2023: A Year of Unprecedented Success 

Reflecting on the past year, it’s clear that 2023 marked an extraordinary period of growth within the trade digitization space and for our organization, marked by the issuance of nearly 140,000 Bolero electronic Bills of Lading (eBLs). This milestone underscores our unwavering commitment to improving global trade practices and cements our leadership role in the digital trade documentation sector. 

Strategic Partnerships and Major Contributions 

Our path to achievement has been significantly enriched through collaborations with our valued partners. Major contributions came from two key alliances in the shipping space, in which both added significant volumes and set a base for long term growth, playing pivotal roles in our mission to innovate and streamline trade documentation processes. These partnerships highlight our shared dedication to driving forward with innovation and operational efficiency. 

Analysing Our Growth 

The record numbers achieved in 2023 were driven by our relentless pursuit of innovation, our focus on customer-centric solutions, and the strength of our strategic partnerships. This trajectory of growth is not only a testament to our past achievements but also a strong foundation for the future. 

2024: Off to a Stellar Start 

As we move forward into 2024, our momentum is stronger than ever, with the initial months showcasing remarkable achievements that forecast an exceptional year ahead. Fueled by our relentless drive for innovation and a steadfast commitment to delivering unparalleled service, we are poised for unprecedented success and continued leadership in our industry. 

The beginning of 2024 has seen a significant increase in activity compared to the same period last year, with our volumes more than doubling in the first two months. This surging growth rate of over 100% year-on-year sets a promising tone for the rest of the year and reaffirming our trajectory towards achieving new heights. 

The Road Ahead: Embracing the Future with Bolero 

Reflecting on 2023’s milestones and looking at the fantastic start to 2024, we are filled with gratitude for our customers, partners, and the entire Bolero and wider WiseTech team. Your trust and dedication have been paramount to our achievements. With an eye towards the future, we invite you to join us on this exciting journey as we continue to redefine global trade, one digital solution at a time. 

The post From 2023’s Highs to 2024’s Bright Start: Bolero Continues to Lead in eBL Issuances appeared first on Bolero (WiseTech Global Group).

Corporates engaged in international trade are all too frequently stuck with manual methods despite advancing digitisation in many other areas of professional life.

This manual approach to trade finance transaction handling not only consumes the time of skilled employees, it also undermines agility at a time when exporters and importers face enormous pressure from high inflation, rising interest rates, the disruptions of the Ukraine war and the continuing imbalance between supply and demand in global markets. Chinese lockdowns also continue to cause major disruptions.

With so much unpredictability affecting trade and its financial supply chain, there are definite advantages for corporates that accelerate digitisation to streamline their trade finance processes and enable faster and more effective decision-making.

What corporates and their staff need is end-to-end visibility of trade transactions from one pane of glass instead of multiple portals and methods of communication.

Banks need to support or provide all-in-one trade portals

Solutions are available that have all these capabilities and more. All it takes is for banks to deploy or support them. They come as trade portal platforms that digitise trade finance instruments and documents to give corporate customers that critical level of visibility right across the ecosystem of participating banks, financial organisations and counterparties in each transaction. The added capacity to expand networks beyond a one-to-one connection means banks can provide customers with new capabilities that win their continued loyalty in a cost-efficient way. Digitisation of the customer experience and advanced transaction-management through trade portals should therefore become priorities for banks.

Corporates need a consolidated view and the ability to manage their open account transactions and letters of credit, bank guarantees, and electronic presentations of trade documents such as bills of lading.

Proven technology and established networks are vital

There is an important consideration in all this. Digitisation of trade finance requires connected and effective networks, founded on advanced technology that is tried and tested. More advanced trade portals have already proved themselves in the real world and have their own networks. Their reach extends to organisations including other financial institutions, carriers, forwarders, and major corporate customers.

These SaaS platforms can be fully and securely integrated into the back-end systems of major global banks in a quick time to market. They have already achieved a critical level of interoperability – a key sticking point for many new systems. Such platforms will, for example, take care of important updates, such as those applying to SWIFT messaging types and standards. The streamlined efficiency and increased visibility of these advanced portals has earned them a high level of credibility in more forward-looking organisations. And with multi-layered architecture and browser-agnostic functionality they offer high levels of scalability and flexibility.

In unpredictable times these platforms bring corporate customers much greater control and the flexibility to adapt to significant market changes and new financial pressures that characterise the current global economy. Increased adoption of digital trade finance solutions by banks across the globe will enable corporates to communicate far more easily with all their banks and finally move away from antiquated paper processes and multiple communication channels.

The post How can banks make life easier for their corporates clients? appeared first on Bolero (WiseTech Global Group).

Digitisation of global trade has gained greater urgency since the pandemic but its still a long way off. So many processes still rely on paper documents such as bills of lading used under open account, documentary collections and letters of credit transactions.

This reliance on paper increases risk and takes up huge amounts of time for staff at trade finance banks, exporters, importers, carriers, forwarders and port authorities. Paper documents go missing, are prone to forgery and generate large overheads.

