Citi is developing Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology so that letters of credit (L/Cs) and other trade documents can be processed more quickly and accurately.

According to Citi's head of global trade, John Ahearn, such technology is needed because paper-based documents will still be required in the foreseeable future.

Manual checks

While so many banking processes have become faster and more accurate by using new technologies, Ahearn argues that L/Cs will still need to be paper-based.

He points out that regardless of whether an L/C is presented physically or electronically, it still has to be checked manually.

Moreover, he argues that trade processes involving documents such as invoices and bills of lading will also have to remain paper-based.

Checking centres

Ahearn advocates the use off OCR, which scans text so that it becomes machine-readable and would strip data from images.

Scanned data could then be sent to remote low-cost data checking centres.

This article represents the views of the author and not necessarily those of the ICC or any of the other partners in DC-PRO.