DBS First Asian Bank to Use Ant’s Trade Finance Blockchain Trusple
(16 March 2021 – Singapore) DBS has executed its first trade finance transaction on AntChain’s Trusple platform for Singapore small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) iQuartz, making it the first bank in Asia to use the system.
Trusple uses Ant Group’s AntChain to register the purchase order on the blockchain, increasing transparency and providing businesses with more supervision over their supply chain. Once the trade commitment has been acknowledged, DBS will facilitate payment to the supplier automatically through the system. Suppliers can also raise finance for a bank payment guarantee or invoice financing.
Numerous blockchain solutions are targeting supply chains such as IBM and Maersks’ TradeLens and trade finance such as Marco Polo, Contour, komgo and we.trade. But apart from we.trade, most do not target SMEs.
“The partnership between DBS and Trusple will greatly facilitate our growing purchase of raw materials from China to support iQuartz’s current business growth trajectory to be one of the biggest manufacturers of quartz stone in Southeast Asia,” said iQuartz Chief Financial Officer Joshua Huang.
“SMEs are increasingly looking to tap on regional opportunities to access new markets and fortify their supply chains but are often daunted by complex trade processes,” said DBS Group Head of SME Banking Joyce Tee. “By leveraging emerging technologies such as blockchain, DBS is lowering the barriers for SMEs to participate in Asia’s post-pandemic economic revival as cross-border trade activity in the region picks up.”
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