14 May 2019 (São Paulo / London) – Brazil’s Banco Bradesco is the latest bank to join Marco Polo, the largest and fastest growing trade finance network powered by Corda blockchain technology to bring significant efficiencies in financing trade and working capital.
The Marco Polo Network brings together leading financial institutions, their corporate clients and technology partners to make key trade finance challenges a thing of the past. Leveraging R3’s Corda blockchain technology and the TradeIX distributed trade finance platform, members are enabled to offer to their customers new solutions, facilitate easier integration and significantly reduce response-time in transactions.
Bradesco joins BNP Paribas, Commerzbank, ING, LBBW, Anglo-Gulf Trade Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Natixis, Bangkok Bank, SMBC, Danske Bank, NatWest, DNB, OP Financial Group, Alfa-Bank, BayernLB, Helaba and S-Servicepartner as a member of the largest network of commercial banks leveraging blockchain for trade finance.
The Marco Polo Network allows financial institutions to experiment with blockchain technology and share knowledge before they start developing their own differentiated trade finance offerings on the distributed platform. These trade finance solutions are easily accessible by their corporate customers thanks to the first ERP-embedded application and specific APIs for working capital finance.
Roberto Medeiros, Bradesco´s Head of International and Trade Finance, said: “Facilitating financial inclusion and supporting economic growth is one of our key priorities. Following the successful digitalization of our retail services, we’re now focused on leveraging the best technology to develop new trade finance solutions for our corporate banking customers”.
“Our Research & Innovation Department carefully assessed the options available to implement blockchain solutions and APIs. The expertise of the Marco Polo Network, the forward-looking vision and the end user-focused approach convinced us that we had found the optimum place to succeed”, he added.
“Today, trade processes are suffering from the lack of connectivity not only between financial institutions and their customers but also within the commercial banking sector itself and with third party service providers. The Marco Polo Network epitomizes our members’ willingness to put their customers first and work together to improve their experience to finance working capital”, said Daniel Cotti, Managing Director, Center of Excellence, Banking & Trade for the Marco Polo Network. “We’re delighted to welcome Branco Bradesco to the network and are looking forward to launching our first pilot in the Latin American region”, he added.
“As Marco Polo’s global network continues to grow momentum, it is clear that it is bringing tremendous value to the trade finance and working capital sector. Institutions which get ahead of the curve by engaging actively with blockchain technology now through use-cases and pilots will be ahead of the curve and gain a significant competitive advantage. Banco Bradesco is joining a network leading the way in exploring how blockchain can improve the entire trade finance lifecycle” said David E. Rutter, CEO of R3.