The real rewards of digitising trade documents

Digitisation removes all these disadvantages, using secure and legally recognised electronic versions of trade documents that organisations exchange in encrypted form. Documents are unique, and constantly visible on a secure trade digitisation platform where they are protected from tampering by embedded digital audit trails. Their transfer at the click of a mouse eliminates costly delays when paper documents fail to arrive on time.

Last year, the G7 countries sought to advance digitisation with publication of a framework for collaboration on electronic transferable records. And it is encouraging to see the Digital Container Shipping Association (DCSA), BIMCO, FIATA, ICC and SWIFT recently formed the Future International Trade Alliance (FITA) and signed a memorandum of understanding to standardise digitisation of international trade.

Yet agreement on, and subsequent usage of, digitisation standards is unlikely to happen soon with so many organisations involved, including the UN and WTO. There are many associations, different jurisdictions, individual government authorities and representatives of invested parties.

Global trade is likely to adopt multiple standards

The wait for standardisation is in part paralysing digitisation. It is time for banks and corporates to realise that rather then one standard, multiple standards are likely to apply in future, as they do in other fields.

It is why an increasing number of organisations – especially in South Asia and the Far East – recognise they need to deploy solutions that already deliver results. Current SaaS trade digisation platforms provide significant efficiencies they cannot ignore. These SaaS platforms digitise trade documents and have extensive networks among leading trade finance banks, carriers, importers and exporters. They come with the approval and recognition of industry bodies such as the International Group of P&I Clubs.

When banks deploy them as portals they provide end-to-end visibility of all transactions for corporate customers, vastly improving their experience. They relieve them of many time-consuming tasks and reduce overheads, offering far more choice of risk mitigation and financing options. They are also capable of exchanging data securely and rapidly with other systems, which is vital if digitisation is to extend along the whole global supply chain. This streamlining of processes eliminates the delays common with paper documents.

A key feature of a SaaS platform such as Bolero’s Galileo is that it also operates according to proven rulebooks which is an increasingly common practice in digital B2B networks, especially when written under internationally recognised jurisdictions such as the English common law. Galileo also offers a range of advanced services such as AI-based document verification, which further accelerates processes.

Move forward with trade digitsation now

Banks, carriers and corporates in all parts of the worlds must realise there is no point waiting for global agreement on trade digitisation standards. The obvious advantages of current digitisation solutions make plain that if organisations hold back, they risk losing out to those adopting platforms already in use and likely to become part of future standards anyway. It is hard to see any new international standard excluding digitisation platforms that have already achieved significant acceptance and uptake. Banks and corporates should simply get on with digitisation now.

The post The standards debate continues – Why you need to digitise your trade processes now appeared first on Bolero (WiseTech Global Group).

Today, we are probably at a similar crossroads, where digitisation is opening up new opportunities for cost-saving automation, accuracy, speed and vastly-improved efficiency in trade documentation.

We at Bolero have been at the forefront of this journey and were the first to provide the electronic bill of lading (eBL) solution approved by the International Group of P&I Clubs.

Beyond electronic Bills of Lading, Bolero has also been closely aligned with the digitisation of trade finance, expanding to provide more of the supply chain with digital alternatives to paper documents. That through our solutions support the world’s leading carriers, financial institutions and corporates. This allows us to give a unique perspective on the market changes within shipping and finance as it pertains to digitisation.

The bill of lading, for example, has been around for a long time and is likely to remain a key instrument in global trade, issued by a contracting carrier to a shipper. Yet, it too is part of the digital revolution in trade documentation. Just like its paper equivalent, the electronic bill of lading, (eBL) has 3 basic functions:

• A receipt from the carrier for the goods it describes
• The contract for the carriage of the goods
• A document of title, entitling the rightful holder to claim delivery of the goods

Just like a paper bill of lading, the electronic variant must have only one holder at any time. This can be ensured in the subscription of participating parties to a legal rulebook that outlines roles and responsibilities. This enforces the notion of a transferable singularity and secondly, through the use of a messaging platform and title registry database that ensures that essential element of singularity and that there will be no departure from what the rulebook requires.

The eBL fully replicates the functions of a paper bill of lading, containing as it does, the specific data such as a description of the cargo, the ports of loading and discharge, the date of shipment and so forth, along with the terms and conditions of carriage. The new holder takes up the rights in the eBL, subject to the obligations and limitations.

As the advantages of eBLs have become apparent, they have been recognised around the globe. BIMCO, the well-respected carrier association with a reputation for documentation, has issued a standard charter party clause. Additionally, P&I clubs in the International Group provide as standard protection and indemnity coverage for eBLs on the same basis as paper bills.

Whilst there has historically been some reticence to the adoption of these digital variants, a year and a half into the Covid-19 pandemic any lasting objections to taking trade paperless appear to have dissipated entirely.

As a result of lockdowns across the globe; in-person meetings have become scarce, but some would say more importantly have prevented the processing and transportation of important trade documents, chief amongst them the Bill of Lading.

