R3 has conducted a milestone test of a trade finance offering powered by blockchain which took place on its Corda platform.
New York-based enterprise blockchain technology company R3 has just successfully completed its largest finance trial test, according to a recent announcement. The move was a trial of the Marco Polo Platform for Open Account Trade Finance by R3 and was hosted on the company’s Corda blockchain.
According to the announcement, the test had participation from more than 70 organizations across over 25 countries and five continents. It also had more than 340 participants and big names from several sectors including real estate, maritime, hospitality, logistics, IT and telecoms, financial services and the automotive industry. Some of these names include Commerzbank AG, BMW, SBI Holdings, the Saudi British Bank, the Bank of East Asia, Citizens Bank, Banorte, ABN AMRO, SBI R3 Japan, the Sumimoto Corporation, the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation, and many more.
The test was carried out for Marco Polo’s receivables finance product also developed by TradeIX and how well it can work across borders. According to the company:
“Receivables Financing, also known as Factoring or Receivables Discounting, is a form of Receivables Purchase which allows companies to optimize their working capital, mitigate credit risk and improve liquidity.”
The product allows a willing business to sell these receivables in exchange for instant cash. R3’s reason for this product in the first place is to create a better working environment and interconnectivity between businesses, and also reduce loss and the risk that comes with onboarding as much as possible. The company says that the test period saw over 700 funding requests successfully completed with the participants requiring training for one day, on average. Because of this, R3 boasts that the Marco Polo Platform can be “easily adopted and onboarded across varying digital proficiencies in organizations very quickly.”
The trial also involved a survey and all respondents believe that all solutions regarding working capital and trade finance which are powered by “distributed architecture” will do a lot to better their respective industries. The survey also showed that all of the respondents agree that all banks and corporate organizations will benefit from Marco Polo as the platform will “accelerate and improve the receivables discounting process and reduce cost.” On how soon this can be achieved, at least 75% say that it will happen sometime with the next 5 years.
Speaking on the trial, R3’s Chief Revenue Officer Cathy Minter has said that the successful test proves that with blockchain, there can be smooth interconnectivity across different sectors.
“The success of our largest trial to date marks an exciting time for the Marco Polo network. The cross-sector participation we have seen in this trial is a testament to the potential blockchain has in transforming trade finance. We are proud partners of TradeIX and look forward to continuing our shared aim of revolutionizing the trade finance landscape with blockchain technology”, noted Minter.
next