Banks have access to an unparalleled amount of data, and are beginning to service clients beyond traditional financing. Anonymised and aggregated spending data can help businesses make more informed decisions.

Consider a corporate real estate company that is looking to open a new shopping centre; banks could support the client with data on the most popular geographical locations based on payment propensity. Once the shopping centre is open, banks can provide information on who is shopping there – and when, and even why.

“It’s an opportunity for banks to go beyond banking, and be a real strategic partner for our clients,” said Matt Burns, Managing Director, Transaction Banking Solutions, Lloyds Corporate & Institutional, at the BAFT Europe Bank to Bank Forum 2025 in Amsterdam.

Watch the full video for more.

The post VOXPOP | Matt Burns on FIs commercialising data appeared first on Trade Finance Global.

• Payments Canada is leading the adoption of ISO 20022 in Canada, to help institutions transition ahead of the November 2025 deadline.
• Key updates include a hybrid address format and a shift from legacy MT messages to XML-based MX messages.

Have you ever looked at your bank statement and seen a payment you don’t recognise? If so, you’re not alone. Traditional electronic payments often only include basic information, like the amount and date, leaving little insight into the payment itself. This lack of detail creates friction for everyone, from individuals managing personal finances to businesses trying to reconcile payments with invoices. 

Enter ISO 20022, the global financial messaging standard that’s set to transform the way we pay by providing richer, more structured data with every transaction. By embedding detailed remittance information, ISO 20022 makes payments more transparent, efficient and useful, not just for financial institutions but for businesses of all sizes and their customers. 

Payments Canada, the organisation which operates Canada’s national payment systems, leads the country’s adoption of ISO 20022 by offering resources, education, training and operational support for Canada’s financial ecosystem. They also manage ISO 20022 usage guidelines for our payment systems in alignment with global standards.

Payments Canada has published updated ISO 20022 message specifications for use on Lynx, Canada’s high-value payment system. These specifications were published alongside a companion document to help financial institutions prepare for changes coming in November 2025. These revised guidelines introduce enhancements, including a new hybrid postal address format developed by Swift’s Payment Market Practice Group (PMPG). 

This hybrid approach combines structured address elements, such as country and town name, with unstructured fields like address lines. It’s a practical bridge that enables organisations to start transitioning toward structured data without requiring an immediate change. Structured address formats will improve accuracy, reduce errors and support critical processes like anti-money laundering (AML) monitoring. 

Another important update is the global shift from legacy MT messages to the modern MX format, which uses XML-based messaging. As of November 2025, the coexistence period of these two message types will end, meaning some MT messages will no longer be supported. Financial institutions, payment service providers and their technology partners are strongly encouraged to prepare for this transition by updating their systems and reviewing how the changes may impact their operations. 

Amidst these transformational shifts in the way we move money, ISO 20022 will embed actionable data into every transaction. As more countries align with global standards, as Canada is well on the way to doing, payments and processes will only grow more swift, fast, and secure.

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To learn more about ISO 20022 and how Payments Canada supports its adoption, visit their website and explore their growing library of educational materials. 

You can also join over 1,900 payment leaders and innovators at The Payments Canada SUMMIT, happening 6-8 May in Toronto. Use promo code SUMM25PCVIP to save $100 off your event pass. 

The post Enhancing the way we pay: Canada’s migration to ISO 20022, and its numerous benefits appeared first on Trade Finance Global.

Corporate lending and trade finance are undergoing a transformation – that much, everyone can agree on. Digitisation, AI, and a market that is in constant motion make the industry one of the most exciting sides of finance, ripe with opportunities as much as challenges. 

However, how to overcome these challenges – especially in a complicated geopolitical landscape – and evolve with the opportunities remains a hot topic.

Finastra, a global provider of financial software applications, hosted its annual Europe Corporate Banking Day along with sponsors Microsoft and Tech Mahindra to discuss just that.  In London, senior executives from across the banking, technology and sustainability sectors came together to discuss the key market and technological trends in the industry: here are 5 of their main insights.

​​1. The market is shifting

Institutional investors and private credit are increasingly dominating the market, with growing appetite for direct lending as borrowers seek the best financing options. However, the lending industry still faces many challenges related to transparency, interconnectivity, inefficiencies and balancing regulation with innovation. 