We are now at an inflection point where the digitisation agenda for carriers and forwarders has not only accelerated but there is now political capital that can be gained with the adoption of several legislation in various jurisdictions.

With more than $15 trillion in goods transported annually, the shipping industry is complex and ever-changing. Tightened security measures, business constraints, and competition require companies to look for new ways to run their businesses more efficiently. Electronic Bills of Lading (or eBLs) are changing the industry one freight bill at a time.

How do electronic bills of lading work?

The electronic bill of lading (eBL) is the electronic equivalent of a paper bill of lading. The eBL is a combination of the title registry records and an attached document containing the eBL data.

• An eBL can only have one holder at any one time
• There must be a holder at all times.
• The title registry records who is the holder.
• Holdership is the electronic equivalent of possession of the physical paper bill of lading

There are three key functions of the bill of lading:

Receipt

The receipt function is easily replicated in the electronic world. The quality of, and therefore the ability to rely on the data confirmed is linked with the quality of the security in the electronic system used. Put simply, are there sufficient measures in place to ensure the identity of the issuer (the carrier) and the authenticity of the data. The right to rely on this receipt.

Contract of Carriage

The contract function is also easily replicated in the electronic world. As we have seen, there are two elements to the bill of lading contract – the data specific to that carriage (port of loading/date of shipment etc) and data setting out the terms and conditions of carriage. As between the carrier and the shipper this is no different to the receipt function. It gets a bit more complicated when the eBL is transferred to a new holder. There is no universal law relating to how the rights and obligations in a traditional bill of lading contract are transferred, this varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. The Rulebook establishes the legal method by which this happens for a Bolero eBL. Transferring the eBL means that the new holder becomes a party to the eBL. The new holder takes the rights in the eBL on transfer subject to the obligations/limitations in the contract – the most well-known limitation being the carrier’s ability to limit liability for loss of or damage to the goods.

Document of Title

This function is the most difficult to reproduce in an electronic format. The answer again is found in the Rulebook that characterises precisely the nature of the rights that the new holder gets when it receives the transfer of the eBL. At the moment of transfer, the right of control over the goods passes to the new holder. The new holder becomes the only party entitled to give instructions to the carrier. This is known as constructive possession and this unique right drives the ability to use the eBL for letters of credit and documentary collections. Included in this is the sole right to demand delivery of the cargo from the carrier.

A common misconception is that moving from electronic to paper defeats the purpose of using an eBL in the first place. The speed, accuracy and integrity of an eBL will benefit users up to the point at which a replacement is sought. For example, the eventual holder may require a traditional bill of lading but that doesn’t mean those earlier holders cannot benefit from the benefits of an eBL prior to that final transfer.

Another common misunderstanding is that the replacement will only be from eBL to traditional paper bill of lading. It is relatively easy to see a situation where a party in receipt of a paper bill seeks the replacement of that paper bill with an eBL (if a letter of credit either requires an eBL (under eUCP for example) or an option for either an eBL or a traditional bill of lading). The quicker the documents are presented, the quicker the beneficiary can get paid and/or the goods can be delivered. In this instance the carrier will require the return of the paper bill of lading before issuing a replacement eBL.

So, what does the future look like? 

Being involved on both sides of international trade with carriers and financial institutions, we see the partnerships of technology providers, fintechs as the key to digital interoperability between the key counterparties of international trade and elimination of paper processes. The depth of knowledge gained through direct collaboration with the largest shipping lines and financial institutions has allowed companies like Bolero and other providers to develop the connections in networks not seen previously in the paper world.

Adding standards and guidelines on top of that with organisations like DCSA, ICC, UN CEFACT, it becomes easier to align financial documents with shipping documents via digital platforms. Standards facilitate the development of technology providers by lowering the implementation cost and increasing interoperability. But they also help streamline solutions using similar processes and patterns hence leading to adoption by the different trade parties.

At Bolero, we welcome and support any initiative that strives to enable digital trade, regardless of if this can be achieved by cooperation, interoperability, common standards or even through global Legislative developments. Having been a pioneer in this space for over two decades, we understand like no other how challenges need to be overcome and how important it is to be a trusted solution and services provider in this innovative area.

Hence, we look forward to continuing to pragmatically support our current and future customers on their digital trade journey.

The post eBLs; the decades old innovation changing today’s game. appeared first on Bolero (WiseTech Global Group).

Many treasurers still use manual complex workflows that typically involve multiple systems and points of contact, especially for managing and optimising credit lines and instruments like bank guarantees, letters of credit (LCs) and standby letters of credit (SBLCs) across multiple banks. That’s a serious issue as it is taking time away from identifying new opportunities, improving counterparty relationships and staying compliant with regulatory stipulations.

Fortunately, there are tools and techniques that treasurers can put in place to overcome this challenge; to streamline their workflows and communications with their banks, both direct and correspondent, to optimise their credit line utilisation, transaction management, and to leverage the advancing digitisation of banks and insurance providers.

