Launched on October 8 during the Mena Supply Chain Finance Forum in Dubai, Key Trade Documents and Data Elements (KTDDE) addresses a critical pain point: the underlying transaction data is often the same at any given point along the supply chain, but, as a result of divergent commercial practices, standards adoption and national regulations, such information often ends up being inputted and rekeyed in a variety of different ways.

These duplicative data entries not only slow down processes and introduce potential for error, but also hold back interoperability across networks and trade platforms.

Although in an ideal world, each trade document would be produced in one single format that every user around the world would adhere to, in practice this is unlikely. As such, the DSI is taking a pragmatic approach to standardisation.

“Given the reality of multiple electronic versions of trade documents in existence, whether due to national regulations or commercial practices, the DSI Industry Advisory Board holds the view that DSI should continue to focus attention and encourage the alignment of standards for machine-readable data elements as a building block for interoperability across networks and platforms,” the report says.

To achieve this, the DSI’s KTDDE working group is mapping all of the trade documents identified in the Cross-border Paperless Trade toolkit, co-published by the World Trade Organization in collaboration with UNESCAP and UNCITRAL in 2022, as well as the information needed to fill them out, and identifying existing standards that can be used to harmonise each individual data element.

The eventual aim is to create a framework where data can be entered once and automatically populate across all necessary documentation without the need to translate it between different systems’ languages.

“By creating transparency and accessibility around trade documents and their core data elements, we aim to enable a more rapid digital transformation among industry,” says Pamela Mar, managing director of the DSI.

The KTDDE report scrutinises 14 foundational documents for transport and logistics, finance and payment processes – customs bonds, letters of credit, purchase orders, payment confirmations, export cargo shipping instructions, rail consignment notes, road consignment notes, sea cargo manifests, air cargo manifests, airway bills, seaway bills, ship’s delivery orders, bills of exchange and promissory notes. They join an existing set of seven documents studied in an initial report in March, bringing the total to 21 standardised references.

In the analysis, the KTDDE working group defines the attributes shared across these documents – sorted into 12 categories such as references, dates, transport modes and goods – into a key trade data glossary, taking as its base the United Nations Trade Data Element Directory, also known as ISO 7372.

By enabling a shared understanding and eliminating definition conflicts, the glossary ensures that the “who”, “what”, “where”, “when” and “how” of trade – such as the shippers, the goods, the destination, the date and the means of transport – are universally recognised, not just in one segment of the journey, but end-to-end.

“The DSl’s continued efforts to expand the understanding of digital standards in international trade represent a significant step forward in streamlining global commerce,” says Robert Beideman, chief product officer at GS1 and chair of the KTDDE working group. “By promoting data reusability and consistency across supply chains, we are facilitating more efficient and secure transactions for businesses across the globe.”

However, there is still some way to go before this near-utopian vision can be realised.

The report reveals significant variations in the level of digital readiness and interoperability among different document types.

Among issues identified are the absence of a consistent global standard for party identification in letter of credit transactions.

“Names and addresses, traditionally used for identification, do not align with the requirements of digital ecosystems, where precise identification is crucial. Establishing a universal identifier could simplify party validation, enhance anti-fraud efforts, and enable advanced analytics for combating financial crime,” the report says.

For bills of lading, there has been more progress towards standardisation and interoperability, with industry stakeholders like Bimco, DCSA, and FIATA aligning their standards to the UN/CEFACT Multi-Modal Transport Reference Data Model, which provides clear definitions of the data elements needed.

Purchase orders, meanwhile, remain largely unharmonised, with the DSI analysis finding that fewer than 200,000 companies worldwide utilise industry standards published by GS1 EANCOM and XML.

The absence of consistent, machine-readable data elements across these documents leads to multiple issues.

It affects the speed and reliability of transactions, creates barriers to entry for smaller players, and ultimately reduces the overall competitiveness of global trade operations. The transition to a fully digitalised trade framework is reliant on eliminating these disparities and fostering an environment where interoperability is the norm, not the exception.

