Toronto, 28 May 2024 – Surecomp® today announced the completion of successful electronic bills of lading (eBL) transactions bringing together multiple parties via its collaborative trade finance platform RIVO™. Further to initial transactions processed in September last year, this second phase focused on streamlining the entire eBL workflow, to not only enable greater efficiency and transparency, but to demonstrate how an error-free process can dramatically reduce the time it takes to process a transaction down to only one hour.
Surecomp ran two separate pilot transactions in parallel, with the world’s largest shipping company MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) acting as the carrier generating the eBL in both instances. The first also included MAN Truck and Bus, Commerzbank AG and Bangkok Bank, while the second involved Voith, another German corporate, Bayerische Landesbank and Indonesian bank PT Bank BTPN Tbk (Bank BTPN).
Utilizing an integration with the WaveBL platform to efficiently generate the digital Bill of lading – a document typically presented under a Letter of Credit (LC) – the eBL was then attached to the LC transaction in RIVO™. Demonstrating a smooth transition from the physical to the digital realm, the document was then centrally accessible and transferable to all parties, the beneficiary, advising bank, issuing bank and applicant. The entire process took only one hour to complete. With live status updates verified simultaneously on the WaveBL platform throughout the entire process, the clean documents were then presented under an electronically issued Letter of Credit (eUCP LC).
This secure and seamless eBL ownership transfer via RIVO will ease bank’s adoption. Having also partnered with other leading eBL solution providers in the market, Surecomp is connecting more to RIVO. By eliminating the need for separate onboarding and training for each one, banks can use RIVO as a centralized hub to access all their eBL providers in the same workflow to seamlessly connect their eBLs to the LCs.
Ofer Ein Bar, VP Financial Institutions at WaveBL, shares, “The WaveBL platform issues thousands of electronic Bills of Lading worldwide every day. Some of the largest global shipping companies already trust us to lead the trade revolution. We are confident in our partnership with Surecomp. The success of this transaction will accelerate banks’ adoption of electronic trade documents, marking a significant step toward global trade digitalization.”
“We were able to prove how centralizing the eBL management on RIVO can significantly enhance the process efficiency and operational stability,” explains Enno-Burghard Weitzel, Surecomp’s Chief Solutions Officer. “Aggregating digital documents from various platforms represents a significant departure from the traditional, time-consuming paper-based processes that often take days or even weeks. Fostering eBL adoption by banks using RIVO to centralize the workflow, Surecomp remains committed to pioneering trade finance innovation, and the success of this eBL under LC marks a substantial leap forward in digitizing global trade.”
