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- Consumer confidence in banks, credit card providers and investments remain stable as demand supercharges digital finance says Toluna research
- Nuapay data reveals strong consumer demand for Open Banking and better payment experience
- US banks see IT modernisation as a way to improve customer experience
- Risk mitigation in global trade depends on digitisation-Andrew Raymond, CEO, Bolero International comments
- Juniper Research new study says the volume of B2B payments facilitated by non-banks will exceed 53 billion in 2022, from a COVID-related low of 38 billion in 2020
- CMA issues fifth publication over 3 years of the service quality league table of personal and business current account providers
- Barclays says scammers take advantage of COVID-19, cashing in on nations’ uncertainty
- S&P Global report says financial market infrastructure sector's earnings likely to cool off In second half
- Global banking market capitalisation slumps by over 30% amid pandemic says Buyshares research
- Digital wallet spend in Europe & North America to increase by 40% in 2019, finds study
- Juniper forecasts mobile money transactions will exceed 200 billion by 2024
- Banks can save the world from climate change, says former UN climate chief
- Research by NatWest reveals gender divide over attitudes to saving
- Europe’s big bank problem: too much capital is trapped in the US, says Scope
- Later-Life lending market set to almost double in the next 10 years, finds report
- Barclays/Cebr report challenges nation to think differently about wealth
- Fifth of UK investors looking to debt investment, new research reveals
- Regtech will play a more important role in PSD2, says Mitek
- Banks turn to Fintech partnerships to improve customer experience, finds Fraedom
- New industry code to tackle fraud must deliver, says Which?
- New TTF report highlights loss of trust in financial services
- Arxan highlights financial app vulnerability epidemic
- SAS asks whether banks really need to choose between operations and innovation
- Which? raises alarm as almost 1,700 free ATMs become fee-charging
- Financial wellness affects half of peoples’ mental or physical health, finds report
- Study finds traditional financial institutions embrace Fintech disruption
- Grass is greener for environmentally friendly businesses, finds Barclays
- Prospective homeowners would consider a 40-year mortgage to escape renting, finds Santander
- Millennials’ needs are changing the face of banking industry, says new report
- FS is putting consumer data at risk by failing to protect mobile apps, says Arxan
- A lack of belief in their ability holds 28% women back in work, says Cambridge & Counties
- ‘Which?’ reveals Scotland has lost over a third of its bank branches in eight years
- Next downturn unlikely to be as bad as 2008, according to S&P
- FCA reveals findings from first cryptoassets consumer research
- US consumers favour single mobile app for banking and payments
- Banks suffering major IT shutdowns every day, ‘Which?’ reveals
- The US will be a key offshore centre in 2019, says GlobalData
- Debit industry changes markedly in 10 years of the Debit Issuer Study
- UK's ‘Big Five’ face ‘too big to compete’ as small challengers secure stellar returns
- Banks as vulnerable now as before crash, says new study
- Leverage ratio a constant conundrum for European and US banks, says SNL
22nd December 2020
Risk mitigation in global trade depends on digitisation-Andrew Raymond, CEO, Bolero International comments
"Increased fraud and the uncertain outcome of Brexit have combined with the pandemic and trade friction with China to shoot risk mitigation very high up the agenda concerning cross-border trade transactions.
Even before COVID-19 struck, a handful of well-known banks started to withdraw from financing oil and gas transactions because of the operational risk and losses they incurred.
Confidence was rocked by scandals involving Hontop Energy (Singapore) Pte and Agritrade International which reportedly inflicted losses of more than $9bn on global lenders, as well as the high-profile Hin Leong oil trading case in Singapore.
COVID-19 has not only caused massive disruption to trade, but it has also opened up opportunities for fraud, prompting warnings from the US Attorney General, US security agencies and Interpol. Tech giant IBM has also warned how the current anxiety and economic uncertainty create opportunities for fraud as behaviour becomes less rational.