The DSI is now calling for standards development organisations to ensure that their deliverables include data definitions that are semantically interoperable with those of others. It also recommends that industry and private sector actors implement globally recognised standards where they exist, adding that “a comprehensive digital transformation cannot occur unless all major links in the value chain collaborate”.

The KTDDE working group says it invites participants in the trade ecosystem to road-test its recommendations and provide feedback.

By the first quarter of next year, the group will deliver an analysis of the final batch of 16 key trade documents, before launching an interactive online tool that maps data and standards for the end-to-end supply chain.

The post ICC initiative unveils blueprint to standardise language of trade, sidestep data duplication appeared first on Global Trade Review (GTR).

The round was led by QED Investors, with the participation of new investor Nazca and existing investors Quona, Flybridge, Maya Capital and One VC.

Founded in Colombia in 2021 by Santiago Molina, Andres Ferrer, and Tomas Shuk, Finkargo aims to accelerate and fund international trade operations for SMEs in Latin America, with a focus on import finance. The company’s platform offers an automated credit scoring model, access to capital and logistics and financing processes, enabling small and medium-sized importers to boost sales and control logistics.

In April 2022 it received a US$7.5mn seed investment in which Quona, Flybridge, Maya Capital and One VC participated, followed by a US$75mn structured credit line from impact investment fund Community Investment Management in November.

So far, Finkargo is focused on the Colombian and Mexican markets, where it says it has “empowered over 250 customers to partake in global commerce”, extending financial support to over 2,000 import operations valued at US$200mn across a network of 430 suppliers spanning 40 countries.

“Because these are SME importers, they often don’t have credit terms with their suppliers because they don’t have any negotiating power,” Molina, the company’s CEO, tells GTR. “We give them the working capital to execute purchases, optimise their supply chains, negotiate better conditions, meet minimum order quantities and achieve a better negotiating position with suppliers all around the world.”

He adds that Finkargo provides lending directly, rather than acting as a broker, although it also offers third-party cargo insurance to importers through the platform, as well as additional services such as verifying suppliers and shipments.

“We have the merchandise as collateral, and we understand each one of the transactions and the logistics behind them because, unlike other specialty lenders, we’re logistics experts. We’ve brought together these two worlds to offer everything an importer really needs in order to operate efficiently,” he says, adding: “These are also not just net importers. In fact, 30% of our importers transform and export again, so we’re basically providing the oxygen to keep them connected to global value chains.”

With the new capital raised in this round, Finkargo now plans to further expand its operations in Colombia and scale up in Mexico.

Discussing the investment, QED Investors principal Camila Key Saruhashi points out that SMEs in Colombia and Mexico import over US$30bn in volume from Asia yearly but struggle to access capital to manage the 60- to 120-day gap it takes from payments to shipment arrival.

“The limited number of banks that have trade finance practices almost exclusively focus on large traders, given the historically manual processes associated with underwriting these types of loans,” she says. “Finkargo is bridging the gap by leveraging data and technology to offer an essential import financing product.”

“Demand is huge,” Molina says. “Mexico represents almost half of international trade for Latin America, but eventually we want to create an ecosystem for the entire region. There’s a lot to do beyond just giving access to capital, which is where we are starting to focus. Beyond insurance, we have business intelligence and data so that SMEs can make better decisions, and we are starting to partner with other players in the ecosystem like freight forwarders and customs agencies, to better optimise the flow of money and data.”

The post Finkargo eyes financing boost for LatAm importers following US$20mn round appeared first on Global Trade Review (GTR).

The 364-day, US$210mn secured facility covers import finance as well as the funding of inventory, receivables, and hedging positions for the trading business of its wholly owned subsidiary, BB Energy Asia.

The deal was oversubscribed, having initially launched at US$150mn. Natixis CIB acted as facility and security agent, while the other participating banks were Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Apicorp, Arab Banking Corporation, Crédit Agricole CIB and MUFG.

Komgo acted as digital agent for the transaction. The deal’s participants used the Swiss fintech’s smart document solution, Trakk, as a one-stop, verifiable source for all syndicate members, removing the need for wet ink signatures and enabling paperless transactional drawdowns, mark-to-marketing, verification of signers, and processing of collateral in a digital format.

