HDBank
has joined the open trade finance network to increase its ability to extend trade financing to more corporates. The Vietnamese-based financial institution is the latest financial institution to join Contour and marks the first bank in Vietnam to be part of the Contour’s trade finance network.
Contour’s network was built on R3’s Corda and is focused on overhauling the Letter of Credit (LC) issuance process. LCs are traditionally paper-based, time-consuming to process and costly to deal with. By digitizing LCs on a blockchain network, the processing time and cost involved will be significantly reduced. With the current socio-economic climate, the need for further efficiency in the market has grown even more apparent. This offers an opportunity for Vietnamese corporates to take advantage of the online negotiation and streamlined management of Letters of Credit with counterparties in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the USA.
Carl Wegner, Chief Executive Officer at Contour said: “The focus with our network has always been to establish a neutral platform that all different types of banks and corporates can use for trade finance transactions. To fully unlock the potential of what enterprise blockchain can bring to trade finance, banks and corporates need to be able to collaborate and forge new connections. That is the ultimate aim of Contour, and it’s something we’re continuing to see as we welcome HDBank into the network.”
Pham Quoc Thanh, CEO at HDBank, added: “We saw the potential for Contour to revolutionize how we issue LCs and knew it was an opportunity like no other. From working with Carl and his team, we hope to change that, providing increased flexibility with LCs, streamlining the process and providing funds to corporates in a far more efficient manner than ever before. In due course, we look forward to sharing news of transactions taking place on this network.”
Contour’s network of Banks, Corporates and Partners enable the instant flow of trusted data across the world’s trade routes and fragmented ecosystems, creating a streamlined future for businesses. The letter of credit blockchain, formerly known as Voltron, has initiated numerous pilots in 14 countries and recently had a global trial involving 50 banks and corporates. The backers of the project are Bangkok Bank, BNP Paribas, CTBC, HSBC, ING Bank, Standard Chartered, SEB, consultants Bain & Company. Technology partners are CryptoBLK and R3.
