- CredAble and Citi will partner to digitise Citi’s trade finance operations by integrating invoice validation powered by government-backed digital public infrastructure (DPI).
- The new platform will help detect inconsistencies in invoices, boosting security and reducing transaction times.
- This partnership is an important step towards trade digitisation, making it easier for companies and their suppliers to manage invoice submission and verification when getting financing.
CredAble and Citi announced today, 6 January 2025, a strategic partnership to digitise Citi’s trade finance operations and strengthen its post-disbursement invoice validation.
CredAble will power a white-label solution to add a layer of verification to Citi’s digital trade loan process. The platform will validate invoices against government-backed digital public infrastructure (DPI), helping detect inconsistencies in fields like invoice numbers, values, and transport data.
DPIs have gained popularity in recent years, acting as trusted databases to verify the validity of invoices. Recent headline-making trade finance frauds have often involved invoices which have been doctored, pledged to multiple institutions (as the recent First Brands scandal), or don’t actually exist (as Greensill was accused of).
The ability to check invoices against a verified database improves security and reduces false positives, speeding up transaction times. CredAble and Citi’s platform will also improve the trade finance process for anchor clients and their suppliers. The new solution will adapt to business workflows and diminish the need for interruptions and manual follow-ups.
This will likely strengthen global supply chains by providing real-time assurance and simplifying the e-invoice submission process, making it easier for firms to access working capital.
“E-invoicing has existed in trade for years, but its real impact emerges only when it is embedded directly into financing controls rather than sitting outside the lending workflow. What this partnership enables is a shift from document-based comfort to data-based assurance,” Ram Kewalramani, Co-founder and MD at CredAble, told Trade Finance Global (TFG).
