Alfa-Bank and Novolipetsk Steel Company (NLMK), in cooperation with Commerzbank, Germany, and Vesuvius GmbH, Germany, have launched a pilot project of cross-border payments via the Marco Polo international trade finance network. For Marco Polo, it is the first Russian-German import-export operations financing project.

Existing systems are woefully inefficient, siloed or still paper-based and many of them have not improved for decades. The Marco Polo Network is working with Financial Institutions, Corporates and Technology & Service Providers to remove the barriers preventing them from operating at their best.

AGTB: New kid on the block. TFG heard from Daniel Gould, Deputy CEO of Anglo-Gulf Trade Bank, and its new digital offering for trade finance in the UAE and MENA region. Building a trade bank from scratch without relying on legacy technologies has enabled AGTB to reimagine trade finance, building a competitive product for the corporate banking space.

The Italian Banking market continues to face headwinds and pressures around new payment service directives (PSDII), challenges from the regulator, and changing customer needs. TFG caught up with the CEO of regtech innovator CBI about their latest product CBI Globe, and how this is positioned to help Italian banks succeed and grow.

TFG spoke to the author of ‘Digital Ecosystems within Trade Finance’, a BCG, SWIFT and ICC report on the state of networks and consortia, the key problem points within trade and trade finance, as well as the current barriers in terms of digitalisation both from a corporate and bank perspective. Deepesh spoke to Sukand Ramachandran at BCG about how global trade is changing and the role of digital ecosystems within this.

In Europe, small and mid-sized companies make up an astonishing 99% of all businesses – and over the last five years they generated 85% of all new jobs in the region. at a time of accelerating economic uncertainty and technological change, it would be irresponsible for those of us with the power to act not to do what we can to give the drivers of Europe’s economy the tools they need to succeed.

“I joined SWIFT as part of the 5 man global sales team in 1985, so SIBOS in Brighton was my first … and of course it was memorable…I stayed for 20 years, attended 23 SIBOS events across the world- pioneering days … no mobile phones, paper based processes, no internet …’

The Universal Trade Network (UTN), a project initially aimed to allow for interoperability between many of the blockchain and non-blockchain consortia and networks has been renamed and adopted by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

Twitter has changed the way politics is portrayed. Not only has it arguably drifted political opinions further apart, but it has also given rise to issues like false information and hate speech in the political discourse.

TFG spoke to Emmanuelle Ganne, Senior Analyst and Blockchain Lead at the World Trade Organization on the state of digitisation within trade and trade finance. With the rise of numerous DLT and non-DLT consortia, what role should multilateral bodies play, and how can we create paperless trade together? The interview was held at ExCred Commodities in London.