Author: Digital Trade Outlook

Société Générale has appointed Joseph Chia as Head of Supply Chain Management for Asia Pacific, strengthening its transaction banking franchise as corporate demand shifts toward working capital and open-account trade solutions. Based in Singapore, Chia takes the role with immediate effect. He reports regionally to Soo Tat Kua, Head of Global Transaction and Payment Services for Asia Pacific, and globally to Aurélien Viry, CEO of Société Générale Factoring. The hire lands as corporates across the region move away from documentary trade finance toward open-account structures, pushing supply chain finance up the transaction banking agenda. Chia will oversee the bank’s accounts…

Citi has launched Citi Consolidate, an invoice processing solution powered by Infor Nexus, Infor’s multi-enterprise supply chain network, to digitise trade processes for corporate buyers and their suppliers. The solution pulls invoice approval, purchase order, and payables processes into a single end-to-end digital flow. Invoice creation, reconciliation, and payment approvals have long been fragmented manual tasks that could take weeks, leaving buyers short of data and suppliers short of financing. Citi Consolidate aims to improve straight-through processing, cut approval times, and speed access to working capital. “Citi Consolidate demonstrates our relentless commitment to driving innovative solutions to help our clients…

Onafriq has partnered with digital asset infrastructure provider Privy to expand stablecoin payments across Africa. The deal embeds Privy’s infrastructure into Onafriq’s ecosystem and adds stablecoin capabilities for businesses across its network. Phase one focuses on cross-chain stablecoin transfers, treasury optimization and settlement — setting up faster cross-border transactions and better liquidity management across African markets. Cross-border payments in Africa have long been slowed by fragmented systems, multiple intermediaries and slow settlement. As businesses hunt for faster, cheaper options, stablecoins are stepping in to cut delays and improve liquidity. Through Privy’s infrastructure, Onafriq gives banks, fintechs and mobile money operators…

AI-native financial infrastructure provider Lianlian has completed Greater China’s first live B2B agentic transaction. The payment was executed by LoopXPay, Lianlian’s AI agent, with support from Visa’s Agentic Directory for trusted AI agent interactions. In the transaction, the LoopXPay agent sourced a product sample from a supplier and completed the purchase in a single workflow — identifying the requirement, recommending suppliers, comparing options, placing the order and securely executing the payment, all within pre-defined spending controls and approval parameters. LoopXPay is registered in Visa’s Agentic Directory, which lets participating businesses and merchants identify verified AI agents in the ecosystem. Supporting…

The International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC), a member of the Islamic Development Bank Group, and Uzbekistan’s Hamkorbank have signed a US$100 million syndicated financing facility. The agreement was signed on 20 July in Tashkent and Jeddah. It is the largest standalone Islamic trade finance transaction in Uzbekistan, giving Hamkorbank access to Shariah-compliant funding as private-sector demand for Islamic financing grows. Hamkorbank will primarily use the funds to support SMEs and projects tied to women’s entrepreneurship, green finance and food security. The facility broadens its Islamic product range and adds a channel to serve companies needing import financing, working capital…

Garanti BBVA has introduced a treasury solution using derivatives to help companies trading with the European Union hedge carbon cost risk from price swings in Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) certificates. In the first application of its kind in Türkiye, the bank structured and executed a transaction for Medcem Cement Group. Medcem locked in the average EU Allowances (EUA) price over the reference period, reducing future carbon cost uncertainty and improving pricing visibility for the covered period. CBAM certificate prices mirror the EU ETS carbon price and can affect exporters’ cost structures, profitability and pricing strategies. The solution lets EU…

Freedom Holding Corp. has signed Memoranda of Understanding with Antom, Ant International’s merchant payment and digitisation arm, to build cross-border payment solutions for consumers in Kazakhstan. The agreement was signed on July 16, 2026, during a meeting between Freedom Holding Corp. CEO Timur Turlov and representatives of the global fintech market. Antom will promote Freedom Bank SuperApp as a supported payment option on China’s leading e-commerce platforms. Consumers in Kazakhstan will be able to buy Chinese goods and global brands using their local payment method instead of international credit cards or third-party processors. Antom supports over 300 local payment methods,…

Capital Layer, a digital asset orchestration layer for Asia, has partnered with Tokyo-listed Green Monster Inc. (TSE Growth: 157A) to build institutional stablecoin settlement infrastructure across Japan and Taiwan. The deal was announced at WebX Tokyo, one of Asia’s largest Web3 conferences. Green Monster will lead the Japan-side development. The company runs a consumer-fintech and financial-education business with more than 10 million app downloads and has a subsidiary in Hong Kong, extending the partnership’s reach across Asia. The aim is faster settlement on infrastructure institutions can trust, rather than relying solely on systems operated from the United States or Europe.…

Nuvion, the AI-powered global banking and cross-border payments platform built on fiat and stablecoins for businesses and fintechs, has partnered with Turnkey, the wallet infrastructure provider for secure key management and transaction signing, to strengthen embedded wallet and stablecoin infrastructure across its platform. The deal pairs Turnkey’s wallet infrastructure with Nuvion’s regulated financial rails, letting businesses launch and manage stablecoin-powered financial products without building or maintaining wallet infrastructure themselves. Stablecoins are moving into mainstream business operations, but most companies do not want to manage wallets, private keys, or blockchain infrastructure internally. Security, compliance, and operational complexity remain the main barriers…

Sunrate, the global payment and treasury management platform, and Mastercard have released a joint white paper, Beyond Automation: Defining Agentic Global Payments, at the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai. The report is among the first in the payments industry to examine Agentic AI in B2B cross-border payments. Its central claim: payments are moving past digitisation and automation into autonomy, where AI agents with reasoning, planning, and execution capabilities orchestrate end-to-end payment and treasury workflows within defined governance frameworks. B2B cross-border payments remain hampered by fragmented workflows, disconnected systems, FX inefficiencies, rising compliance demands, and complex reconciliation. Traditional…