Going Paperless: Improving uptake of Trade Finance Digitisation

Global Merchandise Trade – Roughly around USD 15-16 Trillion annually Global Merchandise Trade – Roughly around USD 15-16 Trillion annually. Estimated annual Trade Finance Revenues for Banks are around USD 23 Billion Trade Finance still is a highly paper intensive area of business in Banking. It is estimated that in a single Cross Border trade transaction, roughly around 30-35 Original Documents are required. The cost for handling LC transactions are high for Banks due to manual document handling, checking and processing, which in turn leads to delays, occasional errors and inefficiency.

Digitisation of Trade leads to…. Faster and Smooth Processing Saves Costs Enhances Risk Management Better Working Capital Management

Key Solutions … LC Doc Prep Services Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR) technologies. MT798 Bank Payment Obligation Electronic Bills of Lading Blockchain (Still at early stage for Trade Finance)

Are Banks and Corporates in Mena region ready for this digital challenge? The “Desire” to move towards Digitisation of Trade exists on both sides. Cash Management Solutions have seen much more success in Digitisation. Quite a few business entities in GCC still prefers “Traditional” way of extending their Approvals and insists on signing documents rather than approving it online

Some of the Challenges in Digitisation of Trade Requirement of Physical paper documents for areas such as Customs Clearance. Level of investment needed. IT Systems related Security Risks

What Banks need to do more… Increase Awareness amongst Clients, especially amongst SME and Small Corporates. Incentivize Clients for using Digital Platform for Trade transactions, wherever possible. Partnership between Banks and FinTech Companies may open new avenues.