Amsterdam Trade Bank streamlines trade finance ops with CargoDocs
Amsterdam Trade Bank (ATB) has signed for CargoDocs DocPrep+ from specialist trade finance solutions provider essDOCS.
Trade Finance
Misys out, Temenos in, at Persia International Bank
London-based Persia International Bank, a joint venture of two Iranian financial services groups, Bank Mellat and Bank Tejarat, is undergoing a tech revamp.
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.
Seven European banks join forces for blockchain platform for SMEs
Seven European banks – Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Natixis, KBC, Rabobank, Société Générale and UniCredit – have agreed in principle to develop a blockchain-based shared platform for domestic and international commerce for SMEs.
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 […]
MIT on TRAC with OCBC Bank for trade finance
Swiss vendor MIT (Micro-Informatique & Technologies) has signed a contract with OCBC Bank to support its commodity trade finance business with its TRAC (Trade Risk Active Control) system. Maggie Cheong, head of transaction and collateral management, global commodities finance at OCBC, explains the bank’s choice: “We have chosen the TRAC system as it provides the […]
Persia International Bank implements new trade finance software
London-based Persia International Bank is replacing its legacy trade finance system, supplied by Surecomp. The new system is Eximbills, provided by Surecomp’s rival, China Systems. Surecomp’s product, IBSNet, has been running at the bank’s London and Dubai locations for over 15 years. It is integrated with the bank’s long-standing core banking platform, Misys’ Bankmaster. It […]
New core software deal for Temenos in the UK
British Arab Commercial Bank (BACB) is looking to modernise its core software. It is believed the bank has settled for a new platform – Temenos’ T24. BACB is a London-based wholesale bank that specialises in trade finance and treasury services to Africa and the Middle East. The bank has been in the system selection mode […]
Finding the right fit
Trade finance plays an important role in helping to grease the wheels of the global economy. A largely paper-based process, effort is being put into finding ways to automate and improve processes for banks and corporates.
The emerging threat of trade-based money laundering in trade finance
Money laundering is a global phenomenon, evident in many parts of the world. Techniques have ranged from simple bulk cash movements across borders to more sophisticated techniques hidden in trade transactions. As trade between the Middle East and the rest of the world continues to grow, the threat of trade based money laundering becomes more […]
Commercial lending and supply chain finance under pressure from non-bank players
Digitally enabled supplier finance networks and alternative lenders now pose a significant threat to every part of the commercial lending business, with 84% of banks seeing pressure on the pricing of loan products as a challenge.
RBC makes first cross-border payment on Canadian RMB Trading Hub
Royal Bank of Canada has made the first cross-border Renminbi payment on Canada’s new RMB Trading Hub through the hub’s designated clearing bank, Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (Canada).
The e-invoicing play for banks
The replacement of business processes based on paper documents with the exchange of information in electronic form is a highly beneficial global trend, and the competitiveness of Europe’s economic activity will benefit from this migration.
Earthport opens low-value payment route to China
Cross-border low-value payments service provider Earthport, has opened a new payment route into China to support trade payments into the region.
Corporates look for new funding options to release trapped capital
Corporate treasurers are increasingly looking beyond traditional of finance to a wider range of alternative funding options that support their working capital requirements, including supply chain finance, trade receivable securitisation and factoring.
… and financial warfare is unleashed
The threat of banks de-risking and exiting regions and businesses in fear of sanctions-related fines is upon us, said Juan Zarate, the ex-deputy national security advisor for combating terrorism to US President George W Bush. Zarate was speaking at a Standard Chartered session yesterday morning about his new book, Treasury Wars: The Unleashing of a New Era of Financial Warfare.
Trade Finance: partnerships and differentiation are key
Farid Akhundov, chairman of the executive board of PASHA Bank, discusses how the bank is working to achieve its ambitions in corporate banking in the Caucasus region
BNY Mellon backs London to lead European race for offshore RMB
London and Singapore are fast closing the gap on Hong Kong in the race to become centres for offshore renminbi business and capitalise on Beijing’s ambition to make the RMB a global currency.
Goods in transit: how lessons from retail can transform the financial data supply chain
Regulatory mandates call for the financial services industry to collaborate and rethink its data supply chain to tackle systemic risk and improve transparency. Looking at how the retail industry manages its supply chain could hold the key.
Europe surging ahead in RMB internationalisation
Europe now represents 10% of total Renminbi payments in value worldwide and is leading adoption beyond Asian countries, with four European countries in the top 10, excluding China and Hong Kong, according to Swift. Overall, the RMB strengthened its position as the seventh most used global payments currency and accounted for 1.57% of global payments.
MiFID II: hearing, skirmishing and planning for battle
The reason Europe calls it a regulatory ‘hearing’ is that it is an opportunity to hear views from both regulators and the market. Of course, that’s just part of the experience as many other senses are triggered when 400 people are locked in a basement for 2 days, deprived of connectivity, food and caffeine …
Nordea rolls out web-based trade finance tools
Nordic financial services group Nordea has gone live in Frankfurt and London with a web-based trade finance solution, which it says will help to strengthen its international trade finance business.
New solutions for optimising cash in the retail industry
Managing cash in stores remains a major challenge for retailers – trapped cash hinders working capital management and is unavailable for investment, debt repayment or business expansion. But new ways are being developed to manage store cash …
Swift: capitalising on customer collaboration
Swift’s head of banking talks about how the industry co-operative plans to build services based the data flowing through its interbank messaging systems.
