Bangkok Bank, the only Thai bank involved in the development of R3's Corda-powered Voltron platform to digitise letters of credit (L/Cs), is poised to offer its customers digital trade finance solutions.

The bank is ready to roll out a blockchain-based L/C service according to the bank's executive director, Charamporn Jotikasthira.

Founding members

Bangkok Bank is one of eight founding members of Voltron, alongside BNP Paribas, CTBC Holding, HSBC, ING, NatWest, SEB and Standard Chartered.

With collaboration amongst these international banks, the blockchain-based platform can service export and import transactions worldwide.

Pilot transactions

Bangkok Bank is currently executing pilot blockchain L/C transactions for a company in Indonesia according to Charamporn.

He said the bank decided to run pilot transactions for blockchain L/Cs in Indonesia because of the readiness of all related parties.

Training completed

Staff in Bangkok Bank's overseas network have been trained to operate the blockchain L/C offering.

Charamporn anticipates that blockchain technology will shorten the L/C transaction process from an average of 10 days to just one day.

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