Life’s a gas for Bolero e-bill of lading
Singapore-based digital commodity trade finance fund manager NR Capital has executed the “world’s first-ever” electronic bill of lading (eBL) for an SME in a gasoil floating storage investment transaction.
Travelling at “the speed of light”
The transaction follows NR Capital’s agreement earlier this year to partner with trade finance firm Bolero. This allows NR Capital to use Bolero’s eBL technology, enabling it to provide investment support to companies in the bulk physical commodity markets around the world.
Tom James, co-founder and chief investment officer/CEO of NR Capital, says the “capabilities of Bolero ensures our investors and the counterparties, whose transactions we invest in, benefit from lower costs, faster processing of transactions and tighter security than traditional paper methods”.
He adds that in gasoil storage transactions it can now sell back and transfer legal title for pre-agreed volumes “at the speed of light”.
The transaction involved the NR Capital Trade Flow Fund buying gasoil diesel from its SME customer in storage on a large oil tanker. As part of the transaction, the SME customer digitised and transferred the title and other trade documents over to NR Capital using the Bolero solution, and upon receipt an investment was released to the SME customer. The SME customer will buy back the gasoil as it needs it for its business operations during the agreed investment period.
In other recent news, HSBC India and ING Bank Brussels executed a blockchain-enabled, live trade finance transaction. The blockchain platform integrated with Bolero’s eBL platform to issue and manage an eBL.
Last month, Swire Shipping, a provider of managed liner services, achieved “a significant first” by accelerating a shipment of containerised grain from Australia to New Zealand, using Bolero’s eBL.
Bolero was established in 1998 by Swift and the logistics and insurance industry.
