Ngulminthang Lhanghal - Financial Expert

Eezyimport, a leading global import management platform, has announced a partnership with Drip Capital, a global fintech company, to provide integrated, streamlined trade finance solutions for U.S. importers. This collaboration will enable small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to quickly access collateral-free trade financing online while simplifying import processes and reducing documentation. Eezyimport's innovative self-service platform provides a seamless experience for U.S. importers, helping them navigate the complexities of global trade. With its user-friendly interface, Eezyimport allows businesses to manage their import process, from initial order placement to shipment tracking, customs clearance, and now trade financing in collaboration with Drip Capital. Drip Capital provides working capital solutions to SMBs globally. In the US, the company offers payables financing, which gives buyers additional time to pay for all their purchases with minimal documentation and no c...

The Bank of England stepped up efforts to beat back the worst inflation since the 1980s by boosting interest rates half a percentage point to the highest level in 15 years. The move surprised investors who had priced in a 40% chance of a hike of that magnitude. BOE policymakers also reiterated earlier guidance pointing to even higher rates, similar to the message Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell conveyed to US lawmakers this week. Central bankers in Norway joined the BOE in accelerating their rate increases, while Switzerland dialed back its pace of hiking. Here are some of the charts that appeared on Bloomberg this week on the latest developments in the global economy: World ​In addition to the UK, Norway raised its benchmark rate a half point to 3.75%, while central banks in Indonesia, the Philippines, Mexico and Brazil left borrowing costs unchanged. The Swiss National Bank delivered its smallest hike since policy tightening began a year ago, while saying more action is likely. R...

The Development Bank of Singapore (DBS), a Singaporean multinational banking and financial services corporation, has been given approval by the International Financial Services Centre Authority (IFSCA) to set up an international banking unit (IBU) at GIFT City. GIFT City officials believe more financial companies from Singapore will enter GIFT City after the arrival of SGX Nifty. DBS will offer financial services like trade finance, external credit borrowing (ECB), treasury operations and derivatives at its GIFT City IBU. According to sources, the IBU will make DBS bank's offering on foreign currency loans and trade finance business competitive. Dipesh Shah, Executive Director, IFSCA at GIFT City, said, "IFSC at GIFT City is fast emerging as the most preferred jurisdiction for international financial services. A large number of transactions for Indian corporates, which were earlier structured from centres outside India, are now navigating to IFSC. The objective of the governme...

Surecomp, a leading provider of global trade finance solutions, has announced that PT. Bank BTPN Tbk (BTPN), one of the leading privately-owned banks in Indonesia and part of the SMBC Group, has gone live with its DOKA solution. This solution is aimed at streamlining BTPN’s back-office trade finance processing automation, replacing the bank’s previous trade finance application. According to a recent report by the International Chamber of Commerce, Asia is the world’s largest region for trade finance, with a total of $1.98 trillion in trade finance issued in 2020. Indonesia is one of the key players in this region, with trade finance playing a crucial role in the country’s economic growth. The DOKA solution, which is hosted in Jakarta, has been fully deployed and supported by Surecomp’s local teams in Asia. Read more: https://ngulminthang.weebly.com/news/bank-btpn-in-indonesia-streamlines-trade-finance-processing

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) estimates that 80–90% of world trade relies on trade finance. It is a mechanism that not only ensures security between importers and exporters but can also extend a line of credit to companies desperately needing cashflow to get their operations moving. Pandemic disruptions, political upheaval and currency fluctuations have made companies more nervous to trade internationally. “With every crisis, trust among the participants goes down and that’s when you reconsider the risk that is involved in open account transactions,” says Enno-Burghard Weitzel, senior vice president of Strategy, Digitalisation and Business Development at Surecomp. “The more insecure these financial flows to physical supply chains are, the more you want to secure them with a guarantee” from trusted financial intermediaries. Unfortunately, trade finance has not always been a straightforward solution due to an excessively manual process, and a lack of access to smaller corporates who...

