While letter of credit (L/C) processing and management workflows have remained largely unchanged for decades, the surrounding ecosystem has recently undergone significant transformation, according to an article written by Amey Prabhu.

Prabu, who is solution architect and head of trade finance product at Veefin Solutions, says that not only has the surrounding ecosystem has evolved, it also continues to evolve rapidly.

Electronic mainstream

Document checks are now AI-driven, data entry forms are pre-filled from scanned or uploaded documents, and the widespread acceptance of electronic documentation is quickly becoming mainstream, Prabu says in an article published on the Finextra web site.

"Intra-bank communication has shifted from phone calls and emails to inter-application API calls, enabling seamless, real-time data exchange across departments such as trade finance operations, risk assessment, compliance, and treasury," he says.

Empowering clients

Self-service is no longer a nice-to-have - it has become a foundational principle. Banks expect their business and product teams to tailor workflows and launch new offerings independently, without relying on the IT vendor for every change, according to the article.

It concludes that there is a strong push to move more functionality to customer portals - empowering clients to initiate, track, and manage trade transactions with minimal friction and greater autonomy.

Amey Prabhu's article, Standard Workflows, Strategic Architecture, published by Finextra can be found here.

This article represents the views of the author and not necessarily those of the ICC or Coastline Solutions.