How going digital can work for corporates

Leading banks are today focused on adopting advanced technologies in order to digitalise their communications processes. From advance payment guarantee to performance bonds, this simplification and streamlining has allowed treasury networks to adopt more frictionless processes. Banks have been successful in removing much of the manual burden of reconciliation and steps have been taken on the road towards more paperless trade finance procedures.

There is still a long way to go, however. To date, only a small number of corporates are making use of efficient, automated solutions to manage their credit lines and banking partner relationships. In industry and commerce, there is little improvement in handling documentation – and manual processes often hold sway. In international trade finance, documents and paper guarantees are frequently lost or mislaid and they are also frequently prone to forgery and fraud, especially with letters of credit. Typically, they will need to be safely stored and manually reconciled – a process that

has long been burdensome but exacerbated further by the constraints of the pandemic, during which handling and distribution of documentation has become an especially acute problem.

Route map to digital

So what is needed to help large corporates and their treasury departments to move to digital for their trade documentation processes, including transactions and credit facilities? Many today remain reluctant to adopt digital because they frequently require costly integrations that don’t always offer a clear benefit.

It is therefore imperative that providers deliver user-friendly solutions that simplify integration and are able to connect with an extensive network of banks to ensure credit facilities, transactions and bank guarantees stay current. And it is equally key that treasury departments, especially those within large multinational corporations, can manage and edit letters of credit, bank guarantees and electronic presentations from a single interface.

Delivering on core goals of transparency and control

With more and more digital solutions being adopted by banks globally and better interoperability between these solutions, it is much easier for corporates to communicate with all the banks and finally make a decisive step away from antiquated paper processes and multiple communication channels.

We are at the dawn of a new age in trade digitisation. Adopting multi-banking trade finance solutions today enables treasuries to remotely manage and optimise letters of credit, bank guarantees and credit line relationships with banks. It is bringing an ease and efficiency that is now an urgent necessity.

The technological landscape for trade and treasuries has propelled forward, helping digitise key paper documents, reconcile transactions in one place and build open communications channels with financial institutions. For today’s treasury departments, many of which are still wedded to paper and complex manual processes, the message is stark, if you want to build an efficient trade finance process, digitisation is not merely an option but an urgent imperative.

The post How treasuries can cut through the paper mountain and better manage credit facilities. appeared first on Bolero (WiseTech Global Group).

No doubt there will be some banks that have prepared for this and now boast innovative trade finance systems that will be able to handle and process the new structured message formats whilst also benefiting from the increased automation and STP in processing trade finance transactions and to realise significant cost reductions. 

So, what were the changes? 

With the SWIFT changes (SR 2021) for Guarantees, there is an industry-wide upgrade to further support the digitisation of trade finance – moving away from unstructured messages to well-defined message types that allow for increased automation and straight-through processing.    The changes brought in upgraded functionalities and message formats for Guarantees and Standby Letters of Credit. 

Until recently,  bank guarantee messages have been characterised by large portions of free text, making it challenging for banks to sift through unstructured data and find specific information. In a nutshell, the replacement messages now include more fields and more structured data, enabling banks to increase automation and drive straight-through processing, while reducing processing times and costs. 

While the changes have brought plenty of benefits, the flipside is the associated burden for banks whilst switching to the new standards. In fact, these changes have already been postponed for a couple of years as a result of the burden associated with a previous round of changes in 2018, as well as the impact of the pandemic. 

But while the new standards do have cost implications for banks, there are still opportunities for banks to leverage the changes as an effective way of improving customer service and driving growth. 

Today, we are seeing a renewed urgency amongst financial institutions to offer an enhanced digital experience for their customers. But we know that enabling digital trade services for their clients may quickly become a burdensome, costly , and a resource-heavy endeavor. 

So, what are the main features that banks need to look out for to upgrade their existing client portals today? 

The ability to deliver a quick digital trade experience to customers   

Although trade has changed significantly in the last 20 years, processes have largely remained manual, paper-intensive, and complex. And whilst digitising trade processes is not a new initiative, the previous lack of open standards, regulations, and heterogeneous systems has resulted in the creation of digital silos stifling further progress.  

Things however have started to change and trade digitisation has started to pick up momentum due to the evolution of recent technologies like AI, machine learning, open APIs, and blockchain. Coupled with the recent challenges brought forth by the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen the trade finance community adopt digitisation more readily.   

There are solutions that allow corporates for example to send their letters of credit or guarantee transactions to banks using our web application or any third-party portal application. Client transactions are sent to banks on a secured messaging channel and Banks can receive transactions via a web application or directly into their back-office systems.  

On the other hand, banks have not been able to offer a fully digitised service to their trade customers due to the immense cost, time, and complex implementation processes required to offer a fully digitised user journey. But with advancements in recent technologies as well as the number of solution providers operating within the trade finance ecosystem, financial institutions are well placed to offer digitised experiences to their customers in order to conduct their business at speed and with great efficiency.   

