Gurkirpal S Ahluwalia, head of trade finance at Newgen Software Technologies Ltd, describes how the company’s low code platform offers agility, automation and compliance ease, as it aims to revolutionise complex trade processes for financial institutions.

 

Trade finance is complex. An oft-repeated cliché. But do financial institutions need to keep getting entangled in the wires of complexity? The logical answer is no.

There are a multitude of variables to consider in the world of trade finance. For every single trade finance transaction, there are at least 15 to 20 stakeholders (including participating banks, brokers, fintechs, trade associations, port authorities and more) who could be spread across processes, departments (including credit and risk, compliance departments, trade operations, FX treasury, etc) and geographies. Nearly 4 billion documents and pages are circulated in documentary trade alone. And then comes the most pressing challenge: ever-changing domestic and international regulations. It’s easy to go wrong. Legacy systems and disparate point solutions add to the woe of trade financiers.

So, how can financial institutions navigate this huge complexity?

For those who are willing to search for it, there is a logical approach to the apparent chaos, but it requires a significant shift in perspective. Technology plays a crucial role in managing the intricacies of trade finance:

From a monolithic black box to becoming agile and lithe to accommodate quick changes in systems (be it designing critical applications, responding to market changes faster, and more) without dependency on vendors, without recompensing to long-drawn projects, and without any threat of destabilising critical systems or processes.

Technology consideration: A microservices-based tech stack on a low code platform can help manage changes quickly for all trade finance needs.

From automation in silos to end-to-end automation to track all types of trade instruments from the submission stage to closure while being able to monitor with a comprehensive dashboard and exception management.

Technology consideration: Unifying front-to-back-end and hyper-automating the entire trade cycle process will ensure straight-through processing of real-time transactions. Plugged-in business rules will enable seamless data and content integration for efficient processing.

From broken trade origination to making it 100% digital and automated to digitise all trade finance instruments (documentary credits, documentary collections, open account payments, SBLCs and bank guarantees). Banks can smoothly process requests from multiple channels (including web portal, mobile, Swift, email and branch) and auto-extract and validate data for Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits (UCPDC), Uniform Rules for Collections (URC), International Standard Banking Practice (ISBP) and more.

Technology consideration: Automation of the origination process with a low code platform with content management capabilities can effectively save 65% of the efforts spent on transaction origination. This is achieved by digitising paper documentation in an electronically driven workflow environment and automated validations, checks and approvals.

From silos to a connected ecosystem to efficiently perform checks for fraud, blacklisting, anti-money laundering, and duplications.

Technology consideration: An API-first low code platform can connect core with multiple applications like treasury, anti-money laundering, sanction screenings, credit bureaus and more. This will enable a seamless information flow across departments, and employees need not go through multiple applications on different systems, thereby improving productivity and weeding out chances of error.

From a disconnected user experience to an orchestrated journey to create a seamless experience (for customers and bank users) through end-to-end workflow automation.

Technology consideration: A low code automation platform can help orchestrate user journeys right from origination on the customer portal to frictionless document submissions, checks and verifications, real-time customer communications like Advice and SWIFT messages, and more.

From compliance nightmare to unlocking easy adherence with configurable built-in rules. Easy configuration and updating of dynamic compliance requirements, such as ICC, UCPDC, URC, and ISBP, without any business disruptions, can help save trade operations capacity by removing manual compliance updates.

Technology consideration: A low code automation platform with in-built rules management system can help make changes on the fly without any business disruption or productivity loss.

 

Takeaway

Although many banks have automated their transaction processing, the trade origination component still remains partially automated.

A trade finance platform built on low code with workflow and document management capability has numerous advantages:

  • It can automate the entire trade finance cycle, resulting in a much shorter turnaround time.
  • It is configurable, which means that it is not hard coded, and banks can make changes as per their evolving business needs and market dynamics without any disruption.
  • Built-in configurable rules and logic make charge calculations easier, plugging any income leakage.
  • Smart decision-making powered by AI and intelligent case routing will help prioritise the express processing of premium customers.
  • Document management capability can extract data from all structured and unstructured content and perform automated doc-check and validations.

 

Newgen’s trade finance platform, built on low code, is designed to address current and future trade finance challenges.

Crafted with precision by industry experts, Newgen brings the best of process automation, content services, customer engagement, AI and blockchain capabilities packaged into one unified, comprehensive platform that will keep banks ahead of the competition.

Ready for the mind shift? You can reach our trade finance experts at info@newgensoft.com

 

About Newgen

Newgen is the leading provider of a unified digital transformation platform with native process automation, content services and communication management capabilities.

Globally, successful enterprises rely on Newgen’s industry-recognised low code application platform to develop and deploy complex, content-driven and customer-engaging business applications on the cloud: from onboarding to service requests, lending to underwriting and for many more use cases across industries. Newgen unlocks simple with speed and agility.