Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking has partnered with komgo to implement blockchain to speed up commodity trade finance and shorten cashflow cycles
Image: Lloyds Bank partners with blockchain developer komgo. Photo: Courtesy of Mtaylor848/Wikipedia.org.
Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking, a division of Lloyds Bank, has partnered with komgo for quicker international commodity trade finance using distributed ledger technology (DLT) or blockchain.
Komgo is a blockchain-based platform that digitises and streamlines international trade and commodity finance, allowing businesses quickly and automatically exchange data and associated documents across letters of credit and KYC management to receivables discounting, in a digital, secure and decentralised way.
Along with speeding the time taken to complete trade finance transactions and shortening cashflow cycles, the service is also claimed to reduce the risk of fraud by allowing all the parties real-time monitoring of progress of a transaction. The process can boost visibility and offers greater certainty for all the involved parties.
Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking managing director and trade global head Gwynne Master said: “‘Cumbersome’ and ‘time-consuming’ are just two words used to describe international trade today. The process of trading a single commodity can take over 100 days, involves many players, considerable paperwork, and risk.
“Trade is particularly onerous for our commodities clients, where faster turnaround times and a streamlined channel are key requirements.
“Our partnership with komgo helps us tackle these challenges. We’re working together to shorten the time it takes our corporate clients to trade internationally by significantly streamlining and digitising the process. We like komgo’s client-centric approach – where the focus is on addressing top corporates’ pain points – this fits well with our way of working.”
For easy market adoption, komgo’s solutions can now be accessed not only for commodities businesses but to those in other sectors and industries.
Lloyds Bank is the first UK bank to use komgo’s blockchain services
Lloyds Bank is the first bank in the UK to have partnered with komgo, offering the benefits of the platform to its clients.
Gwynne Master continued saying: “We’re entering a new era of simpler and more inclusive access to blockchain technology that has the potential to support strong, collaborative business relationships.
“Partnerships like this, and the technology that underpins them, will help mitigate the pain points our clients face and support British businesses to prosper internationally.”
komgo CEO Souleïma Baddi said: “We are thrilled to welcome Lloyds Bank on komgo’s network, and very excited to support their clients to get the best out of it in the following months.”