The pandemic has highlighted the inherent inefficiencies within trade finance operations and as a result, the demand for digital trade services is at its peak. Trade customers today want to conduct their business online therefore it becomes vital for banks to digitise the customer experience as quickly as possible or risk losing that customer.  

Lowering the cost of ownership  

Implementing new software solutions is an expensive exercise at the best of times and to fulfil the complex requirements of a financial institution, these costs can quickly escalate. These would typically include the costs of hiring project managers and teams to successfully build a bespoke system as well as training employees on how to use these solutions and the cost of migrating data from an existing system (if there is one) into the new solution.  

And that is not where it ends, banks will also have the costs of actually setting up server environments and configuring the system for their specific needs.  

We typically see these costs head well into the 7-figure range which discourages some banks in offering a digital portal for their trade clients despite the incredibly strong demand to offer a fully digital customer experience.  

Today, we are seeing many innovative companies in the trade finance ecosystem developing ready-made solutions for banks at a fraction of the price. Opting for subscription level solutions immediately cuts down the cost of acquisition from millions into the thousands whilst also reducing the need to hire teams to build these solutions.  

Becoming free from technical debt  

In the world of software development, technical debt often paralyses teams and organisations. Many initiatives and projects fail because of the technical burdens that arise after the implementation such as making sure updates are rolled out in a timely manner. 

Technical debt often becomes a major factor that deters banks in their pursuit of building bespoke solutions as banks will not want to deal with expensive upkeep of the solution.  

Some of the biggest financial institutions today are changing course and adopting white-labelled solutions that not only cut costs but free them from the shackles of constant updates for their trade customers. In turn, banks are providing upgrades to their online banking platforms and making a positive change to the customer experience and channelling innovation into a booming industry, all this without technical burden caused by in-house solutions.  

Accelerating digitisation efforts  

The hardship caused by the global pandemic, has reinforced a desire for all players in the world of trade finance from banks to corporates, carriers and technology provides to embrace digitisations.  

That is not to say that banks were not actively accelerating their digitisation efforts, but there are new efforts to digitise as much of their trade operations and services as possible.  

The introduction of new technologies such as blockchain and APIs, we can now more easily link digital processes across the different parties involved in trade. Applying new technologies in trade finance is not new, however, the pace of innovation in this area during the last year is something which has never been seen before. 

Banks providing international trade services still want to revamp their age-old trade finance department – and do that quickly. However due to the complex nature of trade finance, and the fact that each transaction requires the input of multiple people in various locations worldwide, banks must seize the opportunity to transform their trade finance functions and accelerate their digitisation efforts.  

The world of international trade and trade finance remains heavily paper-based which is at the root of banks’ slow soft to digitisation. Digitally transforming these manual processes, one bank looked to an external partner to support this change through innovative design and customer experience solutions, while also unlocking value rapidly to improve short-term profitability. 

From speaking to banks, today we see that they do indeed recognise that they should improve operational processes to deliver a better customer experience, reduce costs and facilitate secure global trade practices. 

Want to explore the fastest and most cost-effective way to revolutionise your customer experience? Learn more here.

The post Four Things Banks Must Look Out For When Upgrading Their Client Portals appeared first on Bolero (WiseTech Global Group).

The Digital Container Shipping Association (DCSA) estimate that adoption of eBLs currently accounts for only 0.1% of all bill of lading issuances and an increase to 50% eBL adoption could potentially save the industry more than $4 billion per annum. For many years there seemed to be limited use for the technology and only the largest of organisations could reap the benefits of eBLs and until recently this is where it has remained.

Click here to learn more about eBLs and their role in international trade.

So here are 4 benefits of the Electronic Bill of Lading that should increase utilisation:

1. Removal of document transportation costs from the costs of transportation

As a digital alternative to the traditional paper document, this enables the removal of document transportation from the supply chain. Some solutions are able to facilitate the digital transfer via a cloud-based system and with the increased prominence of blockchain technology, others provide a mirror of the traditional paper process only the transfer is executed via peer-to-peer blockchain technology rather than by couriers. This also offers significant cost savings since trade parties are no longer required to pay for transportation of documents whilst benefitting from the time savings that come from cutting transfer times to minutes rather than weeks.

Put simply, would you pay for an uber to get the physical receipt for your uber?

2. Ensure business continuity and enable faster documentation transfers

Physical damage to the traditional paper bill of lading can have disastrous consequences as the issuance of replacements especially at short notice can cause serious delays and disruptions for businesses. From a first-hand perspective, we have known of instances of delivery truck thefts in South America containing shipping documents which directly inflicted huge costs to business.

eBLs are stored in digital formats either in the cloud or on a blockchain network, and therefore they are always accessible and can be transferred within minutes allowing for trade to flow seamlessly. The limitation of this being faster is by the extra security put in place.