Global political and economic fluctuations are also creating new trade corridors, requiring institutions to be agile and flexible and driving a shift from payables to receivables finance. 

2. Corporates expect seamless services, but digitisation remains a challenge

Corporates demand banking services that are personalised, digital, instant, and both local and global. However, an audience poll identified digitisation as the biggest challenge and opportunity, cited by 44% of institutions. Across the industry, data remains largely in paper form, creating significant barriers. 

Banks must invest in customer-centricity by implementing truly digital customer journeys, straight-through processing and automation and reduce loan approval time. Technologies such as cloud, microservices, APIs, digital ecosystems, and agentic AI will play an important role in banking’s evolution.

3. Industry expertise is declining 

As the next generation enters the workforce, institutions must capture knowledge from experienced workers before they retire, storing it in a structured database. More admin-focused roles must be migrated, upskilled, and digitized to attract younger talent. An audience poll revealed that talent attraction and retention were the biggest challenge and opportunity for almost a quarter of respondents.

4. AI is here to stay

When implemented correctly, AI can augment human capabilities, deliver automation and increase efficiency and speed in ways that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. Large language models serve as a valuable resource for information, bridging knowledge gaps and facilitating faster decision-making. With AI, institutions can, for example, issue more letters of credit and digital trade agreements and better track, report, and fulfill sustainability commitments. 

AI can speed up document processing, compliance checking, and contract approval times. In the future, we may see autonomous supply chains and transaction processing as well as augmented smart contracts with instant settlement, all thanks to AI’s constant evolution.

5. Tokenisation experiments in trade finance 

Although it has been discussed for many years, banks today are increasingly experimenting with tokenisation. Innovations such as smart contracts and stable and risk coins can drive greater efficiencies in trade settlement and post-trade processing, improve risk management, and provide more effective access to capital. With routers, multiple use cases can be created.

However, despite the opportunities, the lack of industry standards remains a challenge. On the other hand, some argue that standards can stifle innovation and therefore should only be established once market connectivity is achieved.  

The event speakers included leaders from Finastra’s Lending business unit, such as Andrew Bateman, Lekshmi Nair, Robert Downs, Anastasia McAlpine, Sandrine Markham, Elena Sankova and Julian Lee. Other speakers represented institutions such as Microsoft, Tech Mahindra, ING, Loan Market Association, ITFA, Crédit Agricole CIB, Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale and CredAble.

The post 5 takeaways from Finastra Europe Corporate Banking Day: AI, digitisation, and a changing industry appeared first on Trade Finance Global.

The responses assume 2025’s key financial trends: digitalisation through generative AI (GenAI), cloud adoption, and API-driven ecosystems. These come with a strong emphasis on regulatory compliance and environment, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives, and better integrating small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Andrew Bateman: Lenders will focus on driving productivity and efficiency to reduce risks and increase profitability  

Digitalisation: 2025 will see banks increasingly turning to generative AI (GenAI) to “plug lending and technology knowledge gaps and optimise processes,” said Bateman. The technology’s capacity to curate tailored content enables the creation of personalised, interactive learning experiences for upskilling teams. 

“With large language models (LLMs), banks can, for example, process and interpret Letters of Credit and instantly perform checks on the documents to make quicker, and potentially more informed trade finance decisions,” Bateman explained. “In customer-facing applications, corporates could ask for a breakdown of their loans and ways to optimise their finances, thereby enhancing their own user experience while also reducing bank resource requirements.”

Partner ecosystems underpinned by Open Finance principles will be essential. By integrating value-added services through application programming interfaces (APIs)—such as automated ESG scoring, document verification, and GenAI assistants—lenders can maintain competitiveness and reduce time to value. A microservices approach will likely become increasingly prevalent, enabling greater organisational agility and risk mitigation.

Sustainability mandated by regulation: “Sustainable, inclusive, and responsible lending will high on the boardroom agenda in 2025, particularly as deadlines for Section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Act and Basel 3.1 approach. These regulations mandate complex lending data reporting and more accurate risk calculations,” said Bateman.

A growing market demand exists for ESG solutions, including sustainability-linked loans, bonds, and supply chain finance. Bateman said, “Cloud and SaaS will play a big role here, providing the necessary agility to navigate this rapidly evolving market.”

