First trades go live on we.trade blockchain platform
The first live trades have taken place on we.trade’s platform over the last five days, when ten companies traded via four banks, signifying the first commercially viable open account trades on blockchain tech.
Omer Ahsan, head of customer propositions at HSBC and we.trade board member, says: “Fluid Pumps used the platform to complete an open account transaction with a customer in Finland, GPS Food Group completed an intercompany transaction that included the use of a bank payment undertaking and also executed two open account transactions with Paragon Quality Foods.”
The we.trade solution is built on the IBM blockchain platform, powered by Hyperledger Fabric, and leverages smart contracts.
“The next step will be getting buy-in from additional banks and their customers in Europe and further afield,” says Roberto Mancone, chief operations officer, we.trade.
we.trade was established by Deutsche Bank, HSBC, KBC, Natixis, Nordea, Rabobank, Santander, Societe Generale and UniCredit for cross-border trade.
The aim of this project is to help these banks “gain efficiencies and provide greater transparency in live transactions by convening a large network of regulated banks through blockchain”.
At present we.trade is operating across 11 European countries.
