World Blockchain Trade Consortium Formed By Trade Finance Firms

Blockchain, Group, News | November 16, 2018 By:

A group of FinTech platforms, insurance providers and trade finance funds have joined forces to establish a new blockchain consortium called the World Blockchain Trade Consortium (WBTC).

Launched at the Singapore FinTech Festival 2018, WBTC aims to unite stakeholders in the trade finance community by using blockchain technology to lower costs, reduce risk and increase funding to small and medium enterprises (SME). The consortium also wants to reduce the trade finance gap, estimated at $1.5 trillion.

Consortium members include GTR Ventures, a venture capital firm dedicated to trade and supply chain technology, National Credit Insurance (NCI), a trade credit insurance broker in Australia and New Zealand with offices in Singapore, Incomlend, a Singapore-based global multi-currency invoice exchange platform, Portal Finance, which automates the key processes for financial institutions to help them scale their factoring operations, and Trade Finance Market (TFM), a blockchain application developer.

The members will reportedly utilize Invoice Check, a blockchain application developed by TFM. The solution allows banks and factors to check if another funder has already paid an invoice, by cross-referencing it against a blockchain-based central registry. Invoice Check works alongside existing technologies and can be easily deployed via an API, which keeps costs down and increases accessibility.

Rupert Sayer, co-founder and CEO of GTR Ventures, said that TFMs collabortion with WBTC members is an excellent example of a practical use case for blockchain in trade finance.

“For lenders, it seeks to reduce the perennial risks associated with invoice fraud or multiple invoicing. We are pleased that TFM is leading the technology charge in terms of creating a global network infrastructure for trade built on the blockchain. I invite all other stakeholders to explore collaboration with WBTC.”