do you get paid when you conduct global business? Probably one of the more important topics that we've covered in the last several episodes. With that, as we typically do, I'm going to hand this over to Omar and let you jump in and I'll come back toward the end of the podcast.

Omar Ayyash:

Thank you, Jim. Well, being in international trade here recently, the conversation of tariffs has been really front and center. Everyone has been talking about it, everyone has been thinking about it, and it's always a wonderful opportunity for us to revisit some of the issues that are associated with doing international business.

I might say that it's pretty easy to do international business because there's a few steps here and there. You got to one, have a product or a service, then you got to think about exporting or importing it, and then you got to think about finding a way to ship it overseas or bring it from overseas. And then a way to get paid.  And with us here today in this podcast is, as Jim said, someone who's very important for how to get paid. Brian, welcome to the show.

Brian French:  Thank you, Omar. Appreciate you having me.

The Journey from Lending to International Banking

Omar Ayyash:

Yeah, I always like to start out by asking our guests to just introduce yourself. Give us a quick bio on your background. You're at the bank for some time. I know that we've been working together. Just tell us about who's Brian?

Brian French: 

Sure. Yes. So even though I'm here with World Trade Center of Kentucky, I am a Hoosier, so I will go ahead and disclose that right upfront. But I have been in the financial services industry for over 25 years. I started out my career a long time ago at a company called American General Finance, and we not only lent money, but we collected money. So that's an eye-opening experience when you have to be on both sides of that token. From that point on, I moved into the banking sector after just a few years and spent some time at Fifth Third Bank.  At Fifth Third, I was the branch manager for a couple of their locations over my time there.

One of my former bosses at Fifth Third had moved to Stock Yards and he called me up one day and said, you would absolutely love it over here.  We'd love to have you. Would you consider making a move? And so I went and interviewed and talked with a couple of people and they always had a great reputation in the community, and I thought it would be a really good fit and a good opportunity. So I ended up making the move from Fifth Third over to Stock Yards Bank 19 years ago now, and I moved into our business lending area, which we call “business banking” for small and medium sized companies. I spent a few years doing business lending with Stock Yards, and about 15 years ago, they approached me because they had lost their international banking manager who did sales and met with clients and help them through their international transactions and asked me if I was interested?  I decided that I would take that leap, and I have never looked back. I have enjoyed this so much. It's been a wonderful 15 years and I look forward to many more.

Omar Ayyash:

Excellent. Well, we're glad. One of the things that I've noticed over the years also, when we talk about not just banking, but from the World Trade Center's perspective, the service providers in general have shrunk in this arena. I am so glad that we have someone dedicated for international banking that's a member of the World Trade Center, active with the World Trade Center. And I don't want to say there's few of you in the market, but there is, that's the reality of it. So, what are some of the services that you guys offer for a typical importer or a typical exporter in the metro area?

International Banking Services Offered by Stock Yards Band and Trust

Brian French:

So before I answer that, I would like to go back and just revisit the other part of your comment For people in my world and people that do international banking, it is a very small group, but there are quite a few of us out there just not necessarily in our market. And I didn't realize where these people were or how to find them until I started going to a couple of trade shows. And I stumbled on one that I'm getting ready to go to in two weeks that has a lot of international bankers from around the country, and unfortunately they're not here local. So a lot of our customers in the Louisville and Southern Indiana area don't get as much need and help as they would like. They have to go to out of town banks or larger banks that are not in the market, which I think is unfortunate, but that's really where Stock Yards fills that niche.

As far as our services and what we offer on the international side, we've got quite a robust offering of different products and services, everything from international wire transfers in US dollars and foreign currencies, which there's over 70 different currencies that we offer for outgoing wires, quite a few for incoming wires as well. We also do some hedging for exchange rate fluctuation where we can fix rates for a longer period of time. We do trade documentation with letters of credit, documentary collections we assist with as well. We clear a lot of foreign checks, so we have a lot of customers that deposit Canadian checks, checks from other countries, and we handle those and process those for our customers and try to get credit for them, as quickly as possible.

The other thing that comes to mind that's quite popular, especially this time of year, we get a lot of currency orders for paper currency for people who travel.  Our customer base from businesses to consumers, do a lot of travel and request different currencies for those trips. Everybody still likes to have a little paper money in their pocket even though they've got credit cards and debit cards to pay for services and trip related items. So we do a pretty good amount of that business for our customers.

Omar Ayyash:

Fantastic. Wow. What a comprehensive world we live in in terms of all the different products and services that you offer, whether it's foreign exchange, getting paid, letters of credit, even just like you said, the average person needing euros or needing dirhams (UAE) or Saudi riyals or what have you. You can make that happen right here in our hometown, right?

