Author: Digital Trade Outlook

National Bank of Bahrain is the first bank in BENEFIT’s Trade Finance Registry, which lets lenders check an invoice before they fund it.

Taptap Send customers in Bahrain can now verify their identity at registration through eKey 2.0, the national digital authentication system run by Beyon Connect.

Centalion has deployed its own AI Treasury Agent on Komgo’s Konsole, cutting issuance time by around 55% and amendment time by around 80% on its first facility.

Banco Santander Brazil is the first bank in Brazil to implement Komgo’s Konsole, giving corporate clients a platform to manage foreign trade operations.

OakNorth has selected Wise Platform to give its UK business customers international payments in more than 20 currencies at the mid market exchange rate.

Beyon and KFH Bahrain have activated a digital Supply Chain Finance programme giving Beyon’s suppliers, especially SMEs, access to early payment.

OpenFX has launched OpenFX Ventures to back early stage cross border payments founders with capital, market connectivity and early product access.

The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has put foreign banks on notice. In an alert issued under what Treasury calls “Operation Economic Outcast,” it says foreign financial institutions that keep doing business with Iran or its financial sector may be sanctioned, and could be targeted at any time without advance notification. The Treasury says foreign financial institutions should act immediately to end that activity and those relationships. The alert also points to Iranian “shadow banking” networks that use front and shell companies to move funds and hide the link to Iran. A Warning Without a Grace Period…

Mayer Brown has hired Michelle Herman, a structured finance lawyer, for its global trade finance practice in New York. According to the firm, she advises borrowers and lenders on trade receivables, commercial loans and instalment sales contracts. Her particular strength is trade receivables securitisations, along with the “bankruptcy, accounting and commercial considerations that arise in sophisticated financing structures.” She comes from Jones Day, where she had worked since mid-2010, and was earlier an associate at Weil Gotshal & Manges and Dewey Ballantine. Zachary Carrier, a Mayer Brown trade finance partner, said the firm has been “across the table from Michelle…

U.S. Bank has recruited a payments leader from Citi to run sales for four industries. Calvert Lange is now senior vice president and Payments: Merchant and Institutional (PMI) Sales Group Head for the Technology, Transportation, Consumer and Hospitality sectors in the Institutional Client Group. Her team provides payment and treasury management solutions to technology, media, telecom, automotive, transportation, consumer and hospitality companies. Lange has more than 18 years in payments and treasury services. At Citi she led the Payments & Liquidity Product Sales group, advising Fortune 500 and multinational companies on payments, liquidity and working capital, and held leadership roles…