Dutch financial services company ING has signed up to bolero.net, the Internet-based trade finance platform sponsored by interbank messaging outfit Swift, and logistics association the Through Transport group.
Bolero commercial director Peter Scott, says ING was won over by the legal strictures applying to the scheme. "Electronic trade has traditionally been stymied by the lack of a clear legal framework, with most international agreements taking the use of paper as given in cross-border transactions."
Bolero employed 350 lawyers in a global study to help resolve the legal obstructions to the dematerialision of trade documentation. Says Scott: "The result is our most valuable piece of intellectual property - the Bolero Rule Book - which provides for functional equivalence' between the electronic and paper worlds, and binds every single user without exception."
Willem van der Hoek, head of payments, products and services ING Bank, adds: "The introduction of bolero.net will result in considerable operational efficiencies, as well as allowing us to build new own e-business products."
ING has signed up to bolero.net as a premier founder user, which allows the organisation to sponsor its own trading partners and customers to use the platform at a reduced rate.