HSH Nordbank AG, a strong regional bank in Northern Europe and a global provider of specialist finance, has today announced a major extension to the portfolio of trade finance tools it offers its corporate customers.
It is working with Bolero, the leading provider of secure financial supply chain solutions, to provide an electronic platform that enables the efficient and standard communication of Letter of Credit applications and advices between the bank and its customers. The Bolero solution provides a single, consolidated view of all Letter of Credit positions enabling corporate customers to optimise their cash flow and maximise credit line opportunities.
Leading HSH Nordbank customers, including the Swiss-based Glencore group, are using Bolero's financial supply chain solutions to reduce their procure-to-pay and order-to-cash cycles, and eliminate the inaccuracies and delays associated with manual entry and proprietary bank interfaces.
The DTA secure standard for documentary credit has been developed by members of the Zentraler Kreditausschuss (ZKA), the standards committee of the German banking industry. The committee is tasked with creating a standardised format for the secure exchange of Letter of Credit Advices.
"With its commitment to driving innovation to the benefit of its trade finance customers, HSH Nordbank can now provide immediate competitive advantage through the full audit trail and reduced administrative burden our BoleroApply and BoleroAdvise services deliver," added Claire Buchanan, Bolero's senior vice president, global field operations. "The bank's decision is further evidence of Bolero's position as the dominant platform in support of corporate-to-bank-to-corporate financial supply chain automation."
BoleroAdvise and BoleroApply provide organisations with a comprehensive, standards-based automated Letter of Credit platform that supports full multi-bank communication. The Bolero services allow importers and exporters to apply for and receive all their Letters of Credit in a standard format using the same web-based user interface – regardless of the identity of the bank involved. This overcomes the inconvenience and time taken to manage multiple interfaces, formats, paper documents and faxes, while electronic handling will remove the likelihood of manual error, reducing rejection rates.