The founding banks - ANZ, Banco Santander, BNP Paribas, Citi, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Standard Chartered - have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to build what is billed as a digital 'Trade Information Network' by the end of 2018.

The Network aims to address the unmet demand for financing earlier in the supply chain by enabling corporates to submit and verify purchase orders and invoices to request trade financing directly with banks of their choice. Corporates will use a simple one-time registration process which will allow them to connect with all banks on the Network.

Rogier Schulpen, global head trade & working capital solutions, Banco Santander, says: “Cooperation between the main trade finance banks and improving transparency of our clients’ global supply chains is an obvious way to facilitate financing to SMEs around the world. Having a single platform that provides transactional data on underlying trade flows will not only enable financing, but will also stimulate further innovation in the trade finance industry.”

A key ambition of the Network is to to mitigate the risk of double financing and fraudulent trade information across the industry. This enables the relevant banks to better assess risks and provide trade financing earlier in the supply chain, including for small and medium-sized enterprises who have traditionally experienced difficulty in accessing funding.

Vinay Mendonca, global head of product & propositions, Global Trade and Receivables Finance, HSBC, comments: “This initiative is focused on providing end-to-end visibility of financial supply chains across banks. This enhanced visibility enables banks to provide more pre and post shipment finance to the currently underserved supplier segment.”

CGI has been selected to build the Network, which will have an open architecture and standardised connectivity based on a governance model similar to Sswift to achieve maximum adoption across the supply chain ecosystem.

In addition to the founding banks, more than 20 additional banks from around the world are actively participating in developing the Network and several corporates have already expressed an interest in participating in pilots.