Contour Introduces Trade Finance Network For SMEs In Bangladesh
On June 16, 2021, the Blockchain trade finance network provider, Contour launched its first domestic network in Bangladesh to facilitate considerable access to trade finance to SMEs in the form of digital letters of credit (LCs). Contour is owned by eight shareholder banks consisting of Bangkok Bank, BNP Paribas, Citi, CTBC, HSBC, ING, SEB, and Standard Chartered to provide a worldwide network for trade finance over distributed ledger that enables parties to execute transactions and retrieve information electronically. The main offerings of the network provider, Contour, revolves around Letters of Credits for which the platform has efficiently managed to cut back the processing time by as much as 90% during testing, from a normal of 10 days to under 24 hours end-to-end. Since October, the members of the trade finance network providers have been attempting to scale up the network, with Vinay Mendonca, global head of product, propositions, and structuring, trade, and receivables f...