Trade is the engine of the global economy, but trade financing is complex and traditionally reliant on paper. One pain point for many financial institutions has been the lack of a network to support collaborative workflows within the trade ecosystem, and a lack of interoperability between solutions. Surecomp today (March 16) announced that it is partnering with Contour, one of the global digital trade finance networks, as part of a collaborative vision to drive the digital transformation of trade finance across financial institutions. Surecomp has over 35 years of expertise in digitising trade finance processes and its integration with Contour’s decentralised network of banks and corporates will provide users with a fully integrated end-to-end trade service solution. Through the collaboration with Surecomp’s trade finance platform RIVO, Contour’s member banks will be able to access digital Letter of Credit workflows directly on Surecomp’s back-office applications, providing straight-th...

The collaboration brings together DiMuto’s global trade solutions platform and Aleta Planet’s B2B cross-border payment solutions to make payments in and out of China more efficient and transparent, the companies said in a Tuesday (Jan. 17) press release. “Our customers now enjoy greater flexibility and visibility with the addition of this payment gateway option to our Payment Management module,” DiMuto founder and CEO Gary Loh said in the release. “Strengthening our ability to track trade payments will greatly open up opportunities for financing of trades on our platform.” PYMNTS research has found that only 23% of small businesses are happy with their cross-border payment solutions. As a result, companies around the world are turning to multicurrency tools, targeted strategies and future-fit accounts payable (AP) and accounts receivable (AR) solutions to help accelerate and streamline their international growth, according to “International B2B Payments: A Guide for Entrepreneurs and D...

Wema Bank has gone live on Kachasi Trade Finance Software to enable the achievement of full automation of trade finance operations. Trade finance is a phrase used to describe different strategies that are employed to make international trade easier. The market share is expected to increase by $12.20 billion from 2021 to 2026, and the market’s growth momentum will accelerate at a CAGR of 4.38 percent. Kachasi, owned by Union Systems, is the first indigenous trade finance software application built to automate the entire lifecycle of international and domestic trade finance operations, and it is the result of over 20 years of experience implementing and customising various international trade finance software applications for banks across Africa. Wema Bank’s journey with the software began in March 2022. As a first of its kind, Kachasi Trade Finance Software comes with intuitive design and functionalities. “We are pleased to be joining the league of banks around the world that re using t...

The African Development Bank Group is supporting the trade finance efforts of Bank One Limited.  The Group will provide a $40 million trade finance package that is meant to help Bank One of Mauritius increase its capacity to provide trade finance to small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), local corporates and other key sectors in Mauritius and across Africa, the African Development Bank said in a Thursday (Dec. 22) press release.  The package includes a $25 million risk participation agreement and a $15 million transaction guarantee, the release said.  “Given the cross-sectoral nature of trade, the proposed facility, while leveraging Bank One’s footprint, is expected to enhance the African Development Bank’s efforts to integrate Africa and improve the quality of life for the African people,” African Development Bank Head of Trade Finance Lamin Drammeh said in the release.  Africa has an annual “trade finance gap” of $81 billion because SMBs and other domestic firms ...

As per the latest news, the Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group has supported a Risk Participation Agreement of $50 million with Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank. This arrangement will help African Banks and their small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) customers to compete in more extended regional and international trade . It is focused on enabling a cumulative trade transaction volume of $450 million over the next three years. “This agreement boosts certainty among various African leaders to support a new trade dynamic on the continent,” explained Mohamed El Azizi, the African Development Bank’s Director General for North Africa. He added, “And this is important for the realization of the African Continental Free Trade Area, which will aid in bringing resilience, attract growth and boost a recovery that sets out opportunities and jobs.” Read more: https://ngulminthanglhanghal.mystrikingly.com/blog/adb-accepts-risk-participation-agreement-with-cred...

