London, 28th May, 2020 – Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD), Portugal’s leading bank, and Mibepa, an expanding Portuguese importer of raw materials for the plastics industry, have used Bolero’s trade digitisation platform to accelerate a major shipment of polythene from India.

Bolero’s end-to-end digital presentation enabled the parties to achieve faster completion of the transaction by accelerating document flows despite all difficulties caused by the current coronavirus pandemic, including restrictions on movement of paper trade documents.

The transaction is a double-first for Bolero International, since this was the first time either Portuguese company has used the paperless Bolero trade finance digitisation platform. It also marks Bolero’s entry into the Portuguese financial eco-system as part of its continuing global growth.

As a fully end-to-end electronic presentation (ePresentation) including the Bolero eBL (electronic bill of lading), all parties to this transaction were connected to the Bolero trade digitisation platform. Mibepa was the customer and applicant, with CGD acting as the first-ever Portuguese ePresentation receiving bank. The shipment was conveyed by one of the world’s largest container logistics companies. The letter of credit for the transaction was issued under eUCP and all documents required under this letter of credit, including the bill of lading, were presented electronically using the Bolero trade digitisation platform, supported by the unique Bolero legal rulebook.

Armando Santos, Head of Corporate Banking Marketing at CGD: “The Bolero trade digitisation platform made this first transaction fast and simple, overcoming all the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic. We use digital technology that helps our customers achieve significant efficiencies. We are very pleased to become Bolero subscribers and expect more of our customers to embrace Bolero and the benefits of trade document digitisation.”

Paulo Dinis, CEO at Mibepa: “Achieving fast turnaround in this transaction despite the coronavirus was a big advantage for us as an expanding business with international relationships. Bolero’s trade digitisation solution met all our expectations, enabling us to avoid any problems caused by the pandemic. I’m sure this is set to be the first of more such transactions.”

Adam Kasraoui, Bolero: “Great to see a major bank like CGD expand its digital transformation to trade and shipping documentation including the electronic Bill of Lading. We are continually committed to facilitating the adoption of our technology that allows importers and exporters to securely exchange documentation with their trade ecosystem.”

For more information, please contact:

Joanna Elliott

The Whiteoaks Consultancy

Tel: + 44 (0) 1252 727313

joannae@whiteoaks.co.uk

The post Bolero opens up Portugal with first use of its electronic trade digitisation platform by bank and corporate in the country appeared first on Bolero (WiseTech Global Group).

Quick update to our clients, partners and collaborators regarding Bolero and the evolving COVID-19 pandemic.

Foremost in our thinking is the health and welfare of our staff and we are taking every precaution to make sure that all Bolero employees and their families are safeguarded. Accordingly, all Bolero staff are now working remotely in line with our business continuity planning and guidelines from the relevant authorities.  We’re pleased to say that due to good planning and execution, we have transitioned smoothly to our new way of working.

We have also taken steps to ensure continued support for our clients and partners and we are actively monitoring and actioning all client requests as a matter of priority. There has been a marked increase in client usage of our platform and we want to take the opportunity to reassure you that we have a strong IT base and operational team in place to ensure that this doesn’t impact our clients and partners so that they are able to continue using our platform with ease.

We continue with trials and development of Galileo at pace and we see now more than ever the need for better tools to enable the digitisation of trade. Galileo allows clients more flexibility in deployment, making remote working and other business continuity protocol scenarios easier than ever.

Adverse events such as COVID-19 almost always have complex ramifications for international trade, however digital technology has now given us the means of alleviating many such problems – especially with relation to the paperwork that is essential to export/import transactions.

Bolero was founded on a vision to enable participants to digitise and easily send documents (including the Bill of Lading) to banks and counterparties electronically, removing the need for physical document flow by courier.  Galileo takes this further by providing participants with a modern and highly functional application to enable the exchange of LCs, Guarantees and documents between corporates, their counterparties and banks in a secure manner.

