06 November 2019
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Southeast Asia's largest bank DBS and Swiss commodities trader Trafigura have come together to develop an open-sourced blockchain trade platform in Singapore.
The platform dubbed as ICC TradeFlow platform will connect trade partners across borders and streamline manual paper-based trade processes to improve trade flows.
Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Enterprise Singapore and tradetech Perlin are also partners.
By tapping into each other’s respective expertise in commodities and finance, our customers will be able to receive their goods at least 50% faster with much less paperwork"
The announcement said the blockchain platform could potentially reduce end-to-end document transit time to 20 days from 45 days.
The platform is built using IMDA's TradeTrust interoperability framework and leverages Perlin's blockchain technology. With the focus on interoperability, Trafigura said the platform could communicate with existing and future digital trade platforms. Later this month there will be a pilot for $20m worth iron ore to be shipped from Africa to China.
"By tapping into each other's respective expertise in commodities and finance, our customers will be able to receive their goods at least 50% faster with much less paperwork," said Tan Su Shan, head of Institutional Banking, DBS Bank.
More enhancements will be made to the platform including trade finance on-the-go, providing background information and credit ratings on trade participants, vessels and couriers to build trust among counterparties, DBS said.
DBS is no stranger to blockchain. Last year it teamed up with Agrocorp, the agriculture commodity company, to build ablockchain platform that will connect 4,500 Australian farmers with restaurants, customers, and supermarkets.
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