Meanwhile, using SGTraDex’s data highway, BB Energy exchanges essential documents through Komgo’s platform, streamlining borrowing base drawdown with financing banks.

“The facility is underpinned by a cutting-edge digital trade platform through our partnership with Komgo and SGTraDex, reflecting BB Energy Group’s commitment to transparency and operational integrity,” says Anbu Ramasamy, regional CFO for Apac at BB Energy Asia. “Embracing digitalisation is paramount to a strong governance and gives liquidity providers confidence to extend financing more securely and efficiently.”

This is the first transaction to be completed under a memorandum of understanding signed between BB Energy Asia, Komgo and SGTraDex in August, which the trio said at the time would “pave the way for an industry-wide shift to efficient, more transparent structured trade finance operations” and provide “unparalleled verifiability, fraud detection and risk mitigation capabilities”.

Launched in June last year, SGTraDex is a public-private initiative that seeks to connect ecosystem partners in the local and global supply chains via a common data infrastructure. Using APIs, it facilitates the mobility of information between various parties involved in trade, which otherwise would typically be unavailable or cumbersome to access – enabling them to detect issues such as the use of bogus documents or attempts by companies to fraudulently obtain financing twice from the same cargo.

“SGTraDex provides the essential data exchange infrastructure, ensuring security and interoperability, allowing all parties to be connected to the larger ecosystem in a more efficient and secure manner,” says Kelvin Ling, head of business development and operations at SGTraDex. “This is a significant development in the industry which showcases that digitalisation can bring about enhanced connectivity and foster trust and transparency in trade.”

The facility is the latest of several involving Komgo. In 2021, the fintech came in as digital agent on BB Energy’s first US digital borrowing base facility, worth US$500mn, which the trader topped up last month. Meanwhile, in May this year, it was involved in a US$175mn Asia Pacific energy transition borrowing base facility for commodities trader Mercuria, as well as a US$600mn facility in support of Gunvor Singapore’s Asian oil business.

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Seven in 10 Asian companies expect to see rising demand for their products and services in the coming months, according to the latest edition of the Atradius Payment Practices Barometer for Asia, a poll of 1,800 businesses across China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam carried out during Q2 and Q3 this year.

The survey also revealed a strong commitment to address the challenges posed by deteriorating business-to-business (B2B) payment practices, which are reflective of the vulnerabilities affecting the global economy and marketplace.

More than 50% of companies in the region said they have increased efforts to collect overdue B2B invoices during the past 12 months, and this is bearing fruit: late payments across Asia declined by 12% over the past year, while bad debts fell to 5% of all B2B invoiced sales, from 7% in 2022.

In addition, companies opting to sell on credit are granting longer payment terms to B2B customers as a means to help them navigate cashflow difficulties, Atradius found, with these terms now averaging 60 days from invoicing. Meanwhile, almost half are turning to trade credit insurance to bolster their risk management framework.

“The flexible approach to credit management demonstrated by Asian businesses, which involves trade credit insurance for 47% of companies polled, is particularly relevant because it enables them to seize opportunities in a growing market while safeguarding against potential credit-related risks in B2B trade activities,” says Andreas Tesch, Atradius’ chief market officer. “[This] showcases their resilience and forward-thinking approach to business operations and cash flow risks mitigation.”

The findings by Atradius are in line with the World Trade Organization’s forecasts for the region’s trade over the next year. The supranational body currently expects Asia’s trade growth to fall below an already sluggish global average for the second year running this year. However, for 2024, it predicts Asia will roar back to life, with a world-beating 5.5% increase in exports.

The post Asia’s businesses boost efforts to unlock trapped working capital ahead of expected demand surge appeared first on Global Trade Review (GTR).

Founded in 2019 by banking veterans Sandra Nolasco and Carmen Marín, Twinco engages with large corporations, mostly in the retail and apparel sectors, and offers funding to their suppliers worldwide, advancing up to 60% of the purchase order value upfront and paying the remainder upon delivery.

The company will use the funds from BBVA Spark, the Spanish bank’s business unit for high-growth companies, to expand its lending activities.

