The ‘full push through’ TSU transaction was processed between JPMorgan in London and BNP Paribas in Hong Kong, and involved purchase order exchange/acceptance followed by invoice and transport data matching to the purchase order.

The SwiftNet Trade Services Utility is a collaborative centralised matching utility that is designed to help banks engage with corporates across the length of the supply chain, rather than just at the settlement end of the transaction.

Bruce Proctor, global trade executive at JPMorgan, says: "All the studies show that 80% of all international trade business is handled by open account, so the launch and viability of SwiftNet TSU is exciting because it allows banks worldwide to compete equally in the open account trade product marketplace."

Pierre Veyres, BNP Paribas’ head of global trade services, says the initiative has generated a strong interest in Asia due to importance of trade and related financial flow in the region.

"It’s a consistent and workable backbone utility. BNP Paribas considers it in its supply chain management offering, coming from the PO/invoice information to provide inventory, receivable or payable financing."

Interbank co-operative Swift has been working with up to 33 banks and their corporate customers ahead of the live launch

Japan's Seven & i Holdings, for instance, plans to digitise documents needed for trade settlement and other procedures, a move that is expected to halve delivery times for imports to about a week. The company is working with Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi on a TSU-based trade finance system that is set for live launch in the autumn.

Banking technology vendors have also been involved in the roll-out, with Misys claiming to be the first trade services sftware provider to win the SwiftReady TSU label.

The Misys TSU module is available either within the Internet-based Misys Trade Portal, or as a standalone system and is certified to support all 41 TSU message that are currently in use.

Misys Trade Portal clients involved in the TSU initiative include BNP Paribas, Calyon and Société Générale.