Radiant World Lenders Include ZKB, Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank
(Bloomberg) — Raiffeisen Bank International AG and Zuercher Kantonalbank are among the lenders that have provided credit to iron ore trader Radiant World, according to people familiar with the matter.
The former, an Austrian lender with strong presence in the trade finance business, and the latter, a Zurich-based bank — each had a credit line of around $100 million to Radiant World, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing banking matters.
Representatives for Raiffeisen and ZKB declined to comment. A spokesperson for Radiant World said the company wouldn’t comment on individual counterparties.
Some of the largest commodity-trading firms have stopped dealing with Radiant World amid concerns it provided banks with falsified documents about iron ore trades, Bloomberg News has reported. Two of the company’s key lenders — Deutsche Bank AG and KBC Group NV — have frozen some of its funds, Bloomberg reported last week.
Among other banks, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA has said it has taken a provision on some of its exposure to Radiant World, which it said is around €200 million in total. Jefferies Financial Group Inc.’s Point Bonita fund has an exposure of less than $300 million, Bloomberg has reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Radiant World has previously denied wrongdoing and said it “conducts its business to the highest commercial and legal standards.”
Filings in Singapore also detail a variety of firms that had charges against a Radiant World entity at various points, although the documents don’t show whether the firms still have exposure.
Lenders whose entities appear on such filings include Barclays Plc, Societe Generale SA, Mizuho Financial Group Inc., Mariner Investment Group, TradeXBank, Mauritius Commercial Bank, Arab Bank Switzerland, Qatar National Bank, United Overseas Bank, Banque Cantonale de Geneve, Nexent Bank Suisse, BBVA SA and Singapore trade finance specialist Incomlend.
Bloomberg last week reported that Arab Bank Switzerland had stopped issuing new letters of credit for Radiant World’s iron ore shipments, while Societe Generale had been reducing its exposure to the company for several months after becoming aware of allegations of fraud in the market.
A spokesperson for Qatar National Bank said the lender “has no financial exposure to Radiant World.” UOB’s chief financial officer declined to comment on its Radiant World exposure on an earnings call last week.
Representatives for the other companies declined or did not respond to requests for comment.
Raiffeisen has traditionally been a significant player in trade finance due to its presence in the Russian and Ukrainian markets, and due to its roots in the Austrian agricultural cooperative sector. It was among the first western financial institutions to do business in Communist eastern Europe, before the fall of the Iron Curtain.
ZKB had 667 million Swiss francs ($826 million) of unsecured loans to commodity trade finance in 2025, its largest exposure among climate-sensitive industries.
Commodity traders like Radiant World rely on credit from a wide range of suppliers, customers and financiers to handle huge quantities of goods whose value often dwarfs their own net worth.
The private company grew quickly in recent years to become one of the world’s largest traders of iron ore with annual revenues of about $12 billion. Now, uncertainty about Radiant World’s business is already being felt in the iron ore market, where prices last week fell to the lowest in more than a year.
–With assistance from Taiga Uranaka, Macarena Muñoz and Alfred Cang.
©2026 Bloomberg L.P.
