One of northern Europe's largest regional banks has become the latest in a string of banks to announce that it is working with Bolero to provide its corporate customers with an electronic platform capable of communicating letter of credit (L/C) applications and advices between it and its customers.

HSH Nordbank joins the likes of ING Wholesale and Dresdner Bank in the growing number of financial institutions adopting the BoleroAdvise and BoleroApply solutions. (DC World, 30 November 2005).

DTA compliant

The bank based in Hamburg, Germany says it is adopting the Bolero solutions in order "to reduce their procure-to-pay and order-to-cash cycles, and eliminate the inaccuracies and delays associated with manual entry and proprietary bank interfaces," according to a Bolero statement.

The Bolero solutions comply with the German DTA standard format for documentary credits developed by members of the Zentraler Kreditausschuss with the aim of creating a consistent format for messages, including those sent and received in the processes of L/C advices and applications.

Standard format

The Bolero services allow importers and exporters to apply for and receive their L/Cs in a standard format using the same web-based user interface, regardless of the identity of the bank involved.

This, according to Bolero, overcomes the inconvenience and time taken to manage multiple interfaces, formats, paper documents and faxes, while electronic handling will remove the likelihood of manual error, reducing rejection rates.

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