About Us
Why Choose BTFG?
Truly Global
Each of our customers benefits from a combination of our international expertise and detailed local knowledge. We have built a global network that allows us to offer distinctive solutions to customers around the world and to cooperate across national and functional boundaries. Our local presence gives us an added advantage because we have access to real time updates straight from our own professionals.
Customized Programs
BTFG approaches every client situation with a fresh perspective. Our detailed analysis goes beyond financial statements to who you are as a company and where you want to go because we recognize that even two firms in the same industry have a different approach.
We are committed to providing programs tailored to each of our clients’ specific financial situations. We create solutions that provide buyers and sellers with the highest level of assurance of the best possible financial services.
Ongoing Relationships
At BTFG, we do whatever is takes to continually exceed our clients’ expectations. We strive to understand all aspects of your business, with an eye on developing a relationship that will last for years, not weeks or days. It is our commitment to building partnerships that allows us to consistently deliver a higher standard of service.
Our History
Who is BTFG?
Barrett Trade & Finance Group (BTFG) was founded by Joseph T. Barrett in 1995 as a partnership and later evolved into a Limited Liability Corporation chartered in Illinois. BTFG is also the global parent company for Intercontinental Growth Strategies, a trade credit insurance broker, headquartered in Chicago.
BTFG was originally created as a domestic leasing company focused on small ticket equipment for local businesses. While leasing is still an aspect of the business and the sizes and structures of leases now cover a much larger range, Barrett Trade and Finance Group has now expanded beyond the borders of the United States. After recognizing the need for international financing options to facilitate U.S. manufacturers’ sales, BTFG turned its attention to the foreign markets.
A customer who needed to finance an equipment purchase for his factory in Mexico started BTFG on the path to cross- border financing. This loan request brought into focus a growing need for financing overseas and the inherent difficulties in accomplishing cross-border transactions.
The principal challenge for US lenders is to perfect a security interest in the underlying collateral once it has moved outside US territory. US Export/Import Bank Loan Guarantee programs, private sector insurance policies, Letter of Credit financing and many other techniques have allowed BTFG to develop the right customized solution for each of our clients.
Today, BTFG is doing business in more than 80 countries, and has the capability to conduct transactions in nearly every country. Our experience and customized approach to lending granted us the ability to become a licensed lender for The Export-Import Bank of the United States of America (Ex-Im Bank).
By analyzing each individual transaction, BTFG provides U.S. manufacturers with the best financing alternative available today to secure the foreign sale. BTFG’s marketing oriented approach has led it to become a reliable financing source for cross-border transactions.