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The Bank of Ireland, one of Ireland’s largest banks, will deploy a Surecomp software service platform to streamline its trade finance operations, the digital trade solutions provider announced today.
The cloud-based platform, DOKA-NG™, is a way to automate back-office trade finance operations, increasing efficiency, speed, and resilience. The platform integrates with banks’ existing ecosystems to streamline the entire life-cycle of a range of trade finance instruments, from letters of Credit to receivables finance. This makes it possible to process much larger volumes of operations faster than with traditional software with increased transparency and security.
DOKA-NG™ is a trade finance-as-a-service (TFaaS) solution, a way for businesses to outsource some finance functions to third parties to decrease costs and take advantage of the newest technologies. Originally conceived to help startups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), TFaaS is gaining popularity in larger institutions who want to improve their software frequently and reduce reliance on in-house IT resources.
“DOKA-NG™ as a SaaS solution eliminates the need for costly infrastructure investments and time-consuming maintenance,” said Tal Weiser, Surecomp’s Chief Revenue Officer. This, he explained, should “enable the bank to adapt more quickly to changing market dynamics and regulatory requirements, […], improve accuracy, and greater visibility into transactions.”
The Bank of Ireland’s choice to use Surecomp’s TFaaS platform is a significant sign that outsourcing some back-office software operations is becoming more common in financial institutions of all sizes.
That Ireland is leading the way in Europe’s adoption of trade finance automation is no surprise: Ireland is the world’s sixth-largest exporter of financial services and has been for years a major EU finance centre.
Ireland’s trade finance sector has been more successful than its European counterparts at widening access to financing, with 64% of Irish SMEs using trade finance solutions – over four times the proportion of SMEs in Germany or France.
By implementing Surecomp’s innovative software solution, the Bank of Ireland is at the forefront of a new movement in the finance industry: innovation and automation to improve efficiency, transparency, and speed, powered by expert digital service providers.