“This facility will support the company’s portfolio growth, expanding both the number of customers and geographies,” says Nolasco, Twinco’s CEO.

To date, Twinco has provided over US$250mn in finance to more than 150 suppliers in 13 different countries, including Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Pakistan, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam.

“We are very pleased to support Sandra and Carmen, two entrepreneurs who have reinvented, with Twinco, the way supply chains are financed on a global scale by incorporating innovative environmental and social criteria into their supplier financing model,” says Roberto Albaladejo, head of BBVA Spark.

To enable it to provide financing at the purchase order stage – rather than against invoices as is generally the case in supply chain finance programmes – Twinco has developed its own risk model that uses machine learning to analyse suppliers’ commercial performance and ESG data in addition to the more traditional financial metrics used in credit decisioning. As a result, it says that it is well-positioned to provide its customers not only with funding but also with data-based insights that can help SMEs produce products responsibly.

“The value added Twinco is providing to customers stems from the combination of its unique funding solution with business intelligence that provides a holistic overview of supply chain risk,” says Marín, Twinco’s COO. “Technology and machine learning provide invaluable data insights on commercial, financial and ESG suppliers’ performance, giving our customers a state-of-the-art supply chain risk management tool.”

This is the latest successful fundraising round for the company. In January this year, it raised US$12mn in an equity and debt round, with investors including Quona Capital, Working Capital Fund, Mundi Ventures and Finch Capital.

With this latest cash injection, Twinco says BBVA Spark now becomes one of its “key financial partners”, joining EBN Banco de Negocios and Zubi Capital.

The post Twinco lands bumper debt facility to expand sustainable supply chain finance appeared first on Global Trade Review (GTR).

In a memo to its members dated October 27 and seen by GTR, the network says it will be discontinuing operations permanently as of November 30, and that users have until then to complete or migrate any outstanding transactions and download any required data before losing access to the platform.

“For over three years, we have provided the global trade industry with a best-in-class digital trade solution and take pride in what we have accomplished. We are very grateful for your support and belief in our vision to transform the industry,” the memo says, adding: “The investment climate has been incredibly challenging in the past year, and like many companies, it has affected our ability to raise funds and sustain our operations.”

GTR understands that Contour, which counts among its shareholders Bangkok Bank, BNP Paribas, Citi, CTBC, HSBC, ING, SEB, SMBC and Standard Chartered, as well as non-bank backers Bain & Company, CryptoBLK, R3 and Tis Intec, had sought to close a fresh funding round this year, which would have given it an additional two years of runway.

However, following months of negotiations, by late September, it became clear that not all of the banking titans behind the initiative were willing to top up its coffers, and none were willing to lead the round. Attempts by the management team to attract venture capital funding also failed to bear fruit, due in part to the company’s unwieldy ownership structure, CEO Carl Wegner tells GTR.

“Having a large group of investors without a lead investor makes it hard. It would be the lead investor who would manage the board and manage the round, and we’ve never had that,” he says.

As such, while Contour – which was set up as a standalone legal entity in 2020 – has not yet run out of cash entirely, the company has made the decision to call it quits.

“While we are still running, we would rather close things down earlier than we absolutely need to, so we can make sure everyone’s paid and made whole,” says Wegner. “We have always played at that level and we’re not going to finish owing people money. That’s not right. I want to make sure everyone feels that we closed properly.”

Industry buy-in

Contour started life as Voltron – a prototype trade finance application built on R3’s Corda blockchain platform in mid-2017. Launched a year later at Sibos in Sydney, it then underwent an extensive period of testing by over 80 banks and corporates, with trials in 17 countries and transactions spanning commodities, petrochemicals, energy, metals, retail goods and textiles, before going into full live production in October 2020.

The platform’s central offering is the letter of credit (LC), for which it managed to reduce processing time by as much as 90% during testing, from an average of 10 days to under 24 hours end-to-end. With a steady stream of banks signing up – Japan’s MUFG and South Africa-headquartered Absa CIB came on board as members in August this year – Contour seemed to have sufficient buy-in to make a real difference.