SME integration: “Modernisation efforts are crucial, particularly for SMEs, since manual processes, siloed operations, and outdated technology can render SME lending risky and unprofitable. Banks must consolidate loan portfolios onto contemporary platforms to address this.”

Siobhan Byron: To keep pace in 2025, institutions must reimagine banking through innovative technology and ecosystems

Digitalisation: Institutions must reimagine banking to remain competitive. Adopting the right technology—implemented to maximise innovation while minimising risk—will be paramount. Strong growth is anticipated regarding cloud adoption in the US, UK, Germany, France, Singapore, and UAE, amongst others. Institutions recognise the benefits of cloud and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions in increasing agility and innovation whilst reducing risk, time to market, and overall ownership costs.

“Fintechs, neobanks, and technological innovation have flourished worldwide, technologies are being adopted by the masses at a pace we haven’t seen before, and Open Finance is a reality. This has led to heightened demand for instant, digital, seamless, and personalised services,” said Byron.

Conversely, regions with slower cloud adoption due to regulatory constraints require alternative strategies. “For these banks to remain competitive, they must invest in on-premises solutions that provide robust security, scalability, and data analytics. Ideally, solutions that can easily migrate to the cloud as and when the regulatory concerns are addressed,” said Byron.

A “flexible, modular transformation strategy” is increasingly preferred over the disruptive “rip and replace” approach for upgrading core systems. “More banks will adopt a Symbiosis approach, where a next-generation core banking system is deployed alongside existing infrastructure,” explained Byron. 

Microservices architecture and APIs allow banks to implement functionalities such as lending or Islamic banking services. AI-driven analytics further enhance insights into customer needs, operational performance, and growth opportunities.

ESG: ESG initiatives are increasingly supported by Open Finance ecosystems. “For example, a bank can bring together the services that a homeowner needs to fit solar panels on their house – from advice on selecting the right ones, choosing the installer, applying for the grants, complying with the rules, and so on.” These holistic, customer-centric approaches will continue to drive innovation and competitiveness.

Wissam Khoury: Automated workflows and real-time technology will be key

Regulation: Industry and societal transformations are occurring at unprecedented speeds, creating new opportunities and risks for banks to navigate. Continued volatility in capital markets, increasingly stringent regulatory requirements—including upcoming Basel 3.1 reform deadlines—alongside growing demand for ESG services and technological adoption pressures are reshaping the financial landscape.

AI ubiquity: GenAI will help drive the movement towards fully automated trading workflows. Its ability to analyse extensive historical data and real-time events offers deep market sentiment and positional insights. 

“By embedding natural language capabilities within interactive workflows and GenAI-powered assistants, institutions benefit from streamlined processes and elevated user experiences. As LLMs become a popular search engine for trading and analysis, access to information will become faster, simpler, and more intuitive,” said Khoury. 

“Traders can, for example, retrieve real-time market data, quotes, or transaction details – such as a detailed summary of all the FX spot trades executed – and run APIs to automate tasks such as booking trades and calculating risk measures,” he explained.

By embedding GenAI-powered assistants into trading platforms, institutions can automate tasks like trade booking and risk calculations; decisions about liquidity, cash management, investment strategies—including ESG criteria compliance—and comprehensive risk mitigation will grow faster and more informed.

“Modernisation efforts are also increasingly occurring via a microservices-based environment, allowing institutions to pick and choose functionality while reducing the potential risks of a large migration from a legacy system,” said Khoury.

Collaboration: Recognising that neither banks nor technology partners can independently deliver comprehensive functionality, robust partnership networks and ecosystems founded on Open Finance principles will be instrumental to success.

Barry Rodrigues: As instant payment volumes grow in 2025, banks must prioritise resilience, scalability, and speed of recovery

Digitalisation: From software to instant payments, digital transformation is inevitable.

“More than 80 countries today have domestic instant payment systems, such as FedNow in the US, SEPA Instant in Europe, SIC5 in Switzerland and FAST in Singapore,” said Rodrigues. Consequently, global instant payment volumes are anticipated to continue growing, encompassing both wholesale and retail transactions. 

Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are also gaining traction; over 60% of banks recognise their additional revenue opportunities, and 134 countries are exploring tokenised fiat currency versions that could disrupt cross-border markets.

