IBOS member bank UniCredit’s Raphael Barisaac, Global Co-Head of Trade & Working Capital Solutions, explores how digitalisation is taking hold in trade finance.
Despite a long history of heavily paper-based processes, trade finance is beginning to move into a new era of digitalisation – characterised by faster and more efficient processes.
Raphael Barisaac highlights that banks are at the heart of these developments as they look to create a fully digital experience for clients and themselves, with this leading to several banks creating their own digital trade finance platforms.
He goes on to argue that the digitisation of some of the otherwise lengthly processes benefits businesses tremendously. Treasurers can simply log on to their bank’s digital platform, and gain access to a comprehensive suite of their entire corporate business portfolio, with access to an array of trade finance products.
In addition, he notes the lack of standardisation in interactions between businesses is also a factor holding back the speed of trade finance processes.
Mr Barisaac highlights that digital authorisation isn’t completely devoid of risk and responsible platform providers will have to adapt to mitigate these risks.
He concludes by suggesting that although there are encouraging steps forward for trade finance, the task of digitalising is not one that can be accomplished overnight.
Read the full article in Global Trade Review here.
