Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), Japan’s third largest bank by assets, has announced it will adopt trade finance blockchain Marco Polo on a commercial basis within this year.

Blockchain To Digitize Manual Trade Finance

The three Asia companies include Mitsui & Co, a Japanese general trading company; Indorama Ventures, a Thai petrochemical company; and Bangkok Bank, Thailand’s third-largest bank.

In the test, Bangkok Bank issued a payment guarantee for Indorama Ventures to Mitsui & Co. The guarantee allowed SMBC to undertake receivable financing.

Before the three Asian companies, Marco Polo completed tests for trade finance transactions between Germany and Russia.

According to SMBC, users can update documents such as purchase orders, invoices, shipping schedules, and port information on the Marco Polo platform developed by R3. The technology is expected to be a breath of fresh air in the current trade financing process, which remains paper-based and manual.

Major Banks Now Use Blockchain Network

Backed by Dublin-based TradeIX and New York-based R3 LLC, Marco Polo runs on open-source Corda. Major financial institutions that are members of the blockchain-based network include Bangkok Bank, Mitsui & Co, SMBC, Bank of America, BNP Paribas, Mastercard, and Standard Chartered.

Among Marco Polo’s competitors are Voltron, which also uses Corda, ethereum-based CargoX, and Hyperledger Fabric-based eConnect.

As the largest and fastest growing trade and working capital finance network in the world, Marco Polo provides blockchain solutions for trade and working capital finance to banks and corporates. Marco Polo is also part of the Universal Trade Network.

Source: www.coindesk.com

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