Standard Chartered Invests in Documentary Trade Platform
The investment into the blockchain-based open industry platform aims to further digital innovation in documentary trade.
Standard Chartered is investing in Contour, a Singapore-based network backed by leading trade finance banks to improve processing time for letters of credit, it announced in a press release on Tuesday.
Contour digitizes the process of creating, exchanging, approving and issuing letters of credit on blockchain to save time and money in what is usually an old-fashioned process that is over-reliant on paper. Standard Chartered will add its smart guarantee capabilities to the platform to enable the digitization of the bank guarantees process from initiation to claim handling, the statement said.
Two live pilots conducted by Standard Chartered in Thailand and Singapore with petrochemical industry clients in August 2019 showed greater transparency, improved cost efficiencies and reduced settlement risks across the supply chain, as well as quicker access to working capital.
Digitizing Trade Finance
Standard Chartered's investment «underscores [its] commitment to forge partnerships and solve common industry challenges,» said Lisa Robins, global head of Transaction Banking.
It follows the full commercialization of Contour and the appointment of CEO Carl Wegner in January 2020. The launch came after a series of pilots in 14 countries and a global trial involving over 50 banks and corporates, which reduced processing times for letters of credit by over 90 percent, from 5 to 10 days to under 24 hours.
Wegner, a trade finance veteran, was previously managing director and head of Asia at enterprise blockchain software firm R3, which powers the Contour platform.
