MT798 is SWIFT initiative that facilitates Corporate to Bank (C2B) and Bank to Corporate (B2C) communication for the processing of Documentary Credits and Guarantees. Nordea has been a firm supporter of MT798 as a way to standardise and digitise messaging in trade finance. By using the MT798, companies can execute trade finance transactions with all their banks from one platform and digitalize the interchange in the bank to corporate space.

Nordea have now implemented capabilities to support the full range of both incoming and outgoing MT798 messages related to export DCs and in- and outbound bank guarantees. The MT798 message type is now fully integrated with Nordea back-end systems and can be processed automatically - serving the means of improving efficiency, lowering costs and reducing operational risk both for banks and corporates. Import DCs are not included as they were determined to be less relevant to Nordic corporates.

“Digitalisation of trade and trade finance has proven to be complicated due to the number of participants involved in a trade finance transaction. However, by our close cooperation with a number of forward-thinking corporate customers, we have developed our capabilities together. This is how far we can reach for now in terms of taking a leap towards higher operative efficiency, as we await and prepare for future developments in areas such as distributed ledgers and big data technologies,” comments Urban Ljungblom, Head of Trade Finance Industry and Public Affairs at Nordea.

“We are pleased to see that utilisation of the SWIFT envelope MT798 has taken off in the Nordics,” adds Erica Åhman, Head of SWIFT in the Nordics. “This single channel and communication standard improves straight-through processing and is enabling a centralised view of trade transactions worldwide, both for business management and the increasingly important compliance purposes.”