EBRD To Digitize Trade Finance Through we.trade’s Preview Offering Platform

According to the latest news, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is willing to facilitate its support for the digital transition of trade finance by working with test transactions between the National Bank of Greece, TBC Bank in Georgia, and Nordea on the we.trade digital trade platform. The tests will occur through we.trade’s Preview Offering Platform, with special attention on access to trade finance for small firms.

This Preview Offering Program allows banks and customers across the world to participate in test transactions with we.trade member banks. Banks will also get extensive functional, information technology (IT), sales and marketing, and legal and compliance consultancy administrations, designed to their level of digitization. This is How Fintech Is Driving Financial Growth To SMEs.

Currently, we.trade is sliced by 12 European banks, technology firm IBM, and CRIF, an international commercial credit and business information provider. The platform is based on the Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger Fabric and operates on the IBM Blockchain Platform. 

The EBRD has assigned digitalization one of three needs under its present five-year procedure. To initiate the steps towards its strategies, the Bank is associating with digital service providers and banks to aid digitization efforts in trade finance within and beyond the areas in which it invests. The introduction of comprehensive digital solutions is essential to ensure that local banks and their small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) customers across the EBRD areas are not lagging in the race of digital transformation.

The EBRD is also operating with the International Chamber of Commerce Banking Commission and the International Trade and Forfaiting Association to propel the adoption of legal frameworks to empower digital trade and trade finance services.

As per Francis Malige, EBRD Managing Director, Financial Institutions, “We are glad to support the Preview Offering Platform on we.trade for National Bank of Greece and TBC Bank and to provide their test transactions with Nordea. The EBRD is focused on supporting the digital transition in the areas where it invests. As the first multilateral development bank to establish support for trade finance in 1999, we are satisfied to be at the cutting edge of development once again.”

Aris Divaris, National Bank of Greece’s Assistant General Manager, operations, “National Bank of Greece is glad to associate with the EBRD, Nordea and TBC Bank in operating the test transactions on we.trade. We efficiently aid Greek firms’ endeavors to enter foreign markets, helping them in keeping a suitable flow across their physical and financial supply chains. National Bank of Greece has preferred digitization in trade finance as one of the most crucial goals within the bank’s transformation program, focusing on providing advanced value-added solutions to the Greek market.”

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Tamara Khizanishvili, Director, Trade and Structured Finance Department at TBC Bank explained, “We at TBC Bank are committed to technological advancements and are pleased to be a part of the Preview Offering Program. We are grateful to the EBRD for this opportunity. TBC Bank operates with the largest players in the market and we are focused on progressing technologically- this once again confirms our standing as a leader in the Georgian market.”

As per Lena Hedengran, Acting Head, Trade Solutions at Nordea, “The preview possibility of we.trade platform is an essential driver for banks and other parties to evaluate, study, and verify we.trade’s value proposition, as well as how to apply the new organization's prospects to their unique business sector needs and requirements. We are extremely happy with the association with the National Bank of Greece and TBC Bank, provided by the EBRD, to utilize the possibilities with these essential trade corridors in a new dimension.”

National Bank of Greece, TBC Bank, and Nordea are members of the EBRD’s Trade Facilitation Programme (TFP), introduced in 1999 to encourage foreign trade to, from, and among the economies in which EBRD invests. The program will help EBRD provide guarantees to the global confirming banks and short-term loans to selected banks and factoring firms for on-lending to local exporters, importers, and distributors. The TFP, at present, includes over 100 partner banks in 30 economies where the EBRD invests and over 800 confirming banks globally.

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