The closure of offices during anti-coronavirus lockdowns in many areas of the globe has added hugely to risk, exposing the vulnerability of paper-based trade finance processes. Banks had previously worked on many different business continuity scenarios, but none in which nearly all their staff would have to work out of office for long periods of the year. The pandemic meant corporates were confronted with their paper documents being stuck with couriers, postal services and yes, even banks.
Although we now see how fragile paper processes are, the susceptibility has always been evident. The fraud alleged in the Agritrade case involved duplicate bills of lading, for example. The Hin Leong case, meanwhile, hinges on allegedly fraudulent use of 58 import letters of credit, as well as bank statements, bills of lading, sales contracts and invoices. Letters of indemnity are also said to have been used instead of bills of lading because the original bills were unavailable.
The vulnerabilities of paper trade documentation were always there for us to see but have been greatly amplified by the virus outbreak. Presenting key paper documents such as bills of lading under letters of credit to comply with the terms of their issue is extremely difficult when ports are deserted and bank staff work from home. As paper documents disappear in couriers’ networks, delays in their delivery and processing become even greater, disrupting business continuity and increasing the opportunities for fraud.
Disruptions of business continuity have not only impacted the use of payment instruments such as letters of credit, but also frustrated the processes for the likes of bank guarantees as well. Whereby corporates have had to handle guarantees by falling back on the use of insecure and unstructured email processes between their banks and counterparties. This is an area where direct communication to multiple banks under a single digital platform would clearly add value for corporates, giving them a secure interface without the vulnerabilities of paper.
Continuing uncertainty makes the caution of banks understandable, but it does not help their corporate clients if they just pull back. It makes it much harder for any type of company to conduct and finance cross border transactions.
This all makes the strongest case possible for the digitisation of trade. From a business continuity perspective, digitisation removes physical location as a constraining factor. Applications for trade finance, including letters of credit, standby letters of credit and guarantees can be submitted safely from any location including someone’s home, with approval given remotely by all parties. The immediate digital transfer of documents is fast and secure.
Instead of delays and missing paper documents, the use of a reputable digitisation platform for such transactions gives banks and corporates a secure line of communication, with each party knowing who, what, where and how the document or message was sent. This introduces new levels of trust and reassurance. All parties benefit from traceability and audit trails of transactions, have an organised view of instruments and reporting. In-built levels of authorisation to approve and send messages and the removal of easily-forged paper hugely reduces the risk of fraud and makes it ten times harder for false documents to slip through.
Encryption and electronic audit trails provide constant visibility of documents to counterparties. Secure digital transmission removes the costly delays of couriering and is far safer and better-organised than emails. Certain bi-lateral agreements and rule books may also be put in place, having legally enforceable protocols to maintain correct global use of such digital platforms, again substantially reducing any further risk. Questions of ownership in relation to electronic bills of lading(eBLs) are resolved because ownership is conferred by a dedicated eBL title registry, requiring layers of approval.
While reducing fraud risk, digitisation also injects far greater comfort into the relationships between corporates and banks. Although some big-name banks have withdrawn from commodity finance, there are still plenty of options for corporates, satisfying the changed appetite for risk mitigation.
Multi-bank trade finance solutions especially reduce levels of anxiety since they have established rule-based networks that make it easier for corporate treasuries to conduct and monitor their transaction.
Once companies have signed up and provided the necessary level of authentication, they can solidify relationships with banks and use a single solution to monitor and optimise credit lines, letters of credit and guarantees.
As corporates finance and conduct transactions on the solution, the efficiency benefits will start to emerge. Banks, on the other hand, know and trust the origins of the transactions and electronic documents they must process, speeding up approvals.
Digitisation cannot eliminate fraud, which, like death and taxes, will always be with us. Yet the case for digitisation could hardly be more obvious in the current uncertainty when the pandemic is still playing out, the Brexit deal threatens confusion and companies involved in commodity transactions focus on their core business while still requiring financing and risk mitigation.
If global trade is to recover quickly from the pandemic and address longer-term problems with trade finance, it needs to remove paper from the equation and shift rapidly to digitisation and multi-banking trade finance solutions."
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