Bolero International, probably the most established of global trade finance digitisation providers, has announced a new partnership with Mitigram, an online global platform for funding and hedging trade risk.

The two companies aim to provide corporates and banks with a one-stop-shop for trade transactions, combining the advantages of Bolero's highly advanced Galileo platform, which features a letter of credit (L/C) management function, with the world's largest pricing discovery and collaboration network powered by Mitigram.

Substantial benefits

For corporate clients Bolero claims the benefits will be substantial, enabling them to bring together two linked, but currently separate, operations.

This would provide a complete, end-to-end service through the entire lifecycle of an import/export deal.

Reciprocal arrangements

For the first time, from within Galileo, a corporate customer wishing to conduct a transaction will be able to request and compare quotes from multiple banks on the pricing of risk mitigation and financing.

This service will continue through to the handling of the trade finance with the selected bank and the conduct of the transaction using paper and/or electronic documents on Galileo.

Similarly, from a pre-trade request tendered on Mitigram to assess banks' availability for risk cover and financing, a corporate customer will be able to issue instructions to its partner banks on Galileo, thus achieving straight-through execution.

L/C benefits

Bolero launched its Galileo offering earlier this year claiming the new platform will future-proof digital trade services for banks, corporates, carriers and other parties (DC World News, 21 February 2020).

Galileo enables treasuries to use just one log-in to create, edit and manage multiple L/Cs, electronic presentations and guarantees, as well as open account transactions and electronic bills of lading.

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