Marco Polo is one of the fastest growing trade finance business networks and is a joint undertaking with enterprise software firm R3, trade finance technology firm TradeIX and a network of the world’s largest financial institutions.

Natixis is now part of a growing number of leading banks such as BNP Paribas, Commerzbank, ING, Standard Chartered Bank, Bangkok Bank, SMBC, DNB and OP Financial Group that are part of the Marco Polo initiative to provide a trade and supply chain finance platform built on an interoperable business network powered by open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and blockchain technology.

“We are delighted to become a member of the Marco Polo network and offer trade and supply chain finance solutions leveraging blockchain technology. This initiative belongs to Natixis’ continuous transformation plan, which is putting digital technology and innovation at the core of its strategy to improve the experience of its clients.”
said Anne-Cécile Delas, Global Head of Global Transaction Banking at Natixis. "We look forward to active collaboration with the other key members of the initiative and believe that there will be significant opportunity to synergistically drive the adoption of blockchain and new trade solutions in the trade finance market."

Based on R3’s Corda blockchain technology, the infrastructure provided by Marco Polo is focusing on open account trade finance orchestrations with data matching, designed to be integrated in new and existing solutions and other trade networks. The principal focus of the Marco Polo initiative is adding new bank members, offering trade finance solutions to their corporate clients and the opportunity to distribute trade assets and data with other members.

“Blockchain’s potential to transform the trade finance ecosystem has always been clear. With the Marco Polo network on our Corda platform we are moving forward from potential to reality. We are pleased to welcome Natixis on board,” said David E. Rutter, CEO of R3.

“We are very pleased that Natixis has joined the Marco Polo network. This should be a signal that there is broad agreement in this sector that crosses some significant strategic and organizational boundaries about collaboration, leveraging new technologies and to provide standards and best practices in the traditionally fragmented regional trade finance space," said Daniel Cotti, CFO and Bank Partner Relationships at TradeIX.