Blockchain trade finance network Contour has announced a partnership with TradeSun, a trade finance platform that features artificial intelligence technology that augments human behaviour by learning how employees interact with trade finance documents.

Contour says that technology will simplify the handling and authentication of paper-based documents for its users and speed up letter of credit (L/C) processing.

Further time savings

Processing times on Contour's initial digital L/C solution already reduced the time it took to process L/C presentations by up to 90 per cent from 10 days to 24 hours.

TradeSun aims to alleviate remaining labour-intensive processes by digitalising documents and checking compliance to further reduce processing times.

African benefits

The partnership aims to help streamline trade processes in key regions, including in Africa where innovation can provide greater access for banks and businesses wishing to trade according to Contour.

CEO of TradeSun, Nigel Hook, says that both companies recognise that technology will open doors in markets which have previously been hampered by the slow, duplicative, and expensive processes needed to complete trade transactions.

While Africa is the world's second largest continent and endowed with plentiful natural resources its economies represent just 2.3 per cent of global markets. "The Contour with TradeSun platform will fuel the economies by uniting their countries on the R3 Corda blockchain platform," Hook concludes.

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