3. Enhanced security and reduced susceptibility to forgery, fraud and loss

As previously mentioned, electronic Bills of Lading are stored and transferred from secure cloud storage or via peer-to-peer blockchain platforms. This allows them to be digitally signed and encrypted eliminating concerns of the document being forged, manipulated, or stolen. To add further to this, there will usually be industry-standard 2-factor authentication, control of visibility and roles within the solution and best of all as it is a digital document there only needs to be one copy rather than the usual three originals.

eBLs solutions provide unparalleled security and privacy between the transacting parties compared to the paper alternative and can easily track and manage all eBL events such as eBL notifications, title transfer, amendment, surrender and switch to paper. Which in turn makes it harder to forge or edit an electronic document than a paper one.

4. Improving cash flow and increasing reliability

It is not uncommon for paper bills of lading not to arrive in time to release the cargo resulting in costly delays.

Since the digital equivalents can be transferred at comparatively lightening speeds and not at the speed of a courier, cargoes can be released on time even on short legs, without the use of a letter of indemnity (LOI), resulting in shorter payment cycles, efficient cash flow management and improved working capital.

On the flip side to this, knowing when shipments (under normal circumstances) can be released adds levels of reliability to logistics operations and avoids constant tracking and international calls.

Conclusion

The digitisation of trade documents such as the bill of lading has presented clear and tangible benefits compared to its still paper-based equivalent and its benefits were brought into focus during the pandemic when delays caused by difficulties in presenting paper bills of lading surfaced. Whilst the pandemic has accelerated pre-existing trends in the adoption of eBLs, we still see many corporates not informed on the benefits gained from the utilisation of eBLs.

The post 4 Benefits of The Electronic Bill of Lading That Should Increase Utilisation appeared first on Bolero (WiseTech Global Group).

For more than 2 decades, Bolero has been at the forefront of Trade digitisation. We have been working with largest corporate clients, banks, and shipping companies to digitise their trade processes and identify use cases which were not previously addressed by the market. We were the first to pioneer the commercial usage of the electronic Bill of Lading and over the years we have built up immense knowledge in the trade finance space and we are fortunate to have access to valuable data and research that allows us to build incredible products that bring real value to our customers.

Last year we introduced Galileo, our new technology platform that addresses the new challenges of digital trade in a fast-moving landscape of technological innovation, and customer expectations. With Galileo, we have built a strong foundation that allows us to continually innovate and build novel solutions for banks, carriers, and corporates.

More recently, we launched our new Galileo Multi-Bank for Corporates solution built our new technology platform. With this new solution, we have created a truly open trade ecosystem that enables the convergence of physical and financial supply chain by incorporating multi-banking capability with the electronic bill of lading (eBL) solution that we pioneered.

You can read more about our work so far here.

And this year we are making the biggest leap in trade finance.

The next frontier of digital trade finance; Introducing Galileo TPaaS for Banks

Corporates globally are looking to digitise their trade processes to save time, increase visibility of their transactions, eliminate operational and courier costs, and reduce risks associated with manual processes.

Banks on the other hand have been under significant pressure to provide new and improved digital services to their corporate customers who are pushing for a fully digital experience.

We introduce the world’s first white-labelled trade finance portal-as a-service for Banks; Galileo TPaaS for Banks.

Galileo TPaaS for Banks is the fastest and most cost-effective way for banks to digitise customer experience for their trade finance clients and comes fully branded with the bank’s colour palette and logos. Built on modern technology, it delivers an enhanced user experience, unrivalled functionality, and a broad suite of connectivity options for banks.

Galileo TPaaS for Banks offers a transformed user experience that is simple, intuitive, and designed to give corporate customers greater autonomy in the management of their trade transactions. It comes with market-leading features for trade finance products like Letters of credit, Guarantees/Standby LCs, document presentations under LC with more products in the pipeline.

Galileo TPaaS for Banks comes with:

• Support for all operations under LCs and Guarantees such as issuance, amendment, advising, confirmation, extend or pay, claim etc.
• Collaborative drafting of guarantees between all clients and banks.
• Presentation of documents under LCs and open account.
• Management of electronic Bill of Lading (eBL) lifecycle.
• In-built cloud storage and transmission of documents.
• Complete visibility of trade transactions and history via analytics and reports.
• Ready connectivity with over 200 carriers for getting eBLs.

Trade portal as-a-service 

Galileo TPaaS for Banks is available on-demand as a fully managed service on our secure cloud.

This allows Banks to have an accelerated time to market, reduce the huge costs associated with building a bespoke portal but allow for great flexibility. The bank does not require any infrastructural changes and no requirements for separate deployment.

The commercial model is based on a simple recurring subscription fee.

With Galileo TPaaS for Banks, we can now offer a fully managed trade portal to the bank – as a service on the cloud – and banks can start using the service immediately and onboard their clients.

The bank not only receives the appropriate scaling for their customers but also cutting-edge technology with our future-proof Galileo platform, highly skilled resources, constant support and updates. The hassle of maintaining the solution is eliminated entirely.

Galileo TPaaS is designed for a quick start setup

 With no integrations required to start, Galileo TPaaS for Banks at its core facilitates an accelerated time to market allowing you to get up and running in a matter of days.

