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Spanish financial services giant CaixaBank has started offering access to blockchain technology to its customers.
CaixaBank, along with two other members of the former Batavia consortium – Erste Group and UBS, joined we.trade, a blockchain-based trade finance platform in Europe, in October 2018.
Initiated in 2017, we.trade aims to increase the security and traceability of national and international trading transactions. It provides real-time monitoring of transactions, which increases transparency throughout the process. Also, the platform can only be accessed by verified customers, which helps ensure the security and trust element of the transactions.
In its latest press release, CaixaBank has announced that it has added we.trade to its service catalogue for companies.
“[we.trade] platform offers speed, simplicity and security for all parties in foreign trade transactions. It has been developed by a consortium comprising 15 European financial institutions, and it allows importers and exporters -collectively from a single connection point- to conduct their trading operations in a digital format in a simple and user-friendly way,” CaixaBank said.
The platform’s smart contract functionality links the trading operation with the financing or payment, and with the fulfillment of the trading conditions, which prevents any default risk for companies. In addition, the platform streamlines the transaction process for suppliers and buyers on a single shared platform, improving their cash management and planning.
In April 2019, Societe Generale announced access to we.trade for all of its corporate clients based in France. In the following month, Nordea announced the launch of we.trade platform for its small and middle-sized business customers (SMEs). UBS also went live on we.trade in October, providing services to SMEs.