Brian French:

Yes. Yes, absolutely. We do not carry currency at any of our branch locations, but the vendors that we use for those orders, they typically get the money to us within one to two business days. So we can turn it around pretty fast for customers who are traveling. And of course, we have automated that service so customers can order through our website once they log into their account on the online banking site, they can order it 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So it makes it very convenient for customers to get the money and even they can bring it back in and sell it back if they don't use all of it when they're on a trip. So it's definitely a service that's popular and used quite often.

Unpacking the “Hidden” World of Foreign Transactions with Our Neighbors

Omar Ayyash:

Let's go back to the original thought here. Think of me as your customer. I just walked in.  We're meeting each other. What is the typical conversation that happens in terms of onboarding a customer for international payment?

Brian French:

Sure. So when I meet with a customer for the first time, one of the biggest things that I like to do is to ask a lot of questions. I need to understand what you are doing because so many times I have met with customers and they will say we don't do any importing or exporting. And then later in the conversation when I'm with them and someone else from the banks with them talking about loans or credit cards or whatever, it comes up that they buy some products from Mexico because they'll ask about a wire transfer to Mexico or to Canada. And they really don't think of that as international because there's no ocean between us. It's not overseas.  It's just across the border. And it happens quite often. And so I always try to unpack and specifically ask those questions now because dealing with countries that are even sharing a border with us are international.  There are nuances, there are things that we need to discuss and they need to understand and that we can possibly help them with.

So it's always interesting to have those conversations, but I like to unpack, find out what they're doing, how they're doing it, find out anything that can help me assess the situation and help the customer. Because the two main things that we look for when we are talking to a customer, at least I look for, is can we improve the cost of what they're doing? If they're sending international wires, can we save them some money in some way, shape or form by consolidating some of those wires or using a different currency to save them some money instead of whatever currency they're currently using? The other thing that I like to look for is can we make that transaction more secure? A lot of times people, and I think it's human nature, you find the path of least resistance.  You don't fix something because it isn't broken. So people tend to just continue doing things the same way for a long, long time until they're forced to do it a different way.

And when I talk to those customers, I try to look for things that might be done a certain way, but it's not very secure. It could be a potential loss situation.  It could be a risk situation where they have a concentration of supplies coming all out of one country or from one supplier, and that's 90% of the materials and inventory that they use to sell to their customers. So, those types of things are all red flags and things that I look for and try to help the customer to improve their situation.

Omar Ayyash:

Yeah, like I said at the very beginning, I think of doing international businesses straightforward, and you even highlighted that, especially if you're doing business across the border, that's not overseas in people's mind. And with technology today, there's so many things that are just boop boop, you make it happen, but it's when that one time that risk really hits. And as we're sitting here talking about this, I'm not thinking of a client. I'm actually thinking of a personal friend of mine that was doing business in Afghanistan when four years ago the government sort of toppled and he had a contract there and all of it went in a different direction, and he was the middleman almost. He was not the producer of the product or the manufacturer, he was the middleman. But again, without getting too much detail, someone cashed a letter of credit right away, and then it took a couple of years to make it happen and what have you.

Securing the Transaction: Letters of Credit vs. Documentary Collections

Omar Ayyash:

So, can you explain to us how your level of expertise, not only we're talking about, you've already highlighted how we are managing cost and risk and things of that nature, but to the average person, what is a secure way to guarantee that once you get your product overseas, you get paid?

Brian French:

So one of the best methods, and it's not always the most popular because it costs money. There are some stiff strict requirements with them, but letters of credit.  Letters of credit can be a go-to product that can be used to guarantee payment. When you're dealing with two parties, if you can imagine this situation, let's say I'm a buyer and you're a seller, and I approach you and say, Hey, Omar, I would like to buy X, Y, Z product from you, and I'd like to have it imported into the United States. Well, you don't really know me and I don't really know you. Maybe I was referred, maybe I found your website and I found exactly what I needed. The problem that you have is who's going to pay who or who's going to ship first before payment?

So, a letter of credit can really help offset some of that risk because if I prepay you and you never shipped to me, I'm out my deposit or whatever else I've paid.  Or if you do ship and you've missed all my deadlines, then I may not be able to sell this product because I may have had a contract with someone else that I needed to meet certain deadlines and you ship me my product way too late for it to be useful for me.

There's risks that are inherently involved, and especially with the timeline of importing from other countries, as you know, from countries and other parts of the world, it can take 1, 3, 5 months before that product is manufactured, shipped and arrives at my doorstep. So there's risks that are involved there, and that's where the letter of credit can come in handy.

Obviously, there's some drawbacks to it, which is cost, which are very strict requirements of documentation in order to be paid for that letter of credit. But that's where we might pivot and look at something like a documentary collection, which is kind of a toned down version of a letter of credit where there's not that major guarantee, but there's not as many restrictions there either, and they're certainly a lot less expensive. We do use those with some of our customers and they make sense and they help the customer out. So there are different ways to offset some of that risk and help the customer.

