Tokenisation key to ‘next frontier’ of trade finance: StanChart’s Sofia Hammoucha

[SINGAPORE] Faster, safer and cheaper – these are the themes that Sofia Hammoucha, global head of trade and working capital at Standard Chartered, believes will “transform the way” trade finance is carried out.

One way this is happening is through digitalisation and the adoption of tools such as artificial intelligence (AI), which allow the financing of goods and services to be processed in parallel, potentially cutting turnaround times from days to minutes.

Typically, a letter of credit or bank guarantee for a shipment of goods can take “up to five days, at best” from the time a bank receives the application to when the beneficiary receives funds, owing to manual paperwork, legal documentation and compliance checks, noted Hammoucha.