DBS Makes First Transaction on Networked Trade Platform

The platform, which connects players in the trade value chain in Singapore to their counterparts abroad, cuts trade processing time from about one week to a day.

DBS Bank has completed the first fully digital trade settlement on Singapore’s Network Trade Platform – a $3.5 million letter of credit transaction between car manufacturer Audi and its local distributor Premium Automobiles.

The first transaction is a «critical step towards transforming documentary trade, of which domestic letters of credit constitute around $150 billion of Singapore’s trade flows», DBS said.

A second trade among the two parties, valued at $2.8 million, is currently in the works.

The NTP is part of a wider concerted effort by the Singapore government to drive an industry-wide digital transformation to build a trade and logistics digital ecosystem that connects businesses, community systems and platforms and government systems.

«Digitalizing a traditionally paper-centric trade ecosystem requires support from like-minded industry partners who embrace technology and change,» said Serene Ho, director of Networked Trade Platform Office (NTPO). She said the office would continue to work with financial institutions and industry partners to «realize Singapore’s vision of a paperless trade ecosystem».

In the statement, DBS highlighted its other recent initiatives to digitize trade, including the ICC Tradeflow Platform with Trafigura; HeveaConnect, a digital trading marketplace for sustainable rubber; Agrocorp, a digital trade platform for commodities; and YunLiangMeng, a blockchain platform for automotive logistics.