Banks can choose the option suitable for them to allow for a quick start. As such, there are two available methods:

1. Direct user access: this method allows bank users to receive and/or respond to client transaction requests using the Galileo bank user interface. This method does not require an any integration. This means that banks can get up and running in no time.
2. Direct connectivity: this is where a bank’s back-office system can directly receive client requests using APIs or any other connectivity option the bank chooses. Galileo comes pre-integrated with the major third-party back-office applications thus shortening the implementation cycle considerably.

With flexible implementation models to choose from, banks can quickly launch digital trade services for their trade clients at lightning speeds. Banks can start with direct access and opt for integration at a later stage.

Galileo TPaaS allows for single sign-on (SSO) connectivity which means the bank’s corporate clients can access the portal from within the bank’s existing corporate channel.

With Galileo TPaaS for banks, we are empowering financial institutions to accelerate the delivery of digital trade services to their clients, whilst also reducing the total cost of ownership in comparison to an in-house build or the traditional software procurement procedures.

We worked with leading corporate clients and financial institutions and designed Galileo TPaaS to help banks to deliver digital trade services to their clients without the need of taking on a complex implementation project or make heavy technology investments towards digitization.

We are continuously adding more features on Galileo and collaborating with other innovative fintech specialists with expertise in artificial intelligence, machine learning and IoT based solutions to enhance and deepen the functionalities we offer within Galileo TPaaS for Banks.  This will result in a significantly improved customer experience and Increased customer satisfaction through innovative value-added services.

The post Part 2: The next frontier of digital trade finance – Galileo TPaaS for Banks appeared first on Bolero (WiseTech Global Group).

Over the course of the last 20 years, international trade has expanded massively with goods and services traded globally now accounting for over 60% of the global gross domestic product. 

Although trade has changed significantly in the last 20 years, processes have largely remained manual, paper-intensive and complex. Digitising trade processes is not a new initiative, but the previous lack of open standards, regulations and heterogeneous systems has resulted in the creation of digital silos stifling further progress. 

Things however have started to change and trade digitisation has started to pick up momentum due to the evolution of recent technologies like AI, machine learning, open APIs and blockchain. Coupled with the recent challenges brought forth by the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen the trade finance community adopt digitisation more readily.  

The benefits of digitising trade processes are clear; trade digitisation reduces the inherent risks of trade, reduces costs, and removes the inefficiencies of complex, paper-intensive and fragmented processes. Switching focus towards trade finance digitisation delivers countless opportunities and benefits for all trade parties. 

We at Bolero have been at the forefront of trade digitisation and innovation for more than two decades. We were the first to roll out a commercial electronic bill of lading solution that allows our clients to receive digital bills of lading from our network of more than 200 shipping carriers across the globe and pass those along to their trade counterparts.  

Bolero’s transformation journey 

With more than 20 years’ experience in trade, maritime and cloud technology, we have access to data and research that allows us to build products that bring incredible value to our customers. And as such we have cemented ourselves as a main stay in the trade finance digitisation community. 

As part of our objectives to build innovative, modern, and intuitive solutions we turned to our customers, partners, and friends in the industry for feedback to fuel our innovation. In these conversations, we were able to spot unmet needs and identified use cases that were not previously addressed by the market. We gained valuable insights from these discussions which have helped us identify improvements, add new functionalities, and create new solutions to address challenges faced by the trade community.  

The first step for our talented team of engineers was to future proof our tech stack to keep up with the latest technology trends and innovations. This gave us the foundations to provide a single point of access to all Bolero services, transform user experience, build robust bank-grade security systems, and improve connectivity with third-party systems allowing us to provide deeper and wider functionalities to our customers.  

This became a reality when we unveiled our new platform Galileo in February 2020.  Our first live module – the Open Account module is enabling exporters and importers to exchange trade documents including electronic bills of lading (eBLs) with each other in a very collaborative and simple way.  

A little more about Galileo  

Galileo is a flexible, modular, and scalable platform that has been designed to deliver future-proofed digital trade services to Banks, Corporates, Carriers and other trade eco-systems. With an enhanced user experience powered by advanced technology, it delivers unrivalled functionality and seamless integration. 

 Galileo is also capable of growing in functionality with its ability to embed best-in-class solutions from our partners as value-added services. Our partnership with Traydstream for document precheck and Mitigram for price discovery makes it even more interesting and comprehensive for end users. 

Figure 1. Our Galileo platform, connectivity and integrations are key.

Galileo Multi-Bank for Corporates; the first solution developed on our new platform. 

Galileo Multi-Bank for Corporates allows customers to send their letters of credit or guarantee transactions to banks using our web application or any third-party portal application. Client transactions are sent to banks on a secured messaging channel and Banks can receive transactions via Bolero’s web application or directly into their back-office systems. 

