Barclays Bank successfully uses blockchain platform to transfer trade documents, solving a major problem in international trade

Recently, a trade finance experiment by a large bank has borne fruit.

That bank is Barclays, which reported on September 7 that two partners — agricultural cooperative Ornua and food distributor Seychelles Trading — have been able to successfully transfer trade documents via a blockchain platform created by Wave, a graduate of Barclays’ accelerator program.

Wave, an Israeli startup that graduated from Barclays’ TechStars Fintech accelerator last fall, is using custom technology based on a type of blockchain to facilitate the transfer of trade documents.

In the statement, Baihas Baghdadi, head of trade and working capital at Barclays, said the project demonstrated that adding multiple parties to a distributed ledger system could eliminate one of the "greatest headaches" facing international trade: the movement of paper documents used to track and verify transactions.

Baghdadi said:

“That’s why we’re so keen to work with Wave to use blockchain technology to save our clients time and money, and potentially transform trade finance for businesses around the world.”

The move comes as many large banks are testing the use of blockchain in global supply chains.

Just last month, banking blockchain consortium R3CEV revealed that 15 of its members were already involved in a trade finance trial, while Bank of America and HSBC are reportedly working on similar efforts.