SUMMER UPDATE ON OUR FINTECH INITIATIVES, Aug 2021

By André Casterman, Chair Fintech Committee, ITFA and Member of ICC UK Legal Reforms Steering Group

Join us in Bristol at the ITFA annual conference that takes place from October 6th till 8th.

Starting at 9am on Wednesday 6th, conference delegates will be invited to join the morning sessions that will feature the latest fintech developments as reported by a number of initiative members who will share their most recent testimonials. Our agenda will also cover the latest developments in the Trade Finance Fintech Ecosystem and our Fintech Initiatives. Those sessions will be organised as follows:

1. Introduction to the Fintech Ecosystem and the Fintech Initiatives
2. DNI Initiative – How can negotiable instruments go digital? How are major trade vendors embracing e-documents? Which jurisdictions are embracing this technology development? China Systems, Enigio and Finastra will join this session
3. Is automated document checking technology threatening the jobs of doc checkers? How are banks taking advantage of this promising technology? Traydstream will join this session
4. The future of trade ecosystems, networks and rulebooks – how are banks embracing them? Marco Polo Network will join this session
5. TFD Initiative – Digital trade asset distribution – how are credit insurers and institutional investors taking advantage of new technology-based trade distribution practices? Tradeteq and XDC Network will join this session.

Those sessions will cover our 2020 and 2021 activities as outlined below:

The Trade Finance Fintech Ecosystem keeps on expanding

• A total of 40 technology companies, some being product-oriented whilst others being service companies, have joined the ITFA Fintech Committee by August 2021; 11 of those 40 joined since early 2021
• Some fintech members now focus on advanced value propositions such as fraud prevention in the area of double invoice financing (e.g. MonetaGo) as well as tokenisation and smart contract technology (e.g., XinFin).
• Given the size of the trade finance gap, it is encouraging to witness SME-focused platforms such as SupplierPlus, dlt.sg, TraxPay, Interlinkages, … joining ITFA as well and contributing to both Fintech Initiatives
• Most importantly, given the importance of collaboration betwee new technology players and established ones, we are delighted to witness major playerssuch as Finastra, R3, Taulia, China Systems, … join the ITFA Fintech Committee
• We partnered with Abu Dhabi Global Market to further boost digital trade options and ITFA Fintech Initiatives in the UAE and globally
• We showcased how fintechs complement each other within the front- to back-office processes that banks operate; this is because of their high degree of specialisation, and focus on helping incument trade originators.

DNI Initiative endorsed by ICC DSI in support of MLETR implementation

• We witnessed major regulatory developments around electronic negotiable instruments such as those happening in the UK (targeting 2022) and Abu Dhabi (completed in February 2021)
• We positioned public DLT as an instrument lifecycle tracking tool in support of negotiable instruments
• We helped major trade application vendors embrace DNI Initiative such as Finastra and China Systems
• ICC DSI endorsed DNI Initiative, next to SG’s IMDA TradeTrust.

TFD Initiative offers the most comprehensive set of trade distribution capabilities, now including tokenisation

• A total of 17 institutions joined TFD Initiative in late 2020 / early 2021 totalling 47 members by August 2021 as per www.tradefinancedistribution.com
• We delivered new testimonials from Texel working with banks and credit insurers and shared input from non-bank institutional investors such as NN IP and Santander Asset Management
• Major banks such as ING and Santander outlined their willingness to partner with credit insurers and institutional investors to develop their trade finance business
• We outlined the requirements for trade distribution technology platforms, in particular the need to automate the repackaging of trade assets. This has recently been expanded to include a tokenisation option which is leveraging the XDC Network.

The Technology Experts for Regulatory Action (TERA) task force offers a comprehensive view of

• We established TERA to act as a coordination task force in support of technology-related regulatory advocacy, and witnessed many developments since Q2 2020.

Join us in Bristol during the morning of October 6th to hear it all live from ITFA members. Expect more news to be released between now and early October.

The full programme is available here: https://2021conference.itfa.org/programme.