Trade Finance


TradeIX unveils blockchain platform for trade finance

TradeIX has launched its TIX Platform, the “first open platform” for trade finance powered by blockchain. The platform provides banks, alternative funders, business-to-business (B2B) networks, technology providers and corporates with a way to finance trade-related assets. Like everyone else commenting on trade finance, Rob Barnes, CEO of TradeIX, says the market has “high-cost, high-maintenance, time-consuming […]

Nasdaq fuels new trading system in Poland

Towarowa Gielda Energii (TGE – Polish Power Exchange) has launched a new trading system provided by Nasdaq. Nasdaq has partnered with TGE since 2008 and the new technology allows TGE to expand future activities, including adding commodity and derivative instruments to its business offering. The trading platform features multi-market model support, a range of order […]

Sweden’s SEB selects CGI for trade transaction action

Swedish financial services group SEB has selected Canada-based CGI’s Trade360 solution for trade finance and emerging digital technologies, such as blockchain. CGI Trade360 is a cloud-based transaction platform and includes a portal for end-to-end transaction management, including regulatory compliance. SEB is the first bank headquartered in Europe that will implement the solution. Robert Pehrson, head […]

Amsterdam Trade Bank revamps tech with Misys and Sentia

Amsterdam Trade Bank (ATB) is undergoing a major technology overhaul with Misys as a key partner. The bank is implementing Misys’ solutions from the Fusionbanking and Fusioncapital portfolios to modernise its corporate banking, treasury and capital management (TCM) and trade finance operations.

Sweet sixteen keen on CCRManager’s trade finance platform

Sixteen financial institutions (FIs) are onboard for CCRManager’s new electronic platform, developed for the distribution of trade finance, supply chain finance and working capital assets. Bank of China, DBS Bank, ICICI Bank, Swiss Re Corporate Solutions and UniCredit have signed up as members of the platform to support their trade risk distribution businesses. In addition, […]

Blockchain and Bitcoin round-up: 17 May 2017

The world moves fast, so you need a fast read. A round-up of key events in the blockchain and Bitcoin arena. Featuring Coinsilium Group, SatoshiPay, Aragon, ShapeShift and Kotak Mahindra Bank. Blockchain accelerator Coinsilium Group reveals that SatoshiPay, a “nano-payments” company in which Coinsilium has a 12.08% equity interest, has added PayPal as a new […]

All go for Mizuho and IBM blockchain-powered trade finance

Mizuho Financial Group, Mizuho Bank and IBM Japan have teamed up to build a blockchain-based trade financing platform – with commercialisation edging ever forward. With the platform, Mizuho is aiming to “make it easier” for parties involved in the supply chain, including exporters, importers, shippers, insurance companies, port operators and port authorities, to “share critical […]

Central Bank of Lesotho overhauls tech with Intellect Design Arena

The Central Bank of Lesotho has gone live on Intellect Design Arena’s Quantum Central Banking Solution (QCBS). According to India-based Intellect, the “key highlight was an accelerated implementation with zero errors during migration despite complex integration with multiple external interfaces”. Mothetsi Sekoati, head of business solution at Central Bank of Lesotho, says the project is […]

Blockchain and Bitcoin round-up: 11 April 2017

Make the most of your limited time with this brief blockchain and Bitcoin round-up. Featuring Commercial Bank of Qatar, Russia, Waves Platform, and a farmer. The Commercial Bank of Qatar has completed an initial pilot phase using the “first ever” blockchain network to process international transfers in partnership with ABank in Turkey, National Bank of […]

Hong Kong trade finance goes Deloitte-fully blockchain

Deloitte, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and trade finance banks in Hong Kong have developed a distributed ledger technology (DLT) proof of concept (PoC) for trade finance. Industry participants include Bank of China (Hong Kong), the Bank of East Asia, Hang Seng Bank, HSBC and Standard Chartered (Hong Kong). The blockchain project has created […]

How crude! IBM oils up for blockchain threesome

Natixis, IBM and physical commodities trading group Trafigura have launched the first blockchain solution in commodity trade finance for US crude oil transactions. The distributed ledger platform, built on the Linux Foundation open source Hyperledger Fabric, allows “major steps” in a crude oil transaction to be digitised on the blockchain, ensuring that famous trinity of […]

