Newcomer Anglo-Gulf Trade Bank to shake up trade finance market
Anglo-Gulf Trade Bank, which claims to be “the world’s first digitally-enabled trade bank”, has been unveiled in the UAE. It will open for business in early 2019.
The new bank will utilise new/emerging technologies and tools, such as big data analytics, distributed ledger and cloud computing. These will help it offer “a client-centric trade banking service to a broad range of corporate clients to dramatically reduce costs, risks and improve efficiencies in financing trade”.
It has already joined Marco Polo, one of the largest networks of banks in the trade finance market leveraging blockchain technology (the initiative is coordinated by TradeIX and R3).
With its HQ in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) financial centre, Anglo-Gulf Trade Bank says it aims to address a global trade finance gap with $1.5 trillion. It will facilitate trade between the Middle East, Asia and the UK, and intends to open additional offices in the UK, Saudi Arabia, India and elsewhere in Asia.
Anglo-Gulf Trade Bank launch; from right to left: Daniel Gould; His Royal Highness, The Duke of York, KG; Edmund Rowland; His Excellency Ahmed Ali Al Sayegh; Waleed Al Mokarrab Al Muhairi
“Anglo-Gulf Trade Bank will have a real impact on the way that international trade is carried out,” states Jeremy Parrish, chairman of the bank’s board.
“There is a huge opportunity for a pioneering trade finance provider that delivers simple and intuitive digital trade-related products and value-add services in real time in close collaboration with ambitious companies looking to take advantage of digital tools available to optimise international processes and streamline working capital solutions,” he continues.
“This is because the current trade finance industry is ripe for fundamental change, with incumbent banks offering complex, largely paper-driven products to a limited number of corporates. However, significant opportunities exist today to rethink operational processes, technologies and trade banking services themselves.”
Anglo-Gulf Trade Bank is a joint venture between AGTB Holdings Limited, a Rowland family controlled company, and Mubadala Investment company.
