Andrew Raymond, CEO
Quick update to our clients, partners and collaborators regarding Bolero and the evolving COVID-19 pandemic.
Foremost in our thinking is the health and welfare of our staff and we are taking every precaution to make sure that all Bolero employees and their families are safeguarded. Accordingly, all Bolero staff are now working remotely in line with our business continuity planning and guidelines from the relevant authorities. We’re pleased to say that due to good planning and execution, we have transitioned smoothly to our new way of working.
We have also taken steps to ensure continued support for our clients and partners and we are actively monitoring and actioning all client requests as a matter of priority. There has been a marked increase in client usage of our platform and we want to take the opportunity to reassure you that we have a strong IT base and operational team in place to ensure that this doesn’t impact our clients and partners so that they are able to continue using our platform with ease.
We continue with trials and development of Galileo at pace and we see now more than ever the need for better tools to enable the digitisation of trade. Galileo allows clients more flexibility in deployment, making remote working and other business continuity protocol scenarios easier than ever.
Adverse events such as COVID-19 almost always have complex ramifications for international trade, however digital technology has now given us the means of alleviating many such problems – especially with relation to the paperwork that is essential to export/import transactions.
Bolero was founded on a vision to enable participants to digitise and easily send documents (including the Bill of Lading) to banks and counterparties electronically, removing the need for physical document flow by courier. Galileo takes this further by providing participants with a modern and highly functional application to enable the exchange of LCs, Guarantees and documents between corporates, their counterparties and banks in a secure manner.
Once the COVID -19 crisis is over, the well-known $1.5tn gap for SME trade finance will seem insignificant in proportion to the challenges that smaller firms face in getting themselves off the ground again. Despite significant government support across the world, supply chains will be decimated and the likelihood of many companies being unable to continue is high. At Bolero we have a critical role to play in coordination with our ecosystem partners to provide solutions in this space. We are working with our clients and partners now on initiatives related to this and I welcome any ideas or connections that can help facilitate this.
If you would like to know more about how Bolero can help you and your clients, please get in touch with me.