Standard Workflows, Strategic Architecture

While the core Trade Finance transaction processing workflows have remained largely unchanged for decades, the surrounding ecosystem has undergone significant transformation—and continues to evolve.

The fundamental steps of the Documentary Credit process remain intact: the importer applies for a Letter of Credit, the issuing bank processes and issues it, the advising bank communicates it to the exporter, the exporter submits the required documents, the documents are reviewed for compliance, and upon approval, the exporter receives payment.

Similarly, data capture has remained largely consistent, with essential details such as applicant and beneficiary information, involved parties, fees, margins, accounting entries, and required documents holding their significance. The fields once displayed on character-based interfaces have seamlessly transitioned into modern web applications powered by React and Remix without losing their relevance.

However, the surrounding ecosystem has evolved—and continues to evolve rapidly. Document checks are now AI-driven, data entry forms are pre-filled from scanned or uploaded documents, and the widespread acceptance of electronic documentation is quickly becoming mainstream. Intra-bank communication has shifted from phone calls and emails to inter-application API calls, enabling seamless, real-time data exchange across departments such as trade finance operations, risk assessment, compliance, and treasury.

Self-service is no longer a nice-to-have—it has become a foundational principle. Banks expect their business and product teams to tailor workflows and launch new offerings independently, without relying on the IT vendor for every change. Simultaneously, there's a strong push to move more functionality to customer portals—empowering clients to initiate, track, and manage trade transactions with minimal friction and greater autonomy.

These advancements, combined with rising customer expectations for faster and more cost-effective trade processing, are pushing banks to scout for software solutions that can help them keep pace with the growing scale and speed of global trade.

At the same time, banks’ expectations from their trade finance systems have evolved significantly. No longer are they merely looking for secure, error-free data entry, processing, and storage—they now demand flexible, composable platforms that position them as central hubs within a dynamic trade finance ecosystem.

With functional features becoming largely standardised across trade finance platforms, the underlying architecture is now the key differentiator—it makes or breaks the deal.

A modular, composable architecture empowers banks with the flexibility to select the best "Lego Blocks" from multiple providers and assemble their own application edifice—tailored to their unique strategy and operational landscape. The loose coupling between components not only simplifies integration but also enables progressive transformation without disrupting the entire system.

An open architecture further enhances this capability by allowing seamless integration with internal systems and external partners, supporting collaboration, accelerating innovation, and enabling scalability in line with evolving business needs. Use cases are multiple - Self-Service, API Marketplaces, Trade Finance Marketplaces, Developer Portal and so on.

The ability of the platform to connect to databases from any vendor, support storage and retrieval of non-English data, and support multiple banking entities on a single instance and many such are foundational decisions that must be made early. Overlooking such aspects during the architecture phase can severely limit market reach and lead to significant effort and cost if addressed later in the product lifecycle.

Thus, in a domain where the workflows are rooted in decades-old practices, innovation isn't about reinventing the wheel—it's about transforming the machinery around it. While the core processes of trade finance have stood the test of time, the real competitive edge now lies in the architecture that supports them.

Ultimately, it’s not just about what the platform does, but how it’s built.