As per the latest news, a Singapore trade data-sharing platform, supported by banks, commodity houses, and state organizations, has enrolled 70 participants as part of the city-state’s endeavors to support certainty after a series of commodity trade finance frauds in recent years. The Singapore Trade Data Exchange (SGTraDex), which was established by bank DBS (DBSM.SI), commodity trader Trafigura and local technology controller, Infocomm Media Development Authority, was introduced on Wednesday, following the strategies put in place last year. “We are attempting to replicate what’s taking place in the real world,” said Antoine Cadoux, chief executive of SGTraDex Services. “The agenda is to adopt paperless technology across the end-to-end process.” “We suppose that with the value we are capable of demonstrating, we can touch that scale relatively faster,” according to Cadoux, a former consultant. Read more: https://ngulminthanglhanghal.mystrikingly.com/blog/singapore-s-new-trade-data-sha...

Trade finance solution provider Surecomp is launching an application programming interface (API)-based trade finance platform designed to create a collaborative ecosystem of corporates, financial institutions and FinTechs.  Called RIVO, the platform enables collaboration between corporates and financial institutions for “centralized visibility of credit lines and utilization across multiple jurisdictions,” according to a press release Wednesday (May 18).  Surecomp President and CEO Guy Perry said RIVO was developed in cooperation with some of the biggest banks, financial institutions and corporates, “who will continue working with us to ensure it remains fully aligned to market needs.” He added that RIVO will play an important part in driving Surecomp’s commitment to sustainable global trade while also “removing barriers and facilitating collaboration.” “By bringing everyone together, we hope that the trade finance process will be immeasurably improved, reducing enormous overh...

Jain (pictured), based in Singapore, and Frankfurt-based Resovac take over the role from Daniel Schmand, who earlier this year became global head of institutional cash management and head of corporate bank operations at the German lender. They will report to Stefan Hoops, head of Deutsche’s corporate bank. The bank says the double-headed structure reflects the changes in the trade finance industry in recent years “as technology, geopolitics, the pandemic and technology have rearranged the competitive landscape together with increased levels and complexity of risk”. Jain, who Deutsche describes as “one the bank’s most seasoned trade finance experts” has been with the bank for over two decades, most recently running trade finance and lending for Asia Pacific. Read more: https://ngulminthanglhanghal.wordpress.com/2022/04/29/deutsche-bank-splits-trade-finance-leadership-across-europe-asia/

Four years after commencing a mission to prevent duplicate financing of invoices in India, MonetaGo underlines major progress in delivering on its commitments, including transforming the speed and transparency of invoice financing and unlocking the value of disparate information spread across multiple organisations and data silos. The service was launched in partnership with three trade receivables finance exchanges licensed under the Reserve Bank of India-supported Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS), that allows SMEs to auction their trade receivables from corporate customers on each of the receivables finance exchanges’ digital platform, MonetaGo implemented its Secure Financing system in India in March 2018. “Each exchange needed to be able to identify whether an invoice had been financed by their competitors, but for commercial reasons needed a solution that kept customer information private,” said Jesse Chenard, founder and CEO of MonetaGo. “MonetaGo’s solution enabled t...

If trade is the gear that drives the global economy, trade finance is the oil that keeps the equipment turning. On a macro-level, trade finance is crucial in facilitating the movement of goods across borders. It helps generate investment and employment while ensuring the population's needs are met. Furthermore, trade finance enables companies to participate in global trade by providing cash flow and risk mitigation, finding new markets, expanding their business, and capturing new revenue streams. While trade finance underpins every phase of the global supply chain and is pivotal for the economy's growth, the world faces a chronic and vast trade finance gap. According to the Asia Development Bank (ADB), the global trade finance gap widened to US$1.7 trillion in 2020, a 15% increase from US$1.5 trillion in 2018. Not surprisingly, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) continue to be most impacted by the trade finance gap. Although SMEs comprise just 23% of all trade finance ap...

