Mail order company Otto Versand is the first company to receive a certificate of origin sent via online trade finance service Bolero. Separately, Bolero has announced that two of the largest banks in Korea and Japan have agreed to promote the service for trade between the two countries.
Certificates of origin provide proof of the domicile of production and are used principally for quota management purposes on an international basis.
Ocean Garments of Hong Kong sent the certificate to Otto Versand in the UK via Bolero partner Tradelink, an electronic trade services provider for the government and private sector in Hong Kong. Otto Versand was then able to pass this documentation electronically to UK HM Customs & Excise.
According to Bolero CEO Arthur Vonchek, moving certificates of origin online will expand the potential number of transactions that the Bolero system can address for Otto Versand and other importers and exporters around the world.
"This in turn will deepen the delivery of value to their bottom line and accelerate the return on their investments in the Bolero solution," he adds.
Meanwhile, Japan's UFJ Bank and Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) have agreed to promote Bolero's Surf product, an online mechanism that ensures both parties to a trade have fulfilled their contractual obligations. With the introduction of Surf, UFJ and KEB customers will be able to cut the time taken to process a typical trade from several weeks to less than a day.
The deal includes agreements on e-trade services as a part of a wider arrangement to develop joint business opportunities in foreign exchange, trade and project finance.