SEB bank creates its own part of a global blockchain platform

SEB, a leading Swedish bank, has created its own part of an international blockchain trade finance platform. The bank unveiled this news via an official press release on December 1, noting that it has created its manufacturing environment under Contour, a blockchain-based global platform for trade finance transactions, which was released in early October. this year.

For SEB, the manufacturing environment leverages blockchain technology, helping it facilitate banking processes. Currently, the bank is running a test environment, which is entering its beta phase before the next launch of the live production environment.

According to the press release, the project includes a platform that seeks to minimize the time spent processing letter of credit transactions. For SEB, the platform can potentially reduce delivery times by up to 90%, reducing the amount of time it takes to complete a transaction from an average of 10 days to less than 24 hours. According to the bank, the new platform would replace the current paper-based process with a digital solution.

Trade Finance’s Marina Sandquist and a member of the team working on the platform implementation at SEB said:

“By using this technology, all parties get a common interface and can access all information at the same time. This replaces SWIFT and the need to exchange physical mail “.

Develop a global platform

For SEB, she has been involved in the development of the Contour platform since its inception. The first step in developing the platform was five years ago when the bank joined an international banking consortium made up of leading banks such as Bangkok Bank, BNP Paribas, CTBC, HSBC, ING, Standard Chartered and Citi. This coalition led to the formation of R3, a US-based company, which later created a blockchain infrastructure platform called Corda.

SEB has been co-owner of R3 since 2017. According to the press release, a project has started the development of a commercial finance solution on the Corda platform. Contour has reportedly put this solution into global operation. Kristina Söderberg, Venture Capital, and Helen Seeman, global product manager for Trade Finance, Transaction Services, will represent SEB on the company’s board of directors.

A sector with great potential

To date, more than 80 banks and companies in 17 countries have already tested the technology to simplify transactions involving commodities, petrochemicals, energy and metals, among others. As such, SEB believes the potential of the technology is enormous.

For Sandquist,

“The trade finance market is expected to amount to $ 79 billion by 2026. According to original estimates, around 40% of this trade will use Contour’s blockchain technology by then.”