15 Oct 2019 - Notes
- Will Lovell
- Andrea Frosinini
- The meeting looked a set of news stories relating to trade finance involving both hyperledger and blockchain more generally that have recently appeared. The stories are linked below with a summary of the discussion and actions.
- UBS joins we-trade.
https://www.coindesk.com/banking-giant-ubs-goes-live-on-we-trade-blockchain-for-trade-finance
This shows the expansion of the We-Trade platform. The article notes that the suppliers were driving the adoption of the platform as well as through the banks. Marta suggested that We-trade present to the group again, as they are in the process of redefining their model. ACT; Will to approach We-trade to present to the group a second time.
3. HSBC launches an API for trade finance
https://www.gtreview.com/news/fintech/hsbc-reveals-first-api-for-trade-finance/
This is an interesting development that a group that has done a lot of work on blockchains in trade finance are opening up a letter-of-credit API. The API has been opened so that other banks could implement it. The article is not completely clear whether this is an extension of their platform.
ACT; Will to approach Suareth Sengupta to see if he is willing to speak to the group.
4. HSBC launches anti-money laundering for trade finance
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) paper on trade finance discusses the gap there is for small and medium enterprises to undertake money laundering work. The "holy grail" of AML is undertake scanning in real time using machine learning techniques. The article does not mention whether the tool is using machine learning or not. The use of LEIs for anti-money-laundering is described in some detail in the ADB paper. ACT; Vipin to send the ADB paper around the list service.
5. Network of networks for blockchain
This is a product which provides a common interface language to different blockchain products and allows transactions to interoperate across them. The article notes that the product could join the different competing trade finance platforms together. Vipin asked what kind of data standards and structure might be used?
ACT: Will to invite Quant to present to the group.
6. AoB
Bobbi asked for a readout from SiBOS.