Omar Ayyash:

Right. One of the things for our listeners, the reason we are actually involved in this podcast is to bring resources like Brian to you and get you to understand the value of that. But also we at the World Trade Center here in Kentucky are very proud of our programs like the International Trade Certification Program, which is a three day program, and the first day is very much focused on market access. The second day is focused on payment and legal, and the third day is focused on logistics. And we typically host our international trade certification is twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall. If you are new to the exporting and importing game, please consider joining our international trade certification program.

The Importance of Early Expert Involvement in Contract Negotiations

Omar Ayyash:

Let's talk about the ecosystem, the marketplace that we're working in. You and I are working in the same marketplace, $48 billion of export left the state of Kentucky last year. I think $32 billion of imports are a result of the economy in the state of Kentucky. We're very proud of those numbers. I mean, how is the activity, how do you see in terms of the involvement of our manufacturers and service providers in the international marketplace, how do you feel the marketplace is doing year to year?

Brian French:

I have seen a lot of new customers get involved in international trade, not huge customers. They might be bringing in a few small parts or outsourcing some of the manufacturing and build of certain products and more are exporting, as well. So there's been some diversification amongst our customer base and you and you've got to imagine we serve a small to mid-size client base.

We typically work with clients that do anywhere from a million dollars a year in sales to a few hundred million a year in sales. So some of these companies have never imported or exported. Some do it all the time, so it kind of runs the gamut. But what we are seeing is a slowdown this past year in the number of transactions.  I will say doing this for 15 years, we see this from time to time and it's not unusual because a lot of times projects will be lumped together. Transactions when they reach our financial level, they are sometimes in arrears, customers ordered product three or four or five months ago. Now it's time to pay for it. And then they reach out to us and that's when we first find out about it. It always helps if the customer can get us involved on the front end before they even start down the path negotiating.

Omar Ayyash:

That's the key, right?

Brian French:

It is. And it never fails that a lot of times the negotiation, the emails back and forth, the signed contracts, all of this stuff goes on, and then they realize they have a problem.

Omar Ayyash:

I got one of those calls today, 8:00 in the morning, “We're bringing a product in from Germany and Switzerland, and we don't know what our duties are going to be. Can you help us?” Do you have at least the documents to share with us, anyhow?

Brian French:

And you find out, it all started months ago when these questions should have been asked or looked into and investigated. So unfortunately, we find that quite a bit. But what we see is an ebb and flow. There will be peaks where we're running crazy, just trying to keep up with appointments and keep up with customers’ transactions, and then there'll be times where it'll slow down a little bit, and we've hit a little bit of a slow-down period right now, but I do attribute some of that to what's going on around the calendar. You see vacations and kids back in school and things like that. So things might start to pick up, and especially with it being in arrears a few months, these are maybe transactions that will start to come through that were just entered or ordered in August, might start to pop in October or November, especially for some of our customers who are loading in supplies and inventory for Christmas as the holiday season gets nearer.

So yeah, it's just, it's all over the board and there's no rhyme or reason that I've found yet. Sometimes it is something major or significant like a war or COVID or something along those lines, and you can really point to that. But other times there's just quiet peaks and then there's major differences, valleys that go on, and it's hard to really pinpoint, but here in the last couple few months, it's been a little slow.

Omar Ayyash:

I want to highlight again, the fact that you're here in the market. There's not too many people that have the same title as you have in the banking industry. How does it feel to be a key player in going out and interacting locally with the customer and being able to knock on their door and sit down with them and have a cup of coffee or take them out to lunch or visit their plants? What is the key advantage to that? And I sit at this from both sides, when 10 years ago, 20 years ago, I should say 20 years ago, that was more common here in Kentucky than it is now.

Brian French:

Sure. Yes, absolutely.  I’ve got to say, I really, really enjoy that part of the job, meeting with customers, touring their facilities, asking those questions, being one-on-one in person and helping them through those international transactions is absolutely the best part of my job. I never pass up on an appointment when I can meet them in person versus a Zoom call or something like that. It's always so much better face to face.

But the benefit that I have seen in being with a company like Stock Yards and offering the services that are unusual for a bank our size is that personal touch. There's not a one 800-number to talk to somebody in their FX trading department to send out a wire transfer, and then you get transferred to somebody over on the trade services team that handles letters of credit, or you've got a press this button or that button and then wait for somebody to call you back.

That stuff is different with Stock Yards, and we really try to differentiate ourselves on that service aspect and going out and meeting with clients that might be a small importer or exporter, but somebody that does a $25,000 or a $50,000 transaction today might be doing a $5 million transaction two years from now or three years from now. So we are there to help them through that process and to grow with them as they grow. But we certainly spend time and attention with small customers as well as big customers, whatever their needs are, we like to make sure we zoom in on that and figure that out and try to offer the right products or the right information to help them.