Regarding payment modernisation, said Rodrigues, “more banks are looking to consume smaller, standalone components that can be easily integrated through APIs. With containerised, composable microservices and cloud deployment, institutions benefit from faster deployment cycles and greater efficiencies, with scalability and agility, while reducing risks associated with large-scale migrations from monolithic systems.”

GenAI will play a crucial role in anti-money laundering compliance, sanctions screening, and fraud detection—increasingly critical for instant and irrevocable transactions. With regulators mandating near-universal payment availability—in some instances up to 99.9%—institutions must upgrade capabilities to maintain compliance and provide secure solutions.

Regulatory deadlines: “With the US Federal Reserve’s March 2025 deadline for ISO 20022 migration approaching, financial institutions must ensure compliance and strategise their instant payment approach.”

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In their words, enhancing operational efficiency, productivity, risk management, and profitability will be top priorities for financial institutions across the industry in 2025. Since digitalisation is inevitable, preparation is vital for those who want to best take advantage of its promised benefits. Regulation has forced companies to reassess strategy, particularly ESG, while remaining innovative and competitive. Finally, SMEs are being increasingly recognised as crucial to the financial ecosystem.

Taking heed of these expected developments could allow financial institutions to best insulate themselves from the usual ups and downs of the industry.

The post Finastra executives share their 2025 predictions appeared first on Trade Finance Global.

• Accessing trade finance is one of the three most significant export barriers for SMEs.
• Technological trickle-downs from larger companies have also been limited.
• Collaborative technologies which incorporate AI and OCR can empower smaller players.

According to Allied Market Research, the global supply chain finance market was worth $6 billion in 2021 and is projected to reach $13.4 billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 8.8% from 2022 to 2031.

So, what are the drivers behind the growth of the supply chain finance market? What are the remaining barriers preventing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in particular from taking full advantage of supply chain finance, and how will new technologies support deep collaboration between different parties and propel the market forward in the next few years?

Market drivers

The forces behind the adoption of supply chain finance include the need for safety and security in global supply chains in an uncertain world. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the fragility of cross-border supply chains, while also encouraging the use of more automated processes instead of manual tasks performed on-site or in banks’ branches. In fact, during the pandemic, automated processes became a necessity.

With Asia-Pacific, notably India and China, expected to grow their economies significantly, the region will provide huge opportunities for organisations engaged in the supply chain finance market globally. Several large corporate enterprises in Asia-Pacific are actively evaluating advanced supply chain finance solutions to strengthen their technology infrastructures and overcome the long-standing issue of high transaction and processing costs.

Another driver is the emergence of strategies by major players in the technology industry to collaborate across the sector to provide differentiated and innovative platforms that will serve to reduce the supply and demand chain gap, currently valued at $1.7 trillion.

Barriers to adoption

According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), inadequate trade finance measures rank among the top three export barriers for SMEs. More than half of SMEs worldwide say they are underserved when it comes to working capital financing.

A second challenge is regulatory uncertainty, including late payments regulation in the EU and changes around accounting and disclosure requirements. A third is a lack of maturity in the understanding of supply chain finance, especially in developing economies. This has traditionally created a level of inertia, holding back progress and impacting corporates’ and banks’ appetite for risk.

Finally, the uptake of technology to support trade finance has tended to be limited to large suppliers and large companies, with the benefits of automation failing to flow down to micro businesses or SMEs. This is because a lot of the platforms used do not provide the capability to onboard large numbers of suppliers at scale.

Organisations also feel less comfortable dealing with high numbers of smaller invoices, many of which can still be supplied as physical documents that need to be managed manually.

The role of collaborative technologies

When done properly and inclusively, supply chain finance is all about managing high volumes of transactions being processed as quickly as possible. It means that technology is imperative to the success of any supply chain finance program, as well as to lower the barriers to entry for smaller organisations.

Recognising this need, major players in the sector are collaborating to offer a feature-rich platform integrated with a proven and comprehensive supply chain finance system. Using integrated solutions, banks can accelerate their revenue growth, expand their businesses and increase customer satisfaction using a single supply chain finance platform.

One such example is the platform created by CredAble and Finastra, which corporates attest to providing the ability to optimise their working capital, maintain real-time liquidity for long-term growth, and access data to support detailed decision-making.

The solution incorporates technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and optical character recognition (OCR) to remove friction from processes such as onboarding and invoicing, opening up the possibility for banks and corporates to include SMEs in their supply chain finance networks.

