SWIFT

For centuries, trade documentation has been a time-intensive and resource-demanding process, involving a multitude of stakeholders and a deluge of paperwork. Central to this process is the bill of lading, the most critical document in international trade. 

In this episode of Trade Finance Talks, TFG’s Deepesh Patel was joined by Shirish Wadivkar, Global Head – Wholesale Payments & Trade Strategy at Swift, to uncover the conference’s core themes, the latest Swift initiatives, and strategies to prepare for Sibos 2023.

The FIT Alliance, formed of BIMCO, DCSA, FIATA, ICC, and Swift, has initiated the “Electronic Bill of Lading Declaration” to enhance the efficiency, reliability, sustainability, and security of global trade through the use of electronic Bills of Lading (eBLs).

Your Monday morning coffee briefing from TFG, 17th July 2023

In the ever-revolving landscape of trade payments, a notable trend is gaining momentum as the global financial industry embraces ISO 20022 – a data-rich and interoperable universal messaging format set to replace the legacy Message Text (MT) that has prevailed for years.

Like every aspect of the financial services industry, the correspondent banking world has changed a great deal over recent years due to technology, regulatory regimes, and risk management.

Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) have infiltrated the agenda of countless innovation meetings at the world’s central banks.

The financial services industry is constantly changing, and the pace of change is accelerating rapidly, especially for the payments sector. The industry has witnessed many shifts: from the barter system to cash, from cheques to cards, and from cards to digital banking and payments.

In order to communicate with each other, banks use a messaging system called SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication), which provides a standardized and secure way to exchange information. There are several different types of SWIFT messages that banks use for various purposes.

There is little doubt that 2022 has been an unprecedented year and for better or for worse, there has been a lot that has happened in the trade, treasury, payments and supply chain spaces.

The evolution of cross-border payments is more exciting than ever. However, for banks, the priority is to use the payment data for compliance and differentiation. So, get your data in order.

Your Monday coffee briefing from TFG – VIDEO | ICC’s Vincent O’Brien on trade in the UAE 

At Sibos 2022, Trade Finance Global (TFG) spoke with Niels Nuyens, program director at Digital Container Shipping Association (DCSA), to learn more about digitalisation in the shipping space.

Attending a talk at Sibos with Managing Director, US and Canada, Ben Arber and Gonzalo Perez Verdicchio, chapter lead API product management at SWIFT, Trade Finance Global (TFG) was able to learn more about the next steps for the market.

Trade Finance Global (TFG) spoke with Rishikesh Tinaikar, global head of corporates and Trade Go to Market at SWIFT, to further explore the pandemic recovery and how lockdowns are accelerating trade finance’s push toward digitalisation.