Once the COVID -19 crisis is over, the well-known $1.5tn gap for SME trade finance will seem insignificant in proportion to the challenges that smaller firms face in getting themselves off the ground again. Despite significant government support across the world, supply chains will be decimated and the likelihood of many companies being unable to continue is high. At Bolero we have a critical role to play in coordination with our ecosystem partners to provide solutions in this space.  We are working with our clients and partners now on initiatives related to this and I welcome any ideas or connections that can help facilitate this.

If you would like to know more about how Bolero can help you and your clients, please get in touch with me.

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Natural calamities such as the current COVID-19 coronavirus demonstrate how reliance on paper trade documentation continues to expose the global supply chain to disruption.

The International Chamber of Shipping estimates COVID-19 is costing the industry $350 million each week. Container spot rates are down, and idle capacity in the world fleet on the increase, while boxes stack up on Chinese quaysides. The impact of the virus has caused some carmakers to suspend operations and there are warnings of falls in Apple smartphone production.

Adverse events such as COVID-19 almost always have complex ramifications for international trade. However, digital technology has now given us the means of alleviating many of the problems – especially in relation to the paperwork that is essential to export/import transactions.

The electronic transfer of critical documents such as bills of lading, letters of credit and letters of indemnity in digital format delivers huge advantages. Think about what happens to paper documents. They have to be couriered either by people using land or air transport crossing physical borders. If there are restrictions in travel and the movement of people  (as there is in China and South Korea)  in force to prevent the spread of infection, then documents stay put and the transaction they support cannot proceed. Similarly, if office staff (at either end) are absent for prolonged periods because of a virus outbreak, all the creation, checking and dispatching of these documents are subsequently halted.

Now consider what happens if we digitise that paper flow. Automation takes care of the data uploading necessary to create digital trade finance documents. The transfer between parties is at the click of a mouse across secure digital networks, which is all a huge advantage in offices short of staff. Compliance checking, too, is automated.

End-to-end visibility on an advanced digital platform also means documents do not disappear, as paper versions frequently do in transit. Encryption and audit trails, meanwhile, reduce the many opportunities for fraud and forgery with paper documents, as they are never out of sight.

One feature of supply chain disruption is that carriers under pressure to achieve fast turn-around are sometimes tempted to release cargoes without presentation of the bill of lading, causing significant problems. The sheer speed of electronic transfer reduces the chances of this happening. Electronic bills of lading (eBLs), letters of credit, packing lists, guarantees and letters of indemnity all transfer at the speed of the internet. There is no waiting around for documents to arrive.

Research has revealed that electronic bills of lading (eBLs) require a tenth of the time it takes to process their traditional paper equivalents. Even without delays caused by acts of god and disease outbreaks, cargoes often sit in port awaiting the arrival of the paper documentation, heightening the potential for demurrage penalties. This is especially true on shorter routes.

Transferring eBLs so swiftly is critical during a time of great disruption. Bills of lading are documents of title and confer ownership of cargo. Without a bill of lading or, where necessary, a letter of indemnity, shipowners may be unwilling to release the relevant cargo. Yet the shipment that has all the correct documentation attached to it is most likely to be released first, especially when normal operations resume.

Digitisation also alleviates many of the difficulties in the financial supply chain connecting exporters, carriers and importers. When bank branches suspend operations to reduce the spread of infection, for example, letters of credit may not be issued in time to meet the payment requirements for goods.

As we move into an era of more powerful storms, increased trade friction and unpredictable virus outbreaks, corporates, banks and carriers all need to think harder about digitising their trade finance documentation if they want to avoid severe delays.

In an article on the COVID-19 difficulties, the Financial Times said the outbreak had prompted a surge in the use of remote working solutions in Asia.  Now is the time for global trade to undergo a similar digital transformation and end the dependence on paper.

The digitisation of trade finance documents cannot eradicate all the problems of epidemics or regional disputes, but it will make trade safer, smarter and faster, abolishing the reliance on out-dated methods that only increase the level of risk.

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