Union Systems Limited, Africa’s leading trade finance company, partners with Wema Bank Plc to automate its trade finance operations. The bank selected Union Systems’ Kachasi trade finance software over all other international trade finance software solutions due to its ability to address both the traditional international trade finance processes and the peculiar Nigerian trade finance operations. The selection of Kachasi demonstrates Union Systems‘ leadership, experience, and excellence in the provision of trade finance software solutions. Wema Bank, the pioneer of Africa’s first fully digital bank, is no stranger to being at the forefront of introducing innovative digital solutions to its customers. Through this collaboration, the bank will join the league of banks around the world that are using technology to change the way trade financing works. This trade finance automation project will significantly reduce trade finance processing turnaround time, improve operational efficiency, a...

NEW YORK, March 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Fishtail announced today it has raised $4.5m in seed funding, led by Thursday Ventures, with participation from leading data, fintech, and supply chain investors Rackhouse Ventures, Amara Ventures, and project44 CEO Jett McCandless and Chief Growth Officer, Jason Duboe. "Trade finance has been an underinvested asset class for far too long," says Fishtail CEO, Marc Held. "Fishtail's novel trade technology unlocks top-line growth opportunities for both suppliers and freight forwarders." Complexity behind global supply chains has made it incredibly challenging for financial institutions to fund purchase orders and invoices, internationally, for SMBs on a meaningful scale. Unsurprisingly, this is a major driver behind the 1.7 trillion USD per year trade finance gap, which is being increasingly widened by the COVID-19 pandemic and the supply chain disruptions caused by it. Today, Fishtail's data-driven, scalable solution a...

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has unveiled fresh trade finance support for businesses affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, both in the war-ravaged country and neighbouring nations. As the conflict approaches its fourth week, the EBRD has announced a €2bn resilience package and says various forms of financial aid will be made “rapidly available” to Ukrainian businesses. These include payment deferrals, emergency liquidity finance, trade finance, and potentially even help for companies looking to relocate. An EBRD spokesperson tells GTR there is no specific amount earmarked for trade finance purposes, but the lender will weigh up demand from partner banks and the “obviously the level of risk of each proposed transaction”. They add the new trade finance lines will boost imports of fuel, medicine and other important goods, with financing disbursed through Ukrainian commercial banks who will on-lend to their clients. The move follows a proposal by the EBRD...

As per the latest news, MiniHub Technologies Inc. has declared the introduction of its Trade Finance Network application, accessible to all platform users. The Trade Finance application is the first in a series of network applications that are being launched by MineHub soon. The MineHub Trade Finance Network is a network application, bringing perceivability, security, and productivity to funders of commodity transactions whilst digitizing organization and communication between lenders and finance providers. Coordinated with the core MineHub platform, this assistance is an extra contribution that further builds the worth of the MineHub platform to its clients. As per Arnoud Star Busmann, CEO at MineHub and formerly of ING Bank, the world’s biggest commodity bank, “Having had numerous years of experience with the intricacy and key risk drivers of commodity trade finance made this application the most noteworthy arrangement on our roadmap. The offer is exceptionally clear. Blockchain inno...

The recent news says, African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) together endorsed a US$250 million facility with an agenda to facilitate funding for the bank to propel an advanced acquisition of Covid-19 vaccines and lead a trade-led economy. The aforesaid agreement took place between Prof. Benedict Oramah, President of Afreximbank, and Eng. Hani Salem Sonbol, CEO ITFC during the authority visit of Prof. Oramah and the Afreximbank representatives to the ITFC Headquarters in Jeddah. This facility by ITFC will help Afreximbank’s COVID-19 response program geared up for nations in which these organizations operate their activities, securing crucial goods for the improved health of the local populaces, and empowering a swifter return to the economic activity. Plus, the innovative step will also help improve the bank’s capacity to facilitate trade finance instruments while they are of the absolute need for the continent’s export i...