Bangkok Bank Joins R3’s Trade Finance Initiative Marco Polo

Thailand’s largest lender Bangkok Bank has joined Marco Polo, a blockchain technology based trade finance project being run by R3 Consortium and TradeIX, a trade finance technology company. Under the program, the Bangkok Bank will test the blockchain powered platform, which makes trade finance simple and risk-free.

Bangkok Bank, one of the largest in Southeast Asia, was the first Thailand-based bank to join R3 consortium back in 2016.

Presently, the Marco Polo initiative includes large corporations such as ING, Commerzbank, BNP Paribas, and Microsoft. The Marco Polo platform facilitates high speed, streamlined processing of a trade transaction through end-to-end, real-time connectivity between the participants. The platform, delivered over TradeIX’s TIX open platform and built with R3’s distributed ledger technology based product Corda, eliminates inefficiencies, while minimizing risk. The platform supports both payables and receivables financing.

Ian Guy Gillard, executive VP of Bangkok Bank, stated

“Bangkok Bank is committed to using innovative technologies to meet the needs of our customers. We are delighted to be working with R3, TradeIX and several leading banks on the Marco Polo project in which we are applying Distributed Ledger technologies to address the complexities and inefficiencies of Trade Finance.”

While Pornnit Dunnvatanachit, an executive VP at Bangkok Bank, is optimistic that the Marco Polo platform would satisfy customers, R3 CEO David Rutter expressed his happiness over the partnership.

Daniel Cotti, CFO at TradeIX, said

“The Marco Polo initiative powered by the TIX platform from TradeIX and R3’s Corda blockchain technology provides a unique solution to the banks to reshape the way they are serving their clients to meet their trade finance needs and the way they interact with each other.”

R3 consortium, which is made up of over 70 enterprises and financial institutions, updated its distributed ledger platform Corda last year. R3 has also introduced an innovative feature that assists developers simplify the app building process.