Standard Chartered announced Tuesday its investment into Contour (formerly known as Voltron), a blockchain-based open industry platform that will initially focus on digitally creating, exchanging, approving and issuing Letters of Credit (LCs), following the full commercialisation of its offering and appointment of CEO Carl Wegner.
As one of the founding members, the Bank will continue to collaborate with Contour, bringing its expertise and digital capabilities to deliver a faster and frictionless experience for clients accessing trade finance.
According to their media statement the platform has “revolutionised documentary trade by transforming the previously paper-intensive ways of working” since its inception. Contour digitises end-to-end process from he issuance of LCs to confirmation and documentation presentation, all trade participants can view real time updates on the progress of their transaction.
They recently completed a pilot project with a large Thai-based petrochemical player.
In the next phase of development, Contour will look at further expanding its ecosystem to include more banks, technology providers and other established trade finance networks, with the vision of becoming a new industry standard for the digitisation of global trade. To that end, Standard Chartered will be injecting its smart guarantee capabilities, which will enable the digitisation of the bank guarantees process from initiation to claim handling.
“Our investment into Contour underscores our commitment to forge partnerships and solve common industry challenges – taking paper out of the process while improving speed and accuracy,”
said Lisa Robins, Global Head of Transaction Banking, Standard Chartered.
“With our footprint across the world’s fastest-growing trade corridors, we have the unique opportunity to support our clients in achieving a more sustainable supply chain, by improving access to financing through paperless trade and simpler processes.”
Featured image credit: Unsplash