Tradeshift’s AI Ada aids commerce

Supply chain finance firm Tradeshift has unveiled Ada – an artificial intelligence (AI) layer on its commerce platform. Ada will learn from user interactions, “improve business processes”, and offer contextual information. It is available to third-party developers and interacts with users platform-wide as a conversational interface. Christian Lanng, CEO and co-founder of Tradeshift, says Ada […]

Austria’s Raiffeisen revamps trade finance tech with Intellect

Five Austrian Raiffeisen regional banks and Raiffeisen Bank International will implement Intellect Design Arena’s digital trade finance platform as the group looks to standardise its operations. Raiffeisenlandesbank Niederösterreich-Wien, Raiffeisen-Landesbank Steiermark, Raiffeisenlandesbank Oberösterreich, Raiffeisen-Landesbank Tirol and Raiffeisenlandesbank Vorarlberg Waren- und Revisionsverband regristrierte Genossenschaft mit beschränkter Haftung and Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI, a large banking group in […]

IBM and Maersk first for cross-border supply chain on blockchain

Maersk and IBM have unveiled the “first industry-wide” cross-border supply chain solution on blockchain. According to IBM, 90% of goods in global trade are carried by the ocean shipping industry each year. Their new blockchain solution will do the usual things – help manage and track the paper trail of shipping containers across the world […]

ING and Société Générale oil up on blockchain

ING and Société Générale have used blockchain to carry out a live oil trade between parties with Mercuria, the global commodity trading group. The platform, called “Easy Trading Connect”, is designed for paperless trading and aims to digitalise and standardise commodity transactions in order to “increase speed and efficiencies” in the trade process. The prototype […]

Trade finance and blockchain: the right time

Financial institutions and technology companies have tinkered with trade finance for years, but progress has been slow. Despite automation advances in many areas of financial services, trade finance remains a largely paper-based, manual process. But it could be one area where blockchain technology will be successfully applied.

IBM unveils Dubai blockchain deal

IBM has launched a blockchain initiative for trade finance with telecom operator du, Dubai Customs, Dubai Trade, Emirates NBD and Banco Santander. The plan is to explore the use of logistics solutions for the import and re-export process of goods in and out of Dubai. Using Hyperledger Fabric and IBM Cloud, their blockchain solution transmits […]

RBI investigates blockchain for financial applications in India

The Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT), set up by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has recently issued a whitepaper, “Applications of Blockchain Technology to Banking and Financial Sector in India”. We summarise the report and highlight the key findings.

MIT’s trade finance platform debuts in Luxembourg

Bank GPB International, a member of the Gazprombank group, has selected MIT’s (Micro-Informatique & Technologies) trade finance platform to support its business from Luxembourg. The MIT platform chosen by the bank comprises Credoc, the Swiss firm’s flagship back-end trade finance solution, and TRAC, its middle/front collateral management system, which provide support for transactional commodity finance […]

ICCREA Banca goes on the record about Misys project

Italy’s ICCREA Banca has gone public on its project to modernise its trading business ops with Misys. Misys is providing its FusionCapital Kondor and Summit treasury and capital markets (TCM) solutions to the bank. The Summit system has been running at ICCREA for over a decade. Kondor was selected by the bank in 2013, Banking […]

Nordea fully automates processing of Swift MT798 messaging

Nordea has announced it now can handle the Swift MT798 messaging in a fully automated manner. MT798 facilitates corporate-to-bank (C2B) and bank-to-corporate (B2C) communication for the processing of documentary credits and guarantees.

ABN Amro selects MarkLogic for trade store

Amsterdam-based ABN Amro Bank has chosen MarkLogic Corporation’s database for its trade store – and to integrate trade data across asset-classes and several trading systems. It will provide a consolidated view of data to provide a “single source of truth” for reporting purposes as well as providing alerts when behaviour is outside normal parameters. Jaap […]

MasterCard unveils new blockchain

MasterCard has unveiled its own blockchain as it reacts to arch-rival Visa’s partnership with Chain and seeks to use the technology in payments and trade finance. Its version is currently at the testing stage and offers the usual things in this corner of the fintech world. These include smart contracts – scriptable transactions that automate […]

