Barclays Completes Blockchain Trade Finance Transaction

A big bank trade finance trial has borne fruit.

Barclays

reported today that two partners (agriculture co-operative Ornua and food product distributor Seychelles Trading Company) were able to successfully transfer trade documentation via a blockchain platform created by its accelerator program graduate, Wave.

The Israel-based startup graduated from the TechStars FinTech accelerator last fall, at the time indicating it was using custom technology on top of a blockchain to facilitate the transfer of trade documents.

In statements, Barclays head of trade and working capital Baihas Baghdadi said the project confirms that adding multiple parties to a distributed ledger system can remove one of the biggest "headaches" associated with global trade, the movement of the paper documents that track and authenticate the transactions.

Baghdadi said:

The announcement follows news that a number of major banks are testing applications of blockchain in the global supply chain.

In August alone, banking consortium R3CEV revealed 15 of its members had participated in a trade finance trial, while Bank of America and HSBC reportedly embarked on a similar effort.

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