Author: Digital Trade Outlook

The US-China truce runs to 10 January, but China’s rare earth pause still ends on 10 November in writing. What the two dates mean for trade finance.

PPRO, BLIK, EPI, Bancontact and DIAS have formed a council to set technical standards so local payment methods work when AI agents make purchases.

C2FO plans to pay suppliers in seconds by settling Instant Pay financing in RLUSD on the XRP Ledger, while BNY and Ripple plan tokenised trade finance, starting with C2FO.

STG Logistics has named former UPS Freight chief Jack Holmes as CEO, alongside a broader refresh of its management team and board.

Mashreq has named BNY’s Rajeev Bhatnagar as Group Chief Risk Officer, bringing global payments and trade finance risk experience to the role.

Finastra launched StandbyX on October 19, offering US banks a cloud-enabled service for digitising standby letter of credit processing. The product is designed for institutions with low to moderate transaction volumes, including regional and midsized banks using manual or partly manual processes. StandbyX uses the standby letter of credit module within Finastra’s Trade Innovation platform, which the company says is trusted by more than 150 banks globally. Its software-as-a-service deployment is intended to reduce integration and testing requirements without requiring banks to implement a full trade finance platform. “Many U.S. banks have traditionally managed standby letters of credit through manual…

Thunes and Coinbase announced a collaboration on October 19 covering stablecoin infrastructure and international payouts. Coinbase will integrate Thunes’ Direct Global Network, providing access to local clearing systems and alternative payment methods. Thunes will support delivery to mobile wallets and bank accounts. Coinbase will supply the stablecoin infrastructure used by Thunes to integrate stablecoins more deeply across its network. The companies identified enterprise supplier payments, global gig-worker payouts and international remittances among the intended uses. Thunes’ wider network operates in over 140 countries and more than 90 currencies. These are network-wide figures, rather than a specified initial footprint for the…

BRAC Bank has gone live with Finastra’s Trade Innovation and Corporate Channels, alongside Conpend’s Trade AI solutions, according to an October 21 announcement. The implementation connects trade finance processing with corporate customer services, replacing fragmented processes and supporting greater straight-through processing. Corporate clients can use a single channel to initiate requests, collaborate securely, approve transactions and track progress in real time. The platform supports evolving industry standards, including ISO 20022 and Swift SR2026 requirements. Its architecture also allows the bank to expand capabilities and accommodate growing transaction volumes. “This implementation marks an important milestone in our trade finance transformation,” said…

HSBC launched its Hong Kong dollar stablecoin, HSBC RedCoin, on October 23 through PayMe. RedCoin, ticker RCHKD, is licensed and regulated by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. HSBC said more than 3.3 million PayMe users would be able to activate a stablecoin wallet in the coming days. The wallet supports instant transfers to friends and family and payments at more than 100,000 merchants through PayMe. HSBC Digital Assets Custody provides safekeeping services. Later this year, HSBC plans to add stablecoin wallets to its Hong Kong mobile banking app and enable subscriptions to tokenised investments, including a forthcoming share class of…

Tech Mahindra has acquired Finastra’s Cash Management product suite, comprising Fusion Cash Management, Fusion Virtual Accounts and Fusion Liquidity Management. Announced on October 23, the acquisition includes associated intellectual property and capabilities across CashPlus, Global CashPlus, APIs, payables, receivables, balance and transaction reporting, liquidity management, cash-flow forecasting and virtual accounts. Experienced product engineering and customer success staff will move to Tech Mahindra. The company said the transaction aims to maintain platform access, services and support for existing customers. “This is a good next step for these products, and, most importantly, for the customers who rely on them,” said Ruchir Purwar,…