CBA and Wells Fargo in “world-first” interbank blockchain trade transaction

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), Wells Fargo and trading firm Brighann Cotton have completed the “first” global trade transaction between two banks using blockchain, smart contracts and the Internet of Things (IoT). The transaction involved a shipment of cotton from Texas to Qingdao, China, using a distributed ledger – Skuchain’s Brackets system – for all […]

Citi’s treasury and trade goes digital with eSubmit

Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions has launched electronic document submission (eSubmit) for account opening. The service is available in “select” Western European countries and allows clients to complete the account opening process by returning electronic versions of documentation rather than paper. Sabine McIntosh, global head of account services product, Citi Treasury and Trade Solutions, says […]

Infosys blockchain powers ICICI Bank and Emirates NBD trade finance ops

ICICI Bank and Emirates NBD say they have successfully executed the “first” banking transactions using blockchain in international trade finance in India and the UAE respectively. The development saw the exchange and authentication of remittance transaction messages as well as original international trade documents related to purchase orders, invoices, shipping and insurance, among others, electronically […]

Bolero powers Bank of China’s first-ever electronic credit

Bank of China (Hong Kong) (BOCHK) has used Bolero’s ePresentation solution for its first-ever electronic back-to-back documentary credit, reducing the time required to help a large iron ore shipment from Australia to China. The transaction was arranged jointly with NAB (National Australia Bank) and China Guangfa Bank.

Blockchain: the theme for 2016

Blockchain and distributed technology have been hot topics at Sibos this year, with a raft of announcements from banks and fintechs alike. One of the areas identified as of most promise is trade finance – an area of banking that is rife with paper-based processes.

Commerzbank processes first live BPO between Germany and China

Commerzbank has processed its first transaction settled by a bank payment obligation (BPO) between Germany and China. The BPO covers the export of chemicals between Commerzbank’s customer (the buyer), Trigon Chemie in Germany. The seller is an unnamed customer of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in Beijing. Trade business between the two was previously […]

Barclays and fintech start-up Wave pioneer blockchain trade finance transaction

Barclays and fintech start-up Wave claim to have become the first organisations to complete a global trade transaction using distributed ledger/blockchain technology. Barclays is now calling on other banks to adopt Wave’s platform. “This can develop into an industry-wide improvement in how trade documentation is managed,” Barclays urges. The letter of credit (LC) transaction between […]

Temenos and BACB go public on core banking software project

Temenos has officially confirmed it is implementing its software at British Arab Commercial Bank (BACB). As reported by Banking Technology back in February, BACB opted to replace its legacy core system, Misys’ Midas, with T24. Temenos is also supplying its digital channels (Temenos Connect) and analytics (Insight BI) products to the London-based corporate bank. Temenos […]

R3 blockchain consortium gets smart on trade finance

R3 and over 15 of its blockchain consortium member banks have “successfully” completed two prototypes using distributed ledger technology for smart contracts. The banks designed and used self-executing transaction agreements – aka smart contracts – on R3’s Corda distributed ledger platform to process accounts receivable (AR) purchase transactions, aka invoice financing or factoring, and letter […]

Bank of America Merrill Lynch and HSBC team up for blockchain-based trade finance innovation

Bank of America Merrill Lynch, HSBC and the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) have teamed up to develop a blockchain prototype for trade finance innovation. The consortium uses the distributed ledger framework provided by Linux Foundation’s open source Hyperledger Project; and the proof of concept has reduced manual processing in letter of credit transactions. […]

Object Trading platform goes live at Montreal Exchange

Object Trading, a multi-asset trading infrastructure provider, says its Direct Market Access (DMA) Service Platform is now available at TMX Group’s co-location centre for access to the Montreal Exchange (MX). With fully managed services provided at TMX Group’s co-location centre, Object Trading says it improves relationships between the buy-side and sell-side, enabling them to access […]

Saxo Bank partners with China’s Lufax for trade finance

Saxo Bank has formed a new white label partnership with Lufax, a Chinese internet finance company. The partnership, expected to launch within the next three months, will see Lufax use the trading technology SaxoTraderGO. The bank says SaxoTraderGO will provide Lufax’s clients access across the trade cycle – from pre-trade, execution and post-trade services for […]