Norton Rose Fulbright advises on the establishment of the first blockchain-enabled trade finance platform

Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has advised AIG and Standard Chartered in relation to establishing the first blockchain-enabled platform for the streamlined purchasing of trade finance invoices from a global logistics company.

TradeIX and AIG partnered to enable trade finance transactions for companies, using the blockchain-enabled platform provided by TradeIX.

The invoice finance transaction went live at the end of September and enabled the logistics company to help its customers extend their payment period whilst maintaining the company’s receivables at current terms. The financing was offered by Standard Chartered and credit risk mitigation was offered by AIG.

Managing global invoice payments can be time-consuming and inefficient for companies, as trading partners often have unique requirements based on specific payment terms, currencies, country-specific laws, and contract terms. Because of this, companies often establish multiple, local, trade finance programmes, which can involve duplication, inefficiencies and minimal standardisation across the organisation.

This makes it harder to optimise working capital and have effective visibility of compliance and counterparty risk across the company. Through the transaction, TradeIX, AIG and Standard Chartered Bank partnered to create a secure and more efficient solution leveraging blockchain technology.

David Shearer, partner, comments:

“This is an exciting and innovative platform that demonstrates the growing importance of blockchain in driving forward efficiency and transparency in the financial sector. It will likely serve as a positive test case for its future roll out across the industry.”

Nick Grandage, head of banking & finance, Europe, Middle East and Asia, comments:

“Being part of the creation of this first-of-its-kind trade finance platform highlights our long-standing experience in advising on both traditional trade finance transactions and on the latest cutting edge distributed ledger technology globally.”

The Norton Rose Fulbright team was led by David Shearer and Nick Grandage assisted by Tudor Plapcianu (lead associate), Mirella Hart and Merel Klinkers. James Russell and Zayed Al Jamil advised AIG on IT related matters and Hannah Meakin and Lucy Dodson advised AIG on regulatory matters. The team worked closely with all parties to determine and optimise the particulars of the platform from an operational, commercial and legal perspective.  

Norton Rose Fulbright’s FinTech practice is at the forefront of legal thought leadership in the sector and offers a combination of deep global tech experience with regulatory and financial services knowledge. The firm advises some of the world’s leading financial institutions, technology companies, start-ups and investors on legal and regulatory issues in the sector.

For further information please contact:

Meeta Vadher, Senior PR Manager
Tel: +44 (0)20 7444 3097; Mob: +44 (0)7595 886 276
meeta.vadher@nortonrosefulbright.com

Notes for editors:

Norton Rose Fulbright

Norton Rose Fulbright is a global law firm providing the world’s preeminent corporations and financial institutions with a full business law service. The firm has more than 4,000 lawyers and other legal staff based in Europe, the United States, Canada, Latin America, Asia, Australia, Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.

Recognized for its industry focus, Norton Rose Fulbright is strong across all the key industry sectors: financial institutions; energy; infrastructure, mining and commodities; transport; technology and innovation; and life sciences and healthcare. Through its global risk advisory group, the firm leverages its industry experience with its knowledge of legal, regulatory, compliance and governance issues to provide clients with practical solutions to the legal and regulatory risks facing their businesses.

Norton Rose Fulbright operates in accordance with its global business principles of quality, unity and integrity, aiming to provide the highest possible standard of legal service in each of its offices and to maintain that level of quality at every point of contact.

Norton Rose Fulbright Verein, a Swiss verein, helps coordinate the activities of Norton Rose Fulbright members but does not itself provide legal services to clients. Norton Rose Fulbright has offices in more than 50 cities worldwide, including London, Houston, New York, Toronto, Mexico City, Hong Kong, Sydney and Johannesburg. For more information, see nortonrosefulbright.com/legal-notices.