“We didn’t require people to become investors to join, because we wanted to democratise the platform to enable both big and small banks to participate,” Wegner tells GTR. “We did a really good job there: we have nine bank investors and 22 bank members, and the non-investors always felt completely comfortable because we kept that parity where everyone was the same. The commitment was that everyone gets the same price per country, so there was no arbitrage, and you could have competitors in the market. The small banks liked the fact that they could get the same service for their clients as the large global banks.”

Contour also succeeded in bringing onboard corporates across different trading corridors and industries, such as Posco International, South Korea’s largest trading company, which in June this year joined the network to digitise the end-to-end LC settlement process across its ecosystem of more than 80 subsidiaries in sectors including energy, steel, agricultural resources and component materials.

“On our platform, customers were willing to key in the data, because they saw the benefit of that collaborative nature,” says Wegner. “It’s interactive; they can co-draft with their beneficiary and their issuing bank, which saves sending documents back and forth. The feedback we got was that clients and banks loved the interoperability, and you don’t get that with a bilateral application.”

But despite an apparently obvious business case, bringing the cumbersome, paper-based trade system into the digital age has proven to be a more difficult task than many had anticipated.

A growing list of failed initiatives

In recent months, a once-exuberant landscape of collaborative initiatives has become littered with failures, including AP Moller-Maersk and IBM’s TradeLens, a blockchain-based supply chain ecosystem for containerised trade, Marco Polo Network, a consortium built on R3’s Corda that counted more than 30 banks as backers and members, and we.trade, a joint-venture open account platform owned by 12 European banks.

Contour, which bought we.trade’s rulebook following its demise, had positioned itself as “leading the charge” in the consolidation of the trade digitisation space. Plans for the short term included a move into open account trade as well as the launch of an embedded offering that would see a white-labelled version of the solution sit behind banks’ portals – essentially turning it into the “rails” for digitised trade finance.

Nonetheless, although the network achieved success in terms of initial take-up, the current tough environment for trade – and concurrent heightened internal competition for increasingly scarce budget within financial institutions – meant implementing the solution beyond a few trial runs became less of a priority for the banks involved.

“Proofs of concept are always 100% successful. What would be more impressive is someone saying they’d done the 10th transaction or 100th transaction, because that means you’ve actually done something. Commercialisation takes a lot more work and it takes time,” says Wegner.

“Integrating Contour into the back-office system involves cost and resources, and while some banks did it, and this was a trend that was happening, we just needed more time. Given another year, we would have been integrated into four or five more banks, and that would have changed things because Contour would have become the default for them.”

For the time being at least, though, banks seem to be turning away from wholesale, market-wide transformation initiatives in favour of creating their own in-house digital platforms. This approach, Wegner believes, is a mistake.

“This is a huge setback for the industry. Building things by yourself is not going to work. It has never worked before. The industry needs collaborative projects, particularly at a time when trade is becoming increasingly fragmented,” he tells GTR.

Although recent developments such as the entry into force of the UK’s Electronic Trade Documents Act have been hailed as a transformational opportunity to make trade a more modern, digital affair, Wegner calls for a “long-term commitment to commercialisation” to turn potential into reality.

“We are going to have to figure out a way to have the industry work together somehow, and there needs to be some leadership to shepherd everyone into moving in the same direction,” he says.

A glimmer of hope remains

From the end of November, Contour’s users will have to find alternative means to transact, which will likely mean returning to paper and emailed documents. Nonetheless, some hope remains that the network’s vision could yet be realised.

In the memo sent to its members, Contour says that it is “in discussions with other entities” to manage or take over the network, adding that “there may be a potential restart in the future with additional network and features”.

“Personally, I’m trying to find a successful home for the software, the network, and the amazing team of people we’ve built. We’re hoping that we can have some positive news soon, but to be prudent, we’re taking this decision now,” Wegner tells GTR.

The post Exclusive: Contour to shut down as bank shareholders pull funding appeared first on Global Trade Review (GTR).

Released this week, the 2023 edition of the Hinrich-Institute for Management Development (IMD) Sustainable Trade Index (STI) finds evidence of “slowbalisation” amid rising geopolitical tensions, increasing protectionism and shifting global supply chains – making it harder for countries to harness the positive elements of trade while mitigating the negative.

