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 […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
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.
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 […]
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, 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. […]
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.
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 […]
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.
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.
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.
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.
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’s head of banking talks about how the industry co-operative plans to build services based the data flowing through its interbank messaging systems.
As trade flows shift across regions and economic headwinds blow, the trade finance business is facing challenges. Anne Queree examines how correspondent banking networks are adapting
Technology will contribute to the development of the supply chain finance market, with the growth of e-invoicing systems seen as a significant market accelerator by the majority of the banking community.
Banking software provider Misys has incorporated global processing into its trade finance solution, TI Plus, in a move that the firm says will help banks gain a competitive advantage through improved customer service and reduced costs.
