Alfa-Bank and Novolipetsk Steel Company has teamed up with Commerzbank and Vesuvius to launch a cross-border payments program.
The pilot service is being launched through the Marco Polo international trade finance network and will represent the first Russian-German import-export operations financing project.
Objectives from the pilot are to build a digital end-to-end trade finance and supply chain finance solution on a blockchain platform. Marco Polo will provide network members with a series of APIs for direct interaction with ERP systems which allow international trade participants to make payments, create irrevocable payment obligations and discount accounts receivables within a transparent ecosystem.
Alfa-Bank head of trade finance Dina Merkulova said, “We launched our first distributed ledger technology in trade finance as early as 2017. Since then, corporate blockchain solutions have been considerably elaborated, and earned our clients’ confidence and proved their applicability to real business processes.
“Projects such as Marco Polo create added value for clients ensuring more international trade transparency and manageability thanks to integrated bank payment, finance and discount instruments.”
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