One example of where this has worked in practice is Axis Bank, a leading private sector bank in India. Having worked with CredAble to develop its supply finance platform, Axis Bank onboarded a white-label version of the software to support its own client base.

Within a year, Axis Bank brought in more than 50 new suppliers to its corporate clients, representing close to $500 million worth of business. The program is ongoing and has demonstrated how transactions can be executed more efficiently while simultaneously satisfying all regulatory requirements.

Examples of successful roll-outs like Axis Bank demonstrate the vital role that the digital public infrastructure (DPI) will play in countries like India in leveraging access to resources such as value-added tax or company real estate records. This will not only improve process automation further and reduce the need for manual checks, but it will also prevent fraud carried out through fake invoicing.

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Vendors like CredAble and Finastra are focused on developing their platforms to meet the needs of all players in the supply chain, from the self-employed farmer at the bottom to the banks and large corporates at the top.

Deep financing is just one of the most exciting trends in this area. Along with adhering to environmental, social, and governance compliance as standard within supply chain finance, all roads really will lead to collaboration in this fast-moving, ever-more inclusive sector.

The post Why all roads lead to collaboration in supply chain finance appeared first on Trade Finance Global.

Technical Committee 68 of the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) for financial services standardisation created a common standard,  ISO 20022, around two decades ago. This development was transformational. It was adopted as the soul and core of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) payments market infrastructure clearing, which kicked off in 2008. Within a few years, the interoperability between the payments of over 15 countries using EUR was created.

Now there are over 70 similar ISO 20022-based payment market infrastructures in the world. Finally, in the international payments context, the SWIFT banking system will move to ISO 20022 in November 2025.  So, in payments or cash management, all market stakeholders know how and with which standard to exchange data between any party in the payments value chain. 

This is exactly what we need to achieve in the trade and trade finance domain as well.  Moving from proprietary Swift message type (MT) standards to openly and freely accessible data standards and detailed documentation of business processes across trade finance lifecycles is essential to ensure foundational interoperability. In short, stakeholders will be able to speak the same data language.  

Five or ten years ago, talking the same data language was a distant dream, but suddenly now, by the work of various trade domain stakeholder groups, the industry is heading well into the same direction. It will be a long and winding road, but the endpoint is in sight.

Straightening the winding road

Everything starts with the business case. It might have been partly the COVID-19 Pandemic which showed that old, paper-based, and honestly tedious manual processes have to be improved. Additionally, the open standards-based approach in the payments domain has likely spurred digitalisation within the trade sector. 

In the context of international trade and trade finance, key components of digitalisation include necessary legal reforms, digital identities with robust digital trust, and access to open standards and development documentation. 

The Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR) addresses the need for a legal framework that permits digital processing alongside traditional paper-based methods. Many technical, functional, and even regulatory solutions are developed for digital trust enablement. Focusing on the last pillar – for all documentation to be openly available at the various community channels – is essential for full digitalisation. Meanwhile, the Standardised Trust community has focused on transparency, ensuring that all documentation of the team’s contributions and outcomes is accessible through various community channels.

Solving these prerequisites makers on the trade digitalisation base work try to offer key building blocks for open and harmonised data exchange between various trade and trade finance parties. 

And finally, all aims to secure the payments in global trade mitigating its risks with digital approach. More complex and challenging geopolitical situations and existential challenges (climate change and various other sustainability risks) don’t allow for slow and paper-based processes on the goods delivery and their payments anymore. 

Ensuring an inclusive transition

A majority of national economic welfare comes from small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This is challenging in the context of global trade, as this group of operators are also the ones unable to invest in the latest digital solutions – unless they are offered in an easy and reachable manner.  

The same is true for financing. Letters of credit and bank guarantees are neither the easiest nor the cheapest instruments. By digitalisation and better risk management, there should emerge easier ways to manage trade risks and lower costs and complexity through higher levels of automation. Facilitating accessibility to various platforms where both actual instrument use and related risk mitigations can be covered as a holistic solution, would also improve the standing of SMEs. 

To reiterate: there is no way to safeguard solutions with legacy or proprietary approaches when digital data and information exchange with a common semantic model are needed.

For Standardised Trust’s part, offering a semantic model for letters of credit and bank guarantee data exchange with an understandable and structured data model explained through clear semantic definitions, aids in SME inclusion.   

