Next Generation Trade Finance - Putting Innovation into Action

Treasury and supply chain disruption caused by external factors is nothing new, but recent developments may be making it the new normal. Therefore, the ability to switch technology and supply chains to new locations/suppliers with the minimum of upheaval is becoming a business imperative. This applies not just to the physical supply chain but also the financial one that underpins it, which presents corporate treasuries with significant additional challenges.

Working capital conversations between banks and corporates have typically focused on individual bank products, rather than the specific needs and challenges of the corporate – leaving opportunities and efficiencies on the table. But that’s all changing now, as Adeline de Metz, UniCredit, explains.

Technologies such as artificial intelligence have the potential to make it easier for treasurers to gain visibility and control over their cash. But simply investing in these technologies is not enough to achieve working capital efficiencies.

Increased pressure from investors and consumers is driving corporates to hold their suppliers increasingly accountable to sustainable and ethical standards. However, technological innovations are making sustainable SCF more of a tangible reality for treasury professionals in all areas of the industry.

A lasting partnership between Bahrain-headquartered AIG and BNP Paribas has kick-started a number of long-term digitisation and automation initiatives, resulting in improved finance and treasury processes.

With solutions such as we.trade revolutionising supply-chain interactions, while others, such as Project Wilson, connect correspondent banks to facilitate working capital financing, Simone Del Guerra of UniCredit discusses the shifting landscape of correspondent banking.