 Galileo Multi-Bank for Corporates solution offers: 

• A transformed digital user experience that is simple and intuitive. 
• Access to all trade transactions like Letters of Credit, Guarantees, presentations in one place 
• API based connectivity with banks and third-party applications 
• Ready connectivity and access to more than 200 carriers across the globe. Collaborative drafting of trade instruments between customers, counterparties and banks. 
• Real-time visibility of all trade transactions using dashboard, reporting, audit and traceability tools 
• Email and in-app notifications 

Replacement of user certificates with 2-factor authentication using Google authenticator or Microsoft authenticator or Bolero’s own authenticator will allow for quick onboarding of clients on Galileo.  Over the next 12 months, we hope to move all our existing customers to our Galileo Multi-Bank for Corporates solution.  

The collaborative process between our teams and customers allowed us to use that feedback to develop an innovative platform that addresses the difficulties the trade community faces. We are extremely pleased with our progress and the positive responses received from customers, partners, and prospects. The responses have driven us, even more, to make sure we continue to develop cutting-edge and innovative solutions. 

The biggest leap is yet to come 

With our new technology platform, we have built a strong foundation that allows us to continually innovate and build novel solutions for banks, carriers and corporates.  

We have solved important issues corporates have been facing with the release of our Galileo Multi-Bank for corporates solution by providing a transformed user experience and better connectivity with banks and at the same time eliminating the time spent on manual processes.  

On the other hand, banks have not been able to offer a fully digitised service to their trade customers due to the immense cost, time and the complex implementation processes required to offer a fully digitised user journey. This is a gap in the market that we believe we can fulfil.  

For some time now, this has been an area of intense interest for us at Bolero. We have been working tirelessly in close collaboration with one of the biggest financial institutions in the world to address these issues so that we can bridge this gap and enable banks to offer a fully digital trade finance experience to their clients. 

We are close to sharing our newest innovation and the biggest leap in the trade finance space and we cannot wait to tell you more about this in the coming days. 

The post Our journey with Galileo, the biggest leap in trade finance digitisation yet, pt.1 appeared first on Bolero (WiseTech Global Group).

Costs and fees can soon mount up as central visibility and control over thousands of instruments are lost in a maze of processes and proprietary systems. A corporate with international involvement may have many credit lines and thousands of guarantees open at any one time.

Keeping them updated and managing them to avoid unnecessary bank fees, costs and duplication becomes extremely difficult in the absence of a consolidated overview provided by a single platform interfacing with all required banks.

There are however many valid reasons for having multiple bank relationships.

Firstly, banks have different areas of expertise, whether in products, trading zones or particular countries and home jurisdictions, which corporates need to make use of. Secondly, having commercial relationships with several banks gives a corporate the opportunity to negotiate the optimum terms and conditions for a transaction.  Thirdly, the involvement of several banks spreads the risk and reduces premiums when financing high-value transactions.

These are the advantages – but the distinct disadvantages of dealing with banks through traditional methods are now very apparent.

For a start, each bank will have its own distinct IT system, requiring corporate customers to go through the tedious, time-consuming and potentially confusing process of logging into a different portal and going through security checks and passwords in each case.

More significantly, when there are thousands of documentary credits and guarantees, it becomes incredibly difficult for a corporate to keep on top of every instrument – to be able to see them and ensure they are updated and employed in the most cost-effective manner possible.

A large organisation, for example, may have local offices or subsidiaries that obtain their own bank guarantees, which makes it very difficult for treasuries to see and manage centrally.

It is still the case that in many corporates, spreadsheets are employed for this function to operate effectively. Yet even where organisations have their own treasury management systems, reconciliation and establishing degrees of exposure can be very problematic when there may be so many instruments behind deals worth billions of pounds. Interfacing with bank systems is fraught with difficulty and can be very manual and time-consuming.

However, corporates are increasingly consolidating their handling of all these processes and instruments on a single third-party platform, handing themselves huge gains in man-hours, visibility and importantly – substantial savings in bank fees and costs.

Vastly increased visibility of credit lines, documentary credits and guarantees on a web-based platform gives a consistent view regardless of location. The result is the more efficient use of credit lines and big savings, to a degree that can never be achieved by any other means.

It gives a treasury the chance to call down credit much earlier, potentially benefiting the organisation by 10 or 20 basis-points – a significant saving on large numbers. The clear level of visibility provided by a multi-bank platform also means existing credit lines can be utilised without all the fees and processes required to set up new ones.

Full or even partial integration with back-office systems, seamless communication with panel banks and an effective system of alerts, all make the single multi-bank platform the future for hard-pressed treasuries toiling to improve cash-flow management and the efficient deployment of working capital.

As the global banking network expands, the treasury of any successful corporate involved in major trade transactions will have to shift to a single, multi-bank platform built and supplied by a third-party provider with an established reputation for total reliability, security and efficiency in international trade finance and banking.

The advantages in a globalised world of round-the-clock operations are simply going to be too obvious to ignore.

The post Corporates are shifting to multi-bank platforms – and taking all the credit appeared first on Bolero (WiseTech Global Group).