Surecomp has announced the completion of successful electronic bills of lading (eBL) transactions bringing together multiple parties via its collaborative trade finance platform, RIVO.

Banks can use RIVO as a centralised hub to access all their eBL providers in the same workflow to seamlessly connect their eBLs to letters of credit (L/Cs).

Second phase success

Further to initial transactions processed in September last year, this second phase focused on streamlining the entire eBL workflow.

This not only enabled greater efficiency and transparency, but also demonstrated how an error-free process can dramatically reduce the time it takes to process a transaction down to only one hour.

Pilot transactions

Surecomp ran two separate pilot transactions in parallel, with the world's largest shipping company Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) acting as the carrier generating the eBL in both instances.

The first also included MAN Truck and Bus, Commerzbank and Bangkok Bank, while the second involved Voith, another German corporate, Bayerische Landesbank and Indonesia's PT Bank BTPN.

Integrated L/Cs and eBLs

Utilising an integration with the WaveBL platform to efficiently generate the digital bill of lading, the eBL was then attached to the L/C transaction in RIVO.

Demonstrating a smooth transition from the physical to the digital realm, the document was then centrally accessible and transferable to all parties, the beneficiary, advising bank, issuing bank and applicant.

The entire process took only one hour to complete. With live status updates verified simultaneously on the WaveBL platform throughout the entire process, the clean documents were then presented under an electronically issued L/C.

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