“The global trade system is experiencing fragmentation that threatens to erode the achievements of 70 years of globalisation,” says Kathryn Dioth, CEO of the Hinrich Foundation. “Protectionist trade policies are being implemented under the guise of responding to the headwinds of post-pandemic inflation and geopolitical tensions.”

“With global trade challenged by geopolitical and health issues, the work of streamlining supply chains and reducing costs has become paramount, even at the expense of social or environmental considerations in global trade. Our index sheds light on how this trade-off is being played out,” adds Arturo Bris, director of the IMD’s World Competitiveness Center.

Published annually, the index measures the readiness and capacity of 30 nations to participate in the international trading system in a manner that supports the long-term goals of economic growth, environmental protection and societal development. Scores are determined by averaging each economy’s performance across 71 individual indicators.

This year’s results show that the world’s largest economies, which are best placed to lead efforts to reverse slowbalisation, are instead among the key countries that are raising tariffs and non-tariff barriers, and slowing trade liberalisation.

Meanwhile, among smaller trading nations, the STI finds negative changes have emerged in societal indicators such as forced labour and trade in goods at risk of modern slavery, as well as environmental indicators such as energy intensity. These developments pose challenges to how global trade can be leveraged to achieve positive outcomes for human and natural capital, the index’s authors say.

“We must be cognisant of the challenges that global trade is facing,” says Chuin Wei Yap, the Hinrich Foundation’s international trade research programme director. “The STI is a blueprint of how we see the world and how we see policy as managing, in equal parts, the huge accelerative benefits of trade along with its potentially quite devastating effects on society.”

Of the 30 trading economies studied for the index, the two that managed to achieve this balance were, for the second year in a row, New Zealand and the UK, which place first and second in the overall index ranking.

Across the three main pillars of environmental, societal and economic indicators, New Zealand remained at the top for environmental considerations in trade, driven by its outstanding performance in air pollution (first), environmental standards in trade (first), and share of natural resources in trade (second). The UK comes second in this pillar, although places first overall on the environmental standards in trade metric.

Canada holds the top position in the societal pillar for 2023, up from second place last year. The rise is rooted in its continuously robust performance in labour standards, social mobility, and evenness in economic development, although there is some room for improvement: its lowest ranking in this pillar is in trade in goods at risk of modern slavery (15th) which is driven by its import of goods at risk (24th). Myanmar remained at the bottom of the rankings in this pillar. The stagnation in the country’s performance in the pillar is largely the result of declines in metrics relating to political stability and the absence of violence, a rising risk of goods produced by forced labour or child labour, and trade in goods at risk of modern slavery.

Singapore takes the top spot in the economic pillar of the index, moving up from second place in 2022. Hong Kong, which held first place last year, has fallen to third in the ranking, with the decline stemming from issues such as export concentration, rising tariff and non-tariff barriers and monetary policy intervention. Sri Lanka has dropped to the bottom of the ranking from 26^th last year in this pillar due to feeble performance in consumer price inflation, real GDP growth and trade liberalisation.

In last place overall in the sustainable trade index is Russia, which ranks 25th in the economic pillar, 24th in the societal pillar and 30th in the environmental pillar.

“At the Hinrich Foundation, we believe global trade is an essential ingredient for economic growth. But for trade to be sustainable, its economic, societal and environmental outcomes must be in balance,” says Dioth. The Hinrich Foundation is calling for “prompt dialogue” about the future direction of trade policy to set the world back on a path of sustainable globalisation.

This is the latest call for action to stem the tide of fragmentation in trade.

The World Trade Organization’s (WTO) World Trade Report 2023, published in September, warned of the emergence of “a more fragmented world dominated by regional trade blocs” as growing hostility between the US and China results in a “tit-for-tat escalation of import tariffs”, and policymakers turn to trade restrictions to ensure food security in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, WTO director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala called for WTO members to “seize the opportunity to strengthen the global trading framework by avoiding protectionism and fostering a more resilient and inclusive global economy”, adding that, for the world’s poorest countries, economic recovery will not be possible without a stable, open, predictable, rules-based and fair multilateral trading system.

