Author: Digital Trade Outlook
Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD) has become the first bank from the Middle East, and the first from outside Europe, to join the Commercial Bank Money Token network, known as CBMT. The initiative is led by Die Deutsche Kreditwirtschaft (German banking association) and counts Commerzbank, DZ Bank, Helaba, UniCredit, ABN AMRO, BNP Paribas and DNB among its participants. CBD will onboard to the CBMT Sandbox, which launched in Frankfurt in November 2025, and is run with GFT and UDPN as technical service providers. The sandbox currently covers the euro, US dollar, Japanese yen and Norwegian krone.A Network is Only as…
Finastra has launched Repair Recommendations, a new AI powered capability within its AI OperatorAssist, aimed at helping banks fix payment exceptions faster as volumes grow. The company announced the feature at Sibos 2026 in Miami.The cloud native feature identifies payment discrepancies, analyses the underlying causes and offers recommended corrections that are checked against the rules of payment schemes and networks, including Swift, Fedwire, SEPA, UPI and Nexus. It is meant for the teams that handle payment exceptions day to day, including wire room operators, exception and repair specialists and technical support staff, and Finastra says it will cut the time…
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, and SMBC have announced a $500 million supply chain finance facility to widen access to affordable working capital for small and medium sized businesses in emerging markets. Under the facility, credit is based on the financial strength of large buyers and not on the suppliers themselves, so smaller businesses can receive early payment on invoices at rates they could not reach alone. The first anchor buyer is a large food manufacturer in Latin America, and the model is built to take on more buyers across sectors and markets.…
Absa Group has selected cross border payments network Thunes as a strategic Multicurrency Clearing partner for the Group, building on the two companies’ recent launch of Absa Global Pay in South Africa. The announcement was made from Johannesburg and Singapore last week. Under the arrangement, Absa’s pan African banking footprint will be linked directly to Thunes’ Direct Global Network, which spans more than 140 countries, 90 currencies and 220 payment methods. The two companies said this will allow payouts beyond bank accounts to mobile wallets and card rails, backed by 24/7 liquidity and enterprise grade compliance. Executives from both organisations…
BMO and Mastercard have launched a capability that lets eligible BMO Corporate Card clients start and manage BMO Commercial virtual card payments directly inside the software they use to run their operations. BMO becomes the first Mastercard issuer in Canada to offer an integrated embedded finance and payment experience by virtual card. The capability is available now for eligible clients in Canada and the United States. It connects commercial payments to enterprise resource planning, procurement, accounts payable and travel management systems, so businesses can handle payments inside their existing workflows. It runs on Mastercard’s Commercial Express framework, which gives participating…
The European Investment Bank, through EIB Global and ADOPEM, a Dominican financial institution serving entrepreneurs and smaller businesses, have signed a €4.5 million financing agreement to support sargassum projects in the Dominican Republic. The loan is backed by the European Commission EFSD+ guarantee and remains subject to approval by the country’s Superintendency of Banks. The agreement was announced in Cancún, Mexico, on October 5, 2026. A further €1.1 million in European Commission technical assistance, supported by EIB Advisory, takes the Team Europe package to €5.6 million. The financing is meant for businesses with fewer than 10 employees and for small…
ANZ has completed one of the world’s first live corporate treasury transactions using tokenised deposits and Swift’s ledger, working with its customer BHP, Swift and Citi. The bank announced the milestone on September 30, 2026, and said it is the first Australian bank to use Swift’s blockchain ledger.The transaction involved US dollar payments between Melbourne and New York, and it was designed to keep friction low. BHP used its existing ANZ account and banking channel, while the tokenised deposits and digital ledger technology worked behind the scenes. ANZ said the payments showed how shared ledger technology could move cross border…
Mizuho Bank has selected Traydstream’s TraydCheck and TraydConnect to support its trade finance digitisation initiatives, the trade finance technology company said. The announcement was made from London and Tokyo on September 30, 2026.With Mizuho joining MUFG and SMBC, all three Japanese megabanks now use TraydCheck. Traydstream said this makes it the only trade finance focused fintech serving all three institutions through a common document checking platform.TraydCheck uses intelligent automation to support the scrutiny of trade documents, with the aim of reducing manual processing, improving consistency and speeding up turnaround times. TraydConnect adds digital connectivity and collaboration between banks and their…
Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD) has become the first bank from the Middle East, and the first from outside Europe, to join the Commercial Bank Money Token network, known as CBMT. The initiative is led by Die Deutsche Kreditwirtschaft (German banking association) and counts Commerzbank, DZ Bank, Helaba, UniCredit, ABN AMRO, BNP Paribas and DNB among its participants. CBD will onboard to the CBMT Sandbox, which launched in Frankfurt in November 2025, and is run with GFT and UDPN as technical service providers. The sandbox currently covers the euro, US dollar, Japanese yen and Norwegian krone.A Network is Only as…
Apple Pay has launched in India for the first time, through a partnership with Axis Bank, giving the payment service its first foothold in one of the world’s largest digital payments markets. Axis Bank, India’s third-largest private lender, becomes the first Indian bank to offer Apple Pay, initially to credit card customers on the Visa and Mastercard networks. Cards on RuPay, India’s homegrown payment network, are not eligible.Over the coming weeks, Axis Bank Mastercard and Visa credit card customers will be able to add their cards to Apple Wallet, either through Axis Bank’s mobile app or directly through Apple Wallet,…