Sometimes that information is not a Stock Yards Bank related product or service. It might be, Hey, you should look at a different freight forwarder, or you should look at hiring A CPA that is more familiar with international taxes. We don't specialize in law, taxes, shipping insurance, any of those things. So a lot of times it's just a referral to someone else that can help them because sometimes, like I said earlier, customers get into this, it worked, but now it's grown and it may not be working or they don't realize the risks and the problems that they're starting to run into.

Omar Ayyash

So it seems like you and I are in a similar arena in the sense that sometimes the reason companies call us is because we know where to refer them. We know the resource, and you mentioned them, just the lawyers, the bankers, the freight forwarders, the insurance companies. I'll take it one step further, the government officials where we're connected to all these people, and that's why Brian and Omar are here to really support you in your international journey, whether it is on the import side or the export side. So Brian, your name is Brian French. Are you fluent in French?

Brian French:

No, I am not. It's funny how often I get a question about how many languages do I speak or do I travel internationally? I get that question all the time. And if the bank would pay for it, I would go anywhere.

Omar Ayyash

Come on, they got to pay for it.  We've got a trade mission coming up.

Brian French:

I don't get to travel much except to all of our branches. We've got about 74 branches in 3 states. So I get out to see those folks and see the interstates between those offices, sometimes. But other than that, I don't leave the country except on my own dime.

Omar Ayyash:

You and I were talking about that the other day. You've been to Mexico recently, right?

Brian French:

Yes, yes. Was there a little over a year ago. Yeah. Yeah. Enjoyed that and always willing to go back.

Practical Tips: Incoterms, Dual-Currency Invoicing, and Local Resources

Omar Ayyash:

Fantastic. Well, Brian, any final thoughts that you'd like to share with us that I haven't picked on?

Brian French:

No, just a couple things I'll throw out there for new importers and exporters, things to keep in mind or to be aware of. Obviously call people like me or Omar on the front end before you start into these transactions. That can be very helpful. But some of the things that I've touched on, even this morning, I had a call with a customer that had some questions and had some issues with tariffs. We got into a conversation about free trade zones.

Knowing your incoterms is very important. I learned from a lot of customers, they don't know what those are, and they think X works fits for everything. So know your incoterms. And one of the last ones is really asking for an invoice in US dollars, and in the foreign currency. A lot of customers, they tend to lean towards paying or buying products in US dollars because it's easy, they understand it, and it's just more relatable. But in some cases, there's a markup and they are paying a premium because they are paying in our currency, not in that manufacturer's currency. So those are just a few things that I kind of throw out there to keep in mind. And if there's anything else, I'm always glad to talk and have conversations.

Conclusion

Omar Ayyash:

Fantastic. Yeah. Brian, how can we get ahold of you?

Brian French:

So my direct number is (502) 625-9949, or you can call or visit any Stock Yards Bank branch and just ask for the international department and they'll get you to us.

Omar Ayyash:

Fantastic. We really appreciate this. Back to you, Jim.

Jim Ray:

Absolutely. I love these topics that we come up with because again, there's so many layers of, I won't say complexity, but just things you really, really need to think through. Brian, as you said, before you even really get going, and especially before you go to paper and actually begin lining up a contract or the contract terms, because there's so many other variables that just for the simple thing of getting paid, you may want to do differently. But once you've signed that document, once you've signed that contract, you're kind of locked into those terms.

It’s better to have a room full of advisors around you protecting your interests, which is a lot of what I heard is that as you're on the ground with people, you're able to ask those second and third level questions that may not be directly related to the currency, but it's other considerations that are going to affect how those terms are put together and how that currency is going to be transacted.  So thank you very much for sharing your information with us today. I really appreciate it.  Omar, always good to see you. Glad to be back in the studio with you.

And if you're listening to this, I hope you found some really good insightful points here. And you can find all of these episodes on the World Trade Center, Kentucky's website, wtcky.org.  Go to the Knowledge Base and drop down the menu, and you'll find the podcast link there. You can also find us out on Spotify, iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Audible, whole bunch of other places.  We'll continue to put these episodes out there. And as you have more and more questions, hopefully we're providing more and more answers.

In closing, I hope you found the information helpful, insightful, and when you're ready to do business internationally, just remember at the World Trade Center, Kentucky, we're connecting businesses globally.

 

To Learn More: 

Website:  www.syb.com

Phone Number:  (502) 625-9949

 

Upcoming WTCKY EVENTS:

• 02/10/26 – Kentucky Industry Legislative Reception
• 04/14/26 – 04/16/26 – International Trade Certification
• 10/12/26 - 10/21/26 – Discover Beautiful Ireland with WTCKY

 

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