The post Globalisation gains at risk as fragmentation threatens sustainable trade growth: report appeared first on Global Trade Review (GTR).

Under the partnership agreement, Accelerated Payments will leverage Funding Friends’ referral network to roll out its invoice finance services to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and mid-cap companies in the UK, with funding lines ranging from €0.5mn-€10mn on a non-recourse basis.

“The partnership with Funding Friends highlights the broadening of our referral partner network, now working with brokers, banks, and financial and debt advisory firms with a clear focus on fostering an ecosystem where UK businesses can grow internationally – offering flexible working capital solutions that can be tailored to suit their needs,” says Lee Baty, Accelerated Payments’ head of UK.

“We are excited about this partnership as both firms have a solid approach to helping businesses grow globally,” adds Damian McGann, executive chair at Funding Friends.

Since its launch in 2017, Accelerated Payments has provided €1.5bn in financing for over 120,000 invoices, covering 450 clients and 1,800 debtors across 45 countries.

In April this year, it set up an inventory finance arm aimed at providing financing for SMEs to purchase goods from international suppliers, with a particular focus on companies operating in the US, UK, Ireland and Canada as well as the Americas trade corridor.

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The Respondents’ Playbook 2.0: A Correspondent Banking Relationship Guide serves as a roadmap for respondent banks on international anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) standards. It outlines the decision-making process of correspondents establishing new and reviewing existing relationships and the measures that respondents may take to increase the likelihood of a favourable outcome.

Correspondent banking relationships are crucial for the financing of global trade, as they enable banks that may not have a presence in certain countries to still facilitate transactions, such as issuing or confirming letters of credit, in those regions.

However, although both the volume and value of cross-border payments have surged in the last decade – the Bank of International Settlements estimates increases of 61% and 37%, respectively –the number of correspondent banking relationships has fallen by 29%.

This decline is largely due to a heightened focus by banks on regulatory, reputational and financial risks from AML and CFT. With compliance costs increasing, for many banks, the risk presented by a sprawling network of interbank relationships – particularly in emerging markets – is too great to bear.

The Baft playbook, which reflects the expectations and recommendations of a majority of the 20 largest global correspondent banks, clarifies correspondent bank expectations and provides constructive guidance for respondents to reduce their perceived financial crime compliance risk.

The new document replaces Baft’s first set of guidelines, published in 2019, and includes adjustments to bring the guidelines in line with current regulatory concerns and correspondent bank risk appetite. The 2023 version also includes information on the migration to the new ISO 20022 standard for financial messaging which will boost bank screening and filtering capabilities via a single format for transactions across different systems, platforms and geographies.

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Founded in 2009, StratumFive provides vessel intelligence to more than 13,000 ships globally. Its central offering is the Podium5 informatics platform, which is aimed at enabling maritime operators to save time and fuel, and reduce emissions. The platform provides fleet monitoring, regulatory compliance, performance analytics and voyage optimisation, including capabilities from FleetWeather, a US-based weather routing and analytics company that StratumFive bought in 2019.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. As part of the acquisition, StratumFive founder Stuart Nicholls and CEO Ross Martin will join Pole Star in newly created leadership positions.

Pole Star says the combination will expand its fleet coverage, as well as complement its PurpleTrac and MDA vessel compliance and tracking solutions with advanced model-based route optimisation.

“We are excited to welcome StratumFive into the Pole Star family,” says Bob Skea, CEO of Pole Star Global. “By joining forces, we are reaffirming our commitment to innovation for our customers. The Podium5 platform not only enhances our capabilities in vital voyage analytics, but also accelerates our efforts with vessel emissions transparency and planning.”

In recent years, Pole Star, which has traditionally focused on sanctions risks within maritime trade, has incorporated a more explicit focus on sustainability into its vessel screening services. In 2021, it bought Vasanda, a London-based technology startup that specialises in sustainability risk assessments of commodity transactions, while in 2020 it partnered with CarbonChain to track individual vessels’ greenhouse gas emissions, warning that some ships’ carbon emissions are five times higher than other similar vessels.

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