South Africa's Standard Bank has been familiarising international traders with its latest online trade finance tools, including electronic letters of credit (L/Cs) facilities, at a major international trade exhibition.

The bank's international trade division was demonstrating and explaining its services at the South African International Trade Exhibition (Saitex), the only multi-sector trade fair of its size and kind in Africa.

L/C functionality

One of the services Standard Bank was promoting at Saitex was its international trade system, managed by the iTrade unit and designed to deliver international trade-related products online.

The system's functions include mechanisms for issuing, amending, cancelling or paying L/Cs electronically.

Online marketplace

Standard Bank also demonstrated its Global Trade Connect facility. It enables clients to advertise their products in 16 different languages to more than 6.5 million businesses in more than 200 countries.

The bank's international trade finance units operate out of South Africa's major cities as well as 17 sub-Saharan African countries and 20 countries on other continents, including the key financial centres of Europe, the US and Asia.

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