Standardised Trust doesn’t develop its own application solutions or platforms, but each solution provider may use its model when planning and designing the data exchange with other relevant trade and trade finance platforms. Digital security and trust are important prerequisites for reliable data exchange and can best be provided and implemented by area specialists. 

To this end, Standardised Trust has created GitHub environments to share technical documentation, and it works as one channel to promote the Standardised Trust artefacts. It includes JavaScript Online Notation (JSON) schemes for the letter of credit and bank guarantee technical data structure for anyone interested in exploring and using it for their own application development. JSON schemes are a good way of designing application programming interface (API) integration interfaces to any existing or new platforms. 

The current trade ecosystem development effort is very promising. The rationale of the trade digitalisation business case has been finally approved, which has likewise improved the willingness to participate in the next steps.  

The Standardised Trust team’s contribution of open, easily accessible, and usable tools and documents may help any party interested in offering digital information exchange capability. Having a semantically common language makes digital communication happen smoothly. 

The post The crux of the trade finance interoperability challenge appeared first on Trade Finance Global.

The sometimes-termed ‘Olympics of banking’ saw the biggest names in banking give speeches and panels over four days covering new developments in the industry, innovation, and emerging themes for the coming year.

Keynote speeches by SWIFT executives and banking leaders promised discussions on the conference’s theme, ‘Connecting the future of finance’. What were the main takeaways from the conference, and did it deliver on its promises? 

The expectations

Kicking off proceedings with their keynote speeches, Yin Yong, Mayor of Beijing, and Lu Lei, Deputy Governor of the People’s Bank of China, spoke about China’s extraordinary economic growth and the development of its finance sector. “Opening up is a defining feature of Chinese modernisation and Beijing’s high-quality development would not be possible without the support and the participation of friends both at home and abroad,” said Yin. 

The conference, which was held in mainland China for the first time ever, brought almost 10,000 people to Beijing, with more following online. The setting made discussions about sustainable development and growth of emerging economies all the more relevant, and highlighted the success story of interconnectedness propelling growth.

The opening of the conference was also an opportunity for SWIFT to celebrate its recent achievements as a prominent technology platform in the industry. “Seeing everyone today from all corners of the globe is a testament to the strong integrated financial ecosystem that we’ve built over the years that has been an essential foundation for decades of economic growth,” said Javier Pérez-Tasso, CEO of SWIFT, addressing the audience.

What banks are talking about

The themes varied widely to cover almost every aspect of payments, banking, trade finance, and innovation. On the technical side, new standards and practices like T+1 settlement and ISO 20022, the new standard for financial messaging being implemented next year, were broadly celebrated as important innovations for the industry.

Cross-border payments, on the other hand, were identified as a field where development was still ongoing. New technologies and increased collaboration were proposed as ways to increase transparency and efficiency, which are sometimes lacking. 

Transparency in cross-border payments is especially crucial because of how vulnerable they are to being used for financial crime. Developments in cybersecurity and fraud were a common topic at the conference, cited by many as a worry, especially as scammers’ techniques become more and more sophisticated. The overall outlook was optimistic, however, as new tools developed by Interpol and others leverage technological developments to prevent fraud. 

New technology was perhaps the hottest topic at Sibos, with artificial intelligence (AI) and digital assets stealing the show. AI was hailed as a new frontier, revolutionising everything from back-end data analysis and risk assessment to customer-facing interactions. Tokenisation, digital ledger technologies, and digital assets were implemented to improve efficiency.

From a broader perspective, themes like sustainability, governance, and G20 goals were important considerations for everyone at the conference. Hardly any discussion ended without a mention of climate sustainability or net zero, with admirable commitments from most institutions to consider social and sustainability aspects just as much as their bottom lines. 

With the backdrop of today’s geopolitical situation, supply chain and trade concerns were also topics of discussion. New trade finance instruments that integrate new technology into outdated processes were hailed as transformative, with resilience and transparency over supply chains also agreed to be important. 

The main takeaways

After four days, dozens of panels, and hours of discussion, what are the takeaways from Sibos 2024?

Starting from its historic location, a topic pervading the conference was growth, especially in emerging markets and with regard to the environment. China and India were both discussed as models for emerging markets, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia, to grow their economies and join the international finance worlds. Institutions like the World Bank have been leveraging new technologies to support SMEs and individual countries to develop and access trade finance, a model that international and domestic banks seem keen to follow. 

Whether discussing blockchain or settlement, the same issues cropped up over and over. Inconsistency and lack of clarity of legislation, especially around new technologies, was frustrating for institutions wanting to bring new products to scale or expand in foreign countries; on the other hand, an excessive lack of regulation and commonly accepted standards could make it difficult to collaborate with similar products, overcrowding the market. Overall, flexibility and resilience, both in regulation and to external challenges like supply chain disruptions, were seen as the key for new and established players alike.

The one thread that linked every discussion was exactly the theme of the conference: connecting the future. Interoperability, collaboration, and global connectivity were perhaps the single most important factors in the future success of finance, with new technologies only flourishing if they are integrated with existing processes and with players all around the world.

Sibos 2025: what next?

Sibos 2025 will be held in Frankfurt, the German financial capital and home of key European Union institutions like the European Central Bank. Hot topics for next year are likely to be regulation, on AI and specific tokenisation projects; social and governance initiatives; and adaptation to any new technology developed between now and the next conference.

For now, the feeling at Sibos and in the industry as a whole is optimistic. Institutions have bounced back from the pandemic better than anyone could hope, staying nimble and resilient in the face of supply chain and geopolitical challenges. New technologies and innovation make firms strive for greatness and work together effectively, with sustainability and social responsibility at the forefront.

The post The Sibos 2024 roundup: Where do we go from here? appeared first on Trade Finance Global.

The project was conducted with participating banks including Lloyds, Emirates NBD Bank, and Federal Bank Limited. It tested the transmission of electronic trade documents between Swift member banks and WaveBL’s platform as part of letter of credit (LC) transactions.

The testing process utilised Swift FIN messages and FileAct transfers while maintaining document possession tracking on WaveBL’s distributed ledger. 

MSC issued two eBLs on the platform – one straight and one negotiable – which were subsequently processed through the banking system.

After the exporter added commercial documentation, including packing lists, invoices, and certificates of origin, the documents were transmitted to the advising bank via Swift’s network. The advising and issuing banks then exchanged the documentation while WaveBL’s system tracked the possession and title of the eBLs.

The process concluded with the issuing bank releasing documents to the LC applicant, including the endorsement of the negotiable eBL to the importer. Participants reported that this enabled payment processing within hours instead of days, allowing importers to collect goods without traditional documentation delays.

Andre Simha, Global Chief Digital and Innovation Officer at MSC, said, “MSC is committed to achieving full digitalisation of our bills of lading by 2030. This involves much more than streamlining processes. It embodies an ambitious vision that requires collaboration across both the shipping and finance sectors.”

The post Sibos 2024: MSC integrates blockchain bills of lading with Swift network appeared first on Trade Finance Global.

Mastercard has launched an ambitious new service to speed up commercial cross-border payments in light of surging international trade flows.

The new offering, dubbed Mastercard Move Commercial Payments, promises to deliver near real-time transactions around the clock.

Unveiled at the 2024 Sibos conference in Beijing, the service comes as cross-border payment volumes continue to grow at double-digit rates, according to McKinsey research, driven by increasingly complex global supply chains and international business operations.

“We’re bringing domestic payment norms to the international arena,” said Alan Marquard, Head of Transfer Solutions at Mastercard. “This represents a step-change in how businesses can manage their cross-border transactions.”

Traditional systems have long been criticised for their opacity, unpredictable timing, and complex fee structures.

The Mastercard solution, which maintains compatibility with the existing Swift messaging infrastructure, offers banks enhanced liquidity management options whilst preserving their foreign exchange and deposit-related revenue streams. A notable feature is its multilateral arrangement, designed to minimise counterparty risk and ensure near-instantaneous transaction clearing.

Early trials of the system are already underway in Britain, with Lloyds Banking Group and UBS participating in a pilot programme that utilises Fnality as the settlement venue, with the system seeing success at this stage.

Mastercard’s new offering forms part of its broader Move portfolio, which encompasses both domestic and international money transfer capabilities. The company says the platform will enable banks to expand their payment corridors and add currencies with minimal additional investment, whilst maintaining their existing correspondent banking relationships.

Fintechs have been making inroads in the increasingly competitive cross-border payments market, so Mastercard Move Commercial Payments could strengthen and enhance Mastercard’s competitiveness.

The post Sibos 2024: New Mastercard product for cross-border payments appeared first on Trade Finance Global.

• Companies in the middle market have become more attractive to banks, according to Visa’s Middle Market Growth Corporates Working Capital Index.
• Working capital solutions need to be tailored more to meet middle-market needs.
• Customised bank offerings could help with this sect of companies.

With banks constantly looking to achieve growth objectives and remain competitive, middle-market growth corporates present an opportunity hidden in plain sight. These companies, which in some cases reach $1 billion in annual revenue, are in fact large enterprises in the making: attractive targets for banks. 

As growth corporates continue to look at working capital solutions as an important part of their growth strategy – helping them to enter new markets, expand their products and upgrade their systems – banks are exceptionally well-positioned to support these working capital needs. 

According to Visa’s 2024-2025 Middle-Market Growth Corporates Working Capital Index, growth corporations have become adept at using working capital solutions, such as working capital loans, bank lines of credit, overdrafts from corporate bank accounts, corporate and virtual credit cards, and invoice financing and factoring, to take advantage of global opportunities—particularly during times of economic uncertainty. 

The Index found that the use of working capital solutions as an important part of a corporate growth strategy, rather than merely as an emergency cash flow stopgap, has increased by 16%. It’s worth noting that 48% of growth corporates that have used working capital solutions saw improved working capital ratios, while one-quarter saw improved cash conversion cycles. 

Additionally, the Index revealed that those growth corporates using working capital solutions are nearly twice as likely to have experienced improvements. Evidently, these are effective solutions in optimising business health and operational efficiencies.

As middle-market growth corporates increasingly view working capital solutions as a much-needed tool for supporting business efficiency and development, banks have an opportunity to bring such solutions to those who have not yet taken advantage of them.

Existing working capital solutions aren’t tailored to middle-market needs 

With a growing need for working capital support, growth corporate CFOs and Treasurers are looking for smooth access to working capital solutions. However, according to the Index, nearly one-third say their working capital options don’t match their business needs. 40% of growth corporates in Central Europe, the Middle East, and Africa cited this as their largest pain point.

This stems from the fact that banks have traditionally focused on catering specific products to small businesses or large enterprises, and not the middle market. To meet the unique needs of this business segment, banks have an opportunity to bring deep industry expertise to the table, moving beyond generic financial services to tailored, sector-specific insights and products. 

Capitalising on a growth opportunity  

Nearly 23% of middle-market growth corporates have expressed a desire for 

banks to better serve their financial needs. They would like to see banks, who have both the lending experience and working knowledge of their industry and region, design working capital solutions that fit their particular business requirements. 

By customising loan products and payment schedules that also sync with client’s dynamic cash flow patterns, banks can deliver personalised financing solutions, thereby winning the trust and business of growth corporates. 

Growth corporates are eager to take advantage of flexible solutions that offer them the ability to tap into external working capital for whatever strategic or tactical purpose is most relevant at that point in time. The Index revealed that despite their popularity, only 36% of growth corporates were able to secure traditional working capital loans over the previous year. Instead, there is a growing preference for solutions that offer operational agility and quick access to funds without the need to apply for a loan when the need for funds presents itself.

Banks can meet this need through solutions with revolving credit, such as bank lines of credit, as well as with corporate and virtual card solutions. The Index reveals the use of corporate and virtual cards is on the rise, going from 10% in 2023 to 14% in 2024. In addition to their flexibility, virtual accounts also come with enhanced tracking features and improved cash flow predictability. Employment of bank lines of credit has also increased by  26% among growth corporates, compared to 19% last year. 

Visa is one such company, through which banks can offer middle-market clients business card and virtual card solutions; these will clients to better manage cash flow and take advantage of external working capital in order to meet strategic growth objectives. Such solutions automate expense tracking and seamlessly integrate with job-costing systems for enhanced efficiency. They address growth corporates’ desire for an easy-to-access, well-rounded financial solution: one that comes from a trusted advisor. 

For banks, offering customised working capital solutions that meet the unique needs of middle-market growth corporates is an ideal way to capture this important market segment, taking advantage of rapidly growing businesses that have been hiding in plain sight. 

The post Striking gold with the middle market: How banks can customise working